The Worst of Times

Forget that famous first line, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." One can only say of 2006, It Was the Worst of Times. Did anything happen in 2006 that made you happy or joyful? Was there any moment during which you actually believed that goodness was triumphing over evil? Did you really believe at any time we were winning the "war?" Did you believe that Bush/Cheney knew what they were doing? Did Congress do anything that seemed to you to be really useful or positive? Unless you were particularly enamoured of death and dying, maiming and pain, rape and destruction, mindless killing, lies and war crimes, I think you would have to agree that 2006 was not a vintage year. Do we even dare hope that 2007 will be any better?

Somewhere today I saw an article that claimed that in a recent poll one out of four Americans believed that Jesus would return to earth in 2007. I do not believe it. I acknowledge there are a lot of fundamentalists out there, and I am willing to believe they are pretty stupid, but I do not believe that 25% of Americans believe Jesus is returning this year. Here in Bonners Ferry we have several fundamentalistic churches (indeed, an amazing number of them given the population), and I know many of the members of these congregations, but I don't know any that would argue that Jesus is about to imminently return to earth (they are willing to argue about other issues equally as far-fetched). As I said previously, there seems to be some kind of conspiracy on the part of the MSM and the polls to present Americans as far more religious than they really are (or so it seems to me). Perhaps I am so divorced from mainstream American culture that I really don't understand what is happening. In any case, I sincerely hope that 25% of my fellow citizens do not believe Jesus is about to appear this new year. I don't even believe in the "Rapture," or that the Israelis should be entitled to all of Palestine. I guess I am just not much of a "believer."

So what do I have to complain about? I have just shared a meal of tapas and a bottle of champagne with my lovely wife, the house is warm, my son is doing very well in school, we are all in reasonably good health, we look forward to another marvelous spring when everything comes mysteriously back to life, and although we are members of the rapidly disappearing middle class, things are still pretty damn good. But there is still that nagging feeling of guilt, the sense that somehow I should have been able to prevent the terrible disaster that has been wrought on the world by those who presume to represent me, the empathy for those who are suffering unbelievably and unnecessarily, the senselessness of the bloodbath that has overtaken Iraq and Afghanistan, the greed and stupidity that has led to it all, and the helplessness I feel to change things. I look forward to the coming year with the hope that perhaps justice will prevail after all, that things will get better, that good will ultimately win out over evil.

So with uncrossed fingers, HAPPY NEW YEAR!