Jan. 2, 2009 - This should be the year we come out of the political Dark Ages, a time - hopefully now behind us - when science was discredited, scientists muzzled. A time when "bad intelligence" was offered as an excuse for total lack of intelligent action. A time when businesses forgot ours is an economy whose bedrock is the worker/consumer, whom they laid off in massive numbers, then wondered where all their customers went.
But, some basic bad thinking remains. The War on Terror cannot be won, because it is not a war. It is a one-sided attack. We learned nothing from the little girl on the street in Saigon who handed a GI a bouquet of flowers with an explosive inside.
The world continues to enable terrorism because its basic cause is not, as President Bush claimed, an action against Americans "Because they hate our freedoms." The basic cause of terrorism is world hunger. Starving people crowded into refugee camps are the new Soldiers for Terror.
We have many other problems that cannot easily be solved.
There are already too many of us on this planet, and more are born every day. There is only so much room, so much food, and so much water. We are a year away from being a decade deep in the new century and already it seems much worse than the last one. But, I suppose that has always been the case.
Congress will continue its struggle to fix machinery it doesn't understand. Our new president will struggle to keep his multitude of glowing campaign promises, and will get some of them done. Houses haunted by ghosts of broken dreams will be resold and new dreams will be started. Jobs will be found by some of the recently unemployed.
For the first time in our nation's history, an African American will be our president. A good place to start the long climb back up.
Look for these things to happen in 2009:
* We will continue to get too much news about things of little significance, like Britney Spears.
* The ability to convey information will continue to explode until we can watch Lawrence of Arabia on our wrist watches.
* We will, once again, not be told about the many contacts our government has had with people from other worlds. The most important information in the history of humankind will not be shared with us. All in the name of the new deity, "National Security". Dick Chaney will return to his home planet.
* A woman will be caught with explosives (or imagined explosives) in her bra by an airport security officer. All females will be made to board planes topless. Air travel will skyrocket.
* Shoppers will continue to trample and be trampled. The Cheap Christmas Stuff Riots will spread to Drinker Trampling at crowded New Year's Eve bars. This will become known as the Me Stuff Cheap generation.
So, as those funny Brits from Monty Python's Flying Circus like to say, "Now for something completely different." I certainly hope so.
Editor's note: The Mountain Messenger, California's oldest weekly newspaper since 1853, is published on Thursdays from Downieville, California.
The Mountain Messenger can be purchased for half a buck at the National Hotel (sidewalk), Nevada City Post Office (sidewalk), Nevada City SPD (outside), Nevada City Express Mart (outside) and in front of Safeway, Brunswick area.
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