Hoping for "better things" feels like I'm setting the bar pretty low this year. The last few years haven't been great overall. Between the COVID-19 pandemic that simply refuses to go away, a global environment that continues to degrade while the leaders of the world's nations seem to lack the will, if not the ability, to do anything to turn it around, Russia causing untold misery for millions of innocent Ukrainian people with its indefensible war of aggression, spiraling inflation casting increasing numbers of people into poverty and homelessness around the globe ... well, it's easy to feel like things have no way to change but for the better.
Sometimes it's tempting to assume that a large part of the reason for the many problems that our world is experiencing is that the wrong people have been elevated to positions of power and influence. To name but a few examples, Donald Trump seems primed to recapture the lead of the republican party of America and attempt a second bid for the presidency of one of the world's richest and most powerful nations, despite having clearly incited a treasonous attempt to subvert the democratic transition of power after losing his last election and having illegally removed classified government documents and kept them in his Mar-a-Lago home, to say nothing of his alleged tax fraud charges.
Vladimir Putin continues to wage his senseless war of aggression on the Ukrainian people, targeting innocent civilians, even against the wishes of many of his own people.
Former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seems poised to recapture the leadership of Israel while still under indictment for alleged acts of bribery, fraud and breaches of trust during his last tenure, and despite the fact that he has been clear about his plans to displace the Palestinians living along the west bank from their homes.
In short, the bad guys appear to be winning and the state of the world reflects that. Maybe what we need is for the good guys to win once in a while; the Volodymyr Zelenskyys, the Alexei Navalnys, the Joe Bidens, the Justin Trudeaus. Now, some of my readers may object to my glorification of some of those names and, to be sure, they all have their faults being human after all, but I believe these people, call them the "good guys", have the best interests of their public at heart, whereas the "bad guys" act only in their own self interest and that of their friends.
So, if I could be granted a personal wish for 2023, it would simply be this: Let the good guys win once in a while.
Happy 2023 everybody!
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