[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ admin_label=”section” _builder_version=”3.22″ fb_built=”1″ _i=”0″ _address=”0″][et_pb_row admin_label=”row” _builder_version=”3.29.3″ background_color=”#5d6d7c” background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” _i=”0″ _address=”0.0″][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”3.25″ custom_padding=”|||” _i=”0″ _address=”0.0.0″ custom_padding__hover=”|||”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.29.3″ text_text_color=”#ffffff” animation_style=”fade” _i=”0″ _address=”0.0.0.0″]<\/p>\n
\u201cWhew! Thank God it’s the New Year. It has to be better than last year. It was brutal.\u201d<\/p>\n
I don’t know how many times I\u2019ve heard someone say that when I was drinking a toast to Auld Lang Syne. I\u2019ve said it myself and most everyone agreed. And then, when the supposed \u201cbetter\u201d year comes to an end, we say it all over again. As if we hadn\u2019t done that last year.<\/p>\n
At first glance, it\u2019s hard to find anything good about 2017. Our political climate turned upside down and became deeply negative, the polarization between political parties was never so blatant and damaging, there were mass shootings and terrorist attacks, and there were massive sexual assault upheavals in corporate businesses and the film industry. Global warming was never so obvious, we felt the extreme heat and the seasonal aberrations and still, lawmakers refused to acknowledge what was so obviously going on.<\/p>\n
It isn’t like we never had a crazy President before although it\u2019s arguable whether anyone has ever been more crazy than the terrible specimen we have now. It\u2019s not like we never had mass shootings or terrorist attacks before as we continue to hit gridlock when we try to implement gun control. It\u2019s not like sexual exploitation is anything new but it seems to be more rampant than at any other time. And then, global warming has been around for a long time and nobody wants to do anything about it.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m not trying to depress you. Quite the opposite. The point is that things look bad, very bad, but are they really? Are people seeing the big picture when they evaluate the last 365 days in the march of time through history. I don’t think so. Granted, it takes a lot of imagination and faith to find the goodness these days, but it\u2019s there, hiding behind aggressive actions and false rhetoric.<\/p>\n
When I look back and try to take on a hopeful attitude of our world, past, present, and future, here is what I see.<\/p>\n
\u2022 While racial discrimination is at an all time high, the wrongdoers are being routed out and exposed.<\/p>\n
in conversations about how to make things better.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not like I\u2019m na\u00efve about the world wide dangers we face and the way stupidity seems to be taking over. I see it just like you do and I suffer it. But I also remember that there were much worse times than we are facing right now \u2013 like the Dark Ages where torture, beheading and the gallows were the norm in society. What about the reign of Henry VIII, who had no mercy for men and women alike as he called for the torture and death of so many innocent people? Even his own wives.<\/p>\n
I am not unaware of the fact that the\u00a0Me, Too<\/em>\u00a0movement is probably making some mistakes and charging a few innocent men. But women have endured so much pain and suffering over the years, the number of men who are falsely accused pales in comparison to the women who have suffered and died under the aggressiveness and absolute control of the patriarchy.<\/p>\n In closing, as January becomes February faster than we can imagine, I\u2019d like to quote Martin Luther King:<\/p>\n We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_comments _builder_version=”3.29.3″ show_avatar=”off” locked=”off”][\/et_pb_comments][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cWhew! Thank God it’s the New Year. It has to be better than last year. It was brutal.\u201d I don’t know how many times I\u2019ve heard someone say that when I was drinking a toast to Auld Lang Syne. I\u2019ve said it myself and most everyone agreed. And then, when the supposed \u201cbetter\u201d year comes […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":412,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-468","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=468"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}