New Year's Day 2017

 By Karen and Erica

We celebrate the arrival of a new year because it represents hope for a better future, for ourselves and for our world. It is an inflection point. We reflect upon how we want to improve, and we resolve to act.

This year our hopefulness is frayed. We know change was needed, but these changes are backward looking. How will the lives of Americans improve if the people now in charge seem not to believe in public education, housing assistance, health care or clean air? How will our society continue to progress if the people in charge seem not to subscribe to the principle that all people are created equal, do not accept that our greatness is premised upon the contributions of immigrants, and seek to dismantle the institutions that protect us? And how can we be secure if the people in charge seem not to trust our military and intelligence services, and to see our enemies through rose-colored glasses? 

We will toast in the New Year, but we are resolved. We are resolved to change the course in 2018 and 2020, to keep our country moving forward. We know it will take work. The big question for us is how to be most effective. We are on it. 

In the meantime, raise a glass. Celebrate. Hope. And resolve to be involved.