As the Year Closes

Another year whimpers to its end with billions looking expectantly toward the new year – 2017. That’s what keeps many of us moving forward, too; the expectancy of the time ahead of us. We don’t know what will happen, only that something will happen. The suspense hooks us and we are in for another chapter of life!

Soap operas are written in this manner. Many TV series fall to the temptation of ending one season with a cliff hanging plot so you will be sure to tune in for the first episode of the new season some months hence. And we do in spite of our complaints that we won’t.

I don’t watch many TV series. My preferred method is to hear the hype and oohs and aahs from audiences, then when bored, turn on the spooler/streamer gadget and see what the excitement was all about. Quite a bit of it was zip! But some were quite good at the start of their run. Later, however, writer exhaustion set in and rank commercialism and soap opera stereotypes took over and spoiled the original concept of the show. Yes I tend to get into the personalities of the characters and choose favorites. But when they are manipulated and twisted by plots to retain viewership, I call it quits. This is not intellectually honest and the writers and producers know this well. I call them on it and withdraw from the program.

There are many more programs to link to and I do. So ready entertainment is available as long as you don’t care it is old by several years. So am I, old by several years. So it doesn’t much matter.

As programs come and go so do calendar years. The tax year ends and filings are made; some on time, others not. Complications of tax preparations arise from time to time and professionals are asked to step forward to keep matters straight.

Other annual routines beckon attention as well: annual physical exams, annual renewal of licenses, registrations and subscriptions. The only good thing about these is we get the chance to cancel them and save effort and money. Some we will cancel at our own peril, so we usually take the easy way out and write a check and make the appointment. Oh well, that’s the cost of surviving another year.

With the close of 2016 we look back on it for clues as to what occurred that will make our lives different. Well this is an easy one this year – Trump trumped us all! And what that means is yet to be determined.

One other thing is clear – the past 8 years have been worked hard and diligently by the Obama Team and it succeeded in rebuilding the economy from the tatters inherited from the Bush/Cheney squad. What a mess. The economy can be much better than it currently is, but that will only come about when we all roll up our sleeves and begin re-inventing better operating standards, technology platforms, and regulations that protect citizens from greedy captains of industry! Much more needs doing.

Such as: infrastructure replacement and improved standards; reinvestment in public education with a renewed and re-invented educational process that focuses on outcomes, not process; global competition engaged as opposed to protection from it; shared global initiatives that beckon all international leaders and citizens to engage in a peaceful world.

Not bad, those needs. Too bad they are needs and not active goals. Too many pay lip service to them without contributing to an advancement of them.

That’s the nature of power. People who are hungry for it do so for their own selfish reasons rather than the good it can produce for others.

America is currently shifting from a selfless yearning (the 8 years of Obama) to the selfish era of special interest brokerage. This promises to be ugly for both America and the rest of the world. If oil interests drive international relationships, war is the sure result. If health, prosperity, education and caring for others is the focus, peace is the more certain result.

Why has this been so difficult to understand on a global basis? Are low income or struggling nations afraid they will be cast endlessly in poverty and servitude if they don’t first win a place at the table? Why should they be afraid if the rest of the global community is set on making peace the standard and quality of life ascendant? Is our trust for each other that low?

Probably. And it is a well earned ranking I fear. That is another thing in need of change.

If Trump is to be a great leader he will have to be measured by the gauge of improving life quality, not power or economic hegemony. Let’s see how he handles this challenge. It is, after all, the largest goal and purpose of world leadership.

December 27, 2016