Pour Me a Double of Atmosphere and Hold the Ice

This new year, 2019, that arrived with the usual hopes and high expectations is already almost a month old or will be later this week. How exactly did that happen, and when? Perhaps the good news is if you've been holding off buying a calendar, you should start to see some great prices on them as the deep discounts kick in. That's an economic stimulus we can all get behind.

All government from federal to municipal works only as hard as we, the people who live in our millions of towns and cities across the country, help it work (somebody at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue seemed to have forgotten that for about a month but he's gotten a refresher in civics in recent days). 

Locally, everything from picking up trash as you go for a walk around the block, to testifying at a public hearing on a zoning change or offering yourself as a candidate for an office, each a small step by itself, adds up to a larger way forward. 

I fear we've spent far too many years in this Brave Experiment Called the United States getting much too comfortable referring to others as 'them' so that 'we' will have someone to blame when things go wrong. The danger of finger pointing is three of the fingers point back at yourself. Perhaps if instead of balling out fingers into fist we offer them as a hand up to someone else in need, together we can make where we live better for all of us. 

More facts, less emotion-not quite as catchy as Don't Crush that Dwarf, Hand Me the Pliers (and you thought I made that up?) but maybe we really do need something with more utility and less futility. "I'll find repose in new ways/Though I haven't slept in two days. 'Cause cold nostalgia chills me to the bone."
-bill kenny