Happy New Year. I love the New Year. I love it because I like new beginnings. There is, for me, great hope and optimism when I start anything new, so the New Year excites me greatly.
This coming year, 2018 will also be a great for me, because all the best things in my life have occurred on even number years; the year I was born, the years I graduated, the year I was married, the birth years of each of my children, all occurred on even numbered years.
But this coming New Year I am especially optimistic, in part because 2017 was such a horrible year. Not just with all the natural catastrophes from Puerto Rico to California but because of the national embarrassment caused by the current president and sitting Congress. It appears as if our current government is doing everything it can to enhance the rich, undermine the poor and cause chaos throughout the world. All of it, or course, is in the name of greed. It is always about greed.
As much as some people may dislike the current president I can’t help but feel that in many ways he truly represents America. He is America. He is selfish, self-centered, greedy, a bully, a warmonger. To me these things are characteristics that appropriately describe this country, at least the actions of its government.
When Obama was elected there was this great sense of hope for our future. Unfortunately, electing a black man to the White House had the opposite effect. It instantly brought out the racism that is so pervasive in this culture, yet so often hidden. It rallied the white supremacists and gave plenty of fodder for the presidential campaign. After allowing a black man to occupy the White House there was no way America was going to let a woman occupy the Man’s House.
I heard one woman say, “Hillary’s defeat proved this country is more sexist than racist.”
But, 2018 will be different. The current president has energized the opposition, but more importantly he has energized women. I see women everywhere doing political organizing, running for office and speaking up. This is good. Women will be the salvation of the nation.
If women controlled Congress, we’d be much better off as a nation. For one thing, women are not as anxious to send their children off to war. Men seem to think there is some kind of honor in war, women know better. Men know there is lots of money to be made from war. Women abhor that thought. Also, women tend to be more nurturing, and we as a nation need that more than ever right now. We need leaders who will listen, who will care about others, who are not in politics to get rich. I think women will be those leaders.
I have great hope for the future for the first time since the election of 2016.
The new senator from Minnesota is a woman. There is little doubt that women, and especially black women were the tipping point in the Alabama election. Emily’s List has encouraged many women to become candidates at all levels of government. The Sister District has been encouraging feet on the ground political activism. I went to one Indivisible meeting (another grassroots political organization) and the majority of people there were women. Women were running the event and the guest speakers were all women. These are good signs. Women can get things done.
I am encouraged and excited for the year 2018. It will be a great year. It will be the year of the woman.
Gabriel A. Fraire has been a writer more than 45 years. He can be reached through his website at gabrielfraire.com.
