I found this cartoon on counterpoint.com this morning and it pretty much says it all. I am not quite certain why, but we stayed up to watch the ball drop above a largely empty Time Square. It was just plain sad. The only ones permitted to attend were the entertainers, the crew, security, and a small, select group of first responders and medical personnel who have been on the front lines in battling the COVID-19 pandemic in the Big Apple. There they were masked and corralled into socially distanced pens. And probably freezing their asses off to boot. Celebrants have always frozen their asses off; it’s late December in New York after all. Yet spirits were always high and there was a sense of community as they welcomed a new year. Just like the rest of us, I am sure the folks in Time Square were all happy to see the south end of 2020 headed north, but is there really anything to celebrate about the advent of 2021?
I would like to think that we are heading into 2021 with a renewed sense of hope and energy to face the hard tasks that still lie before us. The T**** interregnum is leaving this country in shambles and we have a lot to do just to dig our way out of the wreckage. In just three weeks Joe Biden and Kamala Harris should be in the White House. But not before T*** plays out his post-election temper tantrum and the Republicans make one last ditch effort to annul the national election and the state certified votes of the Electoral College. Just one more step in their attempt to destroy American democracy and the Constitution they swore to uphold and protect. Four days from now we will witness two all important run-off elections in Georgia that will determine whether Biden/Harris will have a Democratic majority in both chambers of Congress, or whether Mitch McConnell and his Republican Senate cohorts will continue to run roughshod over the Constitution and all efforts to counteract what T**** and his minions have wrought over the past four years.
And then there is the pandemic that is far from over even with the unfortunately slow roll out of the new vaccines. One of the first news stories I read this morning was a report that the United States has now surpassed 20 million total recorded COVID-19 cases (6% of the USA population) after posting a record number of hospitalizations for the past four straight days. The experts are saying that the worse is yet to come while predicting that more than 80,000 new deaths in the country throughout January. Add to this the new and highly infectious variant of COVID-19 first discovered recently in the United Kingdom. It has already reached this country and cases are reported in three states since Christmas and more are expected. Most of those infected have no travel history meaning the spreaders are out there and infecting others. Even the most optimistic reports say that COVID-19 will be with us for several more months at the very least.
While you are celebrating the end of a disastrous 2020 and toasting the New Year, let me remind everyone to not let your guard down. Stay safe and healthy and wear your mask. It seems a small price to pay to insure that you, those you love, and the rest of us are around to ring in 2022.
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