12/28/23

The year 2023 is almost over, and millions of people around the world are glad of that. Life today is challenging in the extreme for the population of Gaza, and millions of residents of Sudan and South Sudan, and Ukrainians under Russian siege, and Uighurs in far western China, and millions more in the Caribbean, Central and South America who crave refuge far from their gang-and-cartel ridden neighborhoods. And there are many other sufferers as well.

When we Americans complain about something, we may well have something to  complain about. But compared to the challenges in other parts of the world, our problems are often small potatoes. That’s not to say they’re not real problems – but millions of the world’s residents would give anything to trade theirs for ours.

Kathy and I had another wonderful Christmas. Quality time with family, quality presents, quality food (too much of it). The holiday season once again didn’t disappoint, in terms of personal warmth and creature comforts.

So, no complaints of that sort. But I’m ready to send my 2024 wish list off to the North Pole. A guy can dream. Some items didn’t end up in my 2023 stocking.One unfilled hope would have brought a measure of peace to the victims of war, brutality, domestic abuse, poverty, theft of all kinds, and other ills of modern society. 

And that kind of peace should settle on Washington as well. Bitter political warfare is hamstringing the nation – we need to find and support leaders who take governing seriously, not as a vehicle for amassing power and prestige.

On the state level, Iowa’s governor and legislature take pride in Iowa’s full-to-bursting treasury reserves, while the state ranks near the bottom in mental health services, nursing home inspections, clean water, and some other categories that define quality of life for ordinary people. Low tax rates are not among them. 

Health care costs in the United States are much higher than in nearly all other well-to-do nations. It’s past time for that to end.

Either we’re heading for irreversible climate catastrophe in a few decades, or the vast majority of climate scientists are all wet. The nation’s institutions of higher education are the envy of the world, but we ignore the results of their research. Time to get serious about fossil fuels and other causes of climate change.

Iowa, and Greene County, need more people. Our county’s population reached its apex in 1900 – it’s been downhill in nearly every census since then. Our population is too mature to correct the problem through its birth rate alone. Encouraging people to move here deserves our concerted effort.

I have other hopes as well: football bowl victories for the Cyclones and Hawkeyes, athletic wins for the county’s high school teams, a beefed-up St. Louis Cardinal pitching rotation.

But you can’t have everything. Let’s start with achieving world peace, civil politics, reversing global warming, and reducing the cost of health cares, and go from there. 

My 2023 Christmas stocking didn’t receive my entire wish list. But at least I have stockings. Lots of people don’t.