by Tom Shafer
December 15, 2022
So, with the holiday season fully upon us and 2022 winding down, I can’t help but look back at the last year — challenging once again, but frankly, aren’t they all in one way or another.
We started January with hope that the COVID virus and subsequent pandemic would continue to wane, and that hope translated into a spring, summer, and fall that felt “normal” for the first time in a couple of years. Yes, infection rates have risen as we approach winter (along with standard influenza), but it looks like COVID care will become a customary part of our annual respiratory management — which is still way better than dealing with a full-blown pandemic.
In February, Russia rocked Eurasia — and the planet — with its intrusive, unwarranted invasion of Ukraine. The world watched transfixed as the proud and courageous Ukrainian people and military continually countered each offensive, ultimately leading to what is now a strategical stalemate as the war enters winter. From the very beginning, the Russian military was exposed for its lack of leadership on the battlefield — and the fact that Putin truly believed Ukraine would fold quickly under the thumb of his mighty forces. Now, Putin is likely looking for any salvageable off-ramp as he faces rare and surprising criticism inside his own country.
As the year progressed, world-wide inflation threatened to derail a world-wide economy in full recovery from two years of pandemic economics. In the U.S., the Federal Reserve worked financial levers to stave off a looming recession, and here in the last quarter we might be seeing the fruits of that labor as inflation slows — in spite of an economy that is still booming in so many ways.
Politically, the Midterms produced many unexpected results, including Democrats retaining the Senate — even gaining a seat — while just barely losing the House. Back in late June, the U.S. Supreme Court reversed the fifty-year-old Roe v. Wade decision, ostensibly ending federal protection for legal abortion. Pro-choice activists ratcheted up pressure across the country — just as many states enacted laws that placed constrictive limits on abortion — including several total bans. Federal appeals courts are now testing the limits of the new Dobbs decision. In December, the somewhat bipartisan Respect for Marriage Act was signed by President Biden, assuring that all legal marriages — including gay and interracial — be recognized across all state lines, even in states that don’t offer those rights. This is certainly a step in the right direction toward codifying LGBTQ+ and interracial marriages.
Sadly, our political polarization continues unabated. Election results during the Midterms revealed a nearly fifty-fifty split among the electorate throughout the country — numbers that suggest we should be a centrist-leaning nation. Unfortunately, any quick perusal of any media platform communicates the opposite, as the extremes in both parties continue to drive the narrative of a country fractured and splintered.
Environmentally, the U.S. finally passed a substantial — though flawed — climate bill, and we resumed our worldwide leadership in helping to heal the planet with which we’ve been entrusted. Hopefully in the near time, more humans will be convinced that our world truly is in a dire state, and that it will take all of us to sustain and complete the work necessary to ameliorate it.
Science gave us lots of good news this year. The James Webb Space Telescope finally went online, and began peering backward in time to the birth of the universe, sending us images of the first stars and galaxies formed after the Big Bang. NASA returned to the moon with an autonomous flight that rocketed within sixty miles of the surface, all in preparation for a human landing that may occur as soon as 2025 — as we ramp up our collective technological efforts toward a first manned trip to Mars. Then, here in December, the National Ignition Facility (at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California) announced that it had reached fusion ignition and achieved net energy, meaning that for the first time, a nuclear reaction generated more energy than was used to initiate the reaction. This major milestone in the development of fusion power may eventually lead to a clean source of energy that will fuel the planet.
So, it is with a full heart that I wish you and yours a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, and a Joyous Kwanzaa! And, I hope that all of you, all of us, enjoy a bountiful 2023, that we bring peace and harmony to our incredible Earth.
There is no better song that projects hope than this Bing Crosby and David Bowie version of “The Little Drummer Boy”? Happy Holidays!
