January 1, 2009
The Year That Shouldn’t Have Been
So, what a surprise: As a country, we have
managed to creak our way through another 365
days of existence, remaining marginally
intact for the 232nd time since
formally coming into existence. Despite war,
recession, corruption and the pervasive
malaise of a populace adrift in personal
purposelessness, the United States endures.
In and of itself, generally a good thing.
New Year’s is the traditional moment for
annualized stock-taking and self-assessment,
and this column joins virtually every other
one in existence in this faintly-futile
exercise, in full knowledge that in a year’s
time we will invariably find ourselves once
again at almost precisely the same juncture.
Ostensibly underpinning the exercise: The
belief that somewhere there is some point
lurking behind the journey from the
beginning to the end of the calendar, that
there is some actual reason for enduring the
trial and travail.
At the conclusion of this most ignoble of
years, is there anyone who can say with
certainty what that point actually is?
What was the point behind racking up
billions more in debt and thousands more in
deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan?
What have we accomplished in the aftermath
of the housing collapse, or the collective
hara-kiri of the financial sector?
Dear America: What have you done to improve
yourself over the last three hundred and
sixty-five days? Have you restored habeas
corpus, reigned in the butchers of Abu
Ghraib, reformed your corruption-riddled
economic system, moved to redress the
monumental social inequities that separate
rich from poor, white from black, male from
female, gay from straight? Have you done
anything to further transform the ideals
embodied in your sacred founding documents
into realities rather than abstracts?
If we as a nation and a people haven’t
managed to move at least marginally forward
by some meaningful metric – whatever that
metric may be – why have we bothered?
There are two good reasons, all bad news
notwithstanding: George W. Bush is shortly
to vacate the White House. What’s more, he
will be replaced by Barack Obama, the
nation’s first African-American president.
Obama inherits a battered, bruised nation
embroiled in scandal and economic collapse
at home and military quagmires abroad – a
nation which, by all appearances, is
presently positioned on a sharp downward
slope in terms of international influence
and economic might. At the cusp of 2009,
America is a nation questioning its place in
the world, questioning its reasons for
being, questioning its ability to fulfill
its promises of liberty, prosperity and
justice to the individuals within its
borders. Like Lincoln, Roosevelt and Truman,
Obama inherits a nation beset by challenges
that threaten its very being. The fondest
hopes of his supporters notwithstanding,
there is no assurance that he – or any other
potential president, for that matter – will
succeed in meeting them.
Nonetheless, for all the afflictions
plaguing the USA on this dreary December 31,
we can look back on the miserable year
behind with some small satisfaction:
Somehow, against both the odds and
historical precedent, we managed to elevate
to high office a man who, only a generation
or two ago, would have been considered
ineligible to eat in half the country’s
restaurants by virtue of the color of his
skin. It may not be enough for redemption,
but it counts for something,
©
2009 North Star Writers Group. May not
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