Here's to better things
As a dreadful year ends, the new one offers a chance to make things right.
Most resolutions aren’t worth the paper they’re written or printed on — especially in a digital age when so few of us even use paper. Churches and gyms that were packed in January are usually back to normal by February. Musical instruments gather dust in closets, and exercise equipment becomes clothes hangers.
Still, it would be nice if we could all try to make 2026 a bit more palatable than the year that’s about to end (and which should not be mentioned by name).
Unless you’re a billionaire, regardless of your politics, faith or social standing, 2025 was a tumultuous year for America and the world. Besides being a year older, the average U.S. citizen is now poorer, less healthy and much angrier and more exhausted than he or she was just 12 months ago.
Polls show that even many of those who voted for the current administration are souring on the constant chaos and cruelty: the loss of government jobs, ICE raids deporting people with no criminal records, fluctuation tariffs that keep driving up inflation. And because economic trends often come with a lag, things are likely to get worse before they get better.
I take no solace in having projected 13 months ago that 2025 would be the year of buyers’ remorse, but here we are.
So what do we do about it?
Kindness is a good place to start. And I’m not saying that just because Elvis Costello’s “What’s So Funny (About Peace, Love and Understanding)?” is playing as I type this.
Mercy was conspicuously absent, at least from the White House, this past year. Hundreds of thousands of the world’s poorest people died following the closure of the U.S. Agency for International Development. Thousands more are starving in Gaza while hostilities with Israel continue. Americans are being detained in deplorable conditions and deported, often without due process.
It’s been left to the public to fill the void. And if there’s any reason for optimism as 2026 dawns, it’s been the reaction of ordinary folks who want to preserve democracy and well as goodwill towards man and the U.S.’s shattered international reputation.
Huge, almost universally peaceful “No Kings” protests. Churches, civic leaders and run-of-the-mill Americans who are looking out for each other. Privileged people like MacKenzie Scott (Jeff Bezos’ ex-wife) who are distributing funds to worthy causes. Voters choosing candidates who stressed affordability issues in off-year elections.
A few elected Republicans also have exhibited at least a trace of a spine by standing up to the president, his heartless policies and unqualified cabinet. Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie has been a thorn in his side for some time, but who’d have thought Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert would join him in forcing the (so-far delinquent) release of the Epstein files?
Sensing the seeming inevitability of a midterm blue wave (assuming the elections are free and fair), multiple other Republican politicians have announced their retirements, like rats escaping a sinking ship. Having abdicated their sworn responsibilities, they won’t be missed.
(As always, a reminder that I have no political or religious affiliation and I do not believe that Democrats have all the answers. I just can recognize failing policies when I see them.)
Voting should be high on everyone’s list of resolutions for 2026. But it also should include volunteering when possible and simply finding time for random acts of kindness.
The past year will be remembered as a dark one, and there’s still a lot of damage that can be done in the months ahead. But if enough people do enough, 2026 could go down not only as our country’s 250th birthday, but as the start of a new and better era.
Happy New Year.