Ring in the New Year

So here we are in 2017.

The consumer industry is still trying to get me to buy everything under the sun and clouds, and while I can resist most things, books are still my weakness.

John’s Dad and his wife Olga return to the states here on Wednesday, and there will be the usual pizza nighters there to welcome them home.  A part of me is dreading all the things I’ve forgotten over the year—worried that I won’t know where anything is when and if they ask for it.  But…that’s life.

The Celestial Advocates are still kicking around in WoW, and I got a letter back from an old college friend of mine.  Hearing from him was pretty amazing—even if he seems much more subdued than when I first knew him.

And then there was the Green Party note that John’s Dad sent to us--since we didn’t send money to the presidential campaign this year and with good reason.  I think I have a good rant here; so, I’m just going to throw it all out there, and you may do with it what you like.

So they’re planning on joining in on this whole “Occupy Inauguration” movement, and honestly, I think that’s a waste of their time and money.  Trump is our next president and doing this will only antagonize and enbolden those who feel the Green Party, Progressives, and Democrats stand for things that are set to ruin this great country of ours.  Rather than taking this opportunity to offer a well-thought-out agenda to the new President—to seek to bridge the divide and accept that there are people in this country who don’t care about women’s issues, the climate, and foreign policy—they’re going to spend their time protesting the incoming President and his policy makers.

Sure, …Trump has a thing with popularity, and sure, this -might- get under his skin, but in the end, you can’t predict how he’s going to react to that.  He might, as he’s shown with various others who spurned him during his rise to the Presidency, pretend to court you and then throw you to the curb.  Or he might pretend to address those concerns while continuing to pander to those who elected him.  Either way, I feel this is a huge waste of time, money, and effort.

Rather than protesting what’s already done, why not spend that time and money on research, grant money, or encouraging local seminars and businesses to be proactive about accepting improvements that will help the environment, women, minorities, and help shape foreign policy.  To ignore the fact that business and capitalism is part of the foundation of our country is hurting their causes; they should be embracing these things and seeking to educate people to make better choices for our future—instead of just their own.

We want a world where money doesn’t dictate our well-being and that of the rest of the world, but instead, we choose to spend it on a moment in time instead of looking to the bigger picture.  The Green Party is so focused on this one issue, the American Presidency, that I feel they’re losing their perspective and the greater agenda for which they stand.  I expect that could also be said for Democrats, as well.

Oh, and one last little thing regarding the Republican party: being a Republican used to mean something more than Christian values and big business.  It used to mean standing up for those industries that made our country great—like farming, agriculture, and the science that would spur our economic and social growth within the world.  It remembered that there was a separation between Church and State, and that the State was meant to provide for all its people, not just those who held the right values and ideals.  

Our country is a melting pot, and there will always be those who say that others’ ideas are a cancer, but those diverse and differing ideas have made America one of the greatest countries in the world.

We used to be a country who sought to accept and embrace change, and now all I see and hear is fear and hate.  Those are not the things that made this country great, and they certainly aren’t going to now somehow make it “great again”.

We all have a choice in how we move forward, but continuing to hold on to the hopes and dreams of the past aren’t going to get us anywhere.  Let’s stop wasting all this time and energy on things we cannot change and start working on the things we can.

Otherwise, …we really are slaves to history, and we will, undoubtedly, repeat the mistakes of the past.  Let’s look to the future while acknowledging our past failures and actually do something to succeed.

Rant over.

Now get out there and make your 2017 the best year yet.