New Year's Thoughts

Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's have all gone by since I was in this place last. Too much busy-ness to have time to write anything but a Christmas Letter and Christmas cards, notes to a few long-time friends.

So, here it is, 2011. Amazing to me that I've lived this long. A part of me expected to die at 61 as my mother and maternal grandmother did. But I'm still here, and grateful to be here!

I'm concerned about what's going to happen with/to our nation now that the House of Representatives has been returned to Republican majority, and some, at least, of that majority are bent on undoing everything that has been done in the last two years. They talk of the "mandate" and "the people's voice" of the last election. They act as if the election of 2008 never happened at all! And they act as if the message from the electorate in 2010 was monolithic and perfectly clear.

What was (and is) clear to me is that the majority of Americans are upset -- and for many, their lives turned upside down! -- at the economy. So many out of work; so many who have lost their homes to foreclosure. But that doesn't mean we all want the rich to get even richer at the expense of the rest of us. For many the threshold between the middle class and the rich is at $250,000 income. Well, that level is almost 5 times my greatest annual income -- and I have a master's degree, and spent my adult life as a teacher and then as a minister. I know how fortunate I am -- and in retirement so far I've been able to keep up my mortgage payments on my modest little 1970's ranch.

Our large corporations have taken manufacturing jobs -- and in some cases MOST jobs -- to other countries. So they are able to make record profits (you can look it up!) while the American unemployment rate skyrockets. What is wrong with this picture? Everything!

Another thing that's bothering me is the reaction of some in the military that the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" (which never did work that way at all!) will be so difficult to put into operation, and will take so much time. The military has rules about sexual behavior between heterosexuals -- why can't those rules simply be extended to homosexuals? Heterosexual men showering with homosexual men? This has been going on all along, guys -- contrary to the beliefs of some ignorant people, gay men are NOT out to seduce all heterosexual men. And I have noted that the women in the military have been silent about this. Could it be that only the macho men are nervous? I think so! And I say, "You're supposed to be tough, you guys. You'd BETTER be tough -- you're defending a whole country! So, since you're supposed to be tough, suck it up. You'll live through it -- and maybe even have your life saved by your gay (or lesbian!) comrade-in-arms."

God help us all. I am normally an optimist, but I'm having a hard time this time around looking at this new year as the beginning of things looking up. I know that God is ultimately in charge, but a lot of trauma and tragedy can go on before the triumphant end of times. No matter what that supposed "Christian" group says about the world ending on May 21, 2011. Oh gosh. Another subject for another blog.