Good Riddance Day is inspired by a Latin American tradition in which New Year’s revelers stuffed dolls with objects representing bad memories before setting them on fire, but instead of wasting paper and igniting more fires that contribute carbon to the already overburdened atmosphere, we decided to dump our thoughts here.
Feel free to join in by adding comments below or posting a link to this story on social media along with your thoughts about the last 12 months.
Throughout 2022, we mourned the losses from the violence of the mass shootings across our nation, from Buffalo to Uvalde to Club Q, along with the countless other shootings that may not have made national news, but traumatized people and their communities all the same.
We watched the U.S. Supreme Court roll back fundamental human rights, while Congress failed to pass legislation that preserved Americans’ rights to privacy, which entitled women to choose a safe, legal abortion if they decide to terminate an unwanted pregnancy. We also watched establishment Democrats raise buckets of money and survive the midterm elections on the strength of their biggest policy failure in 50 years.
Increased federal investments helped to address many needs during the pandemic, yet we continue to hear over and over again that local programs simply do not have the resources and support they need in order to help the survivors who depend on them. Obviously, leaders in Washington have utterly failed to take action to reverse the declining quality of life in the United States.
We still need comprehensive, common sense, and long-term solutions to resolve immigration issues while ensuring the humane treatment of migrants, expelling criminals, and ensuring the health and safety of Americans.
Perhaps 2023 will be the year when liberal, progressive, and moderate American voters finally give the heave-ho to establishment Democrats that have utterly failed to get results while the nation continues to slide into an abyss caused by insanely stupid policies most commonly known as Reaganomics.
Economists have described the many reasons that the whole theory of trickle-down is bunk. Ordinary people can see and feel the consequences, like the $30+ trillion US national debt, our declining standard of living, plus the incredible gaps in wealth and income that have made the ‘land of the free’ a nation of serfs and slaves that largely has merely not yet noticed their loss of actual freedom.
Of course, that is somewhat unlikely since the same billionaires who finance the Republican Party amply contribute to establishment Democrats, which allows insiders in both parties to win elections that look more like auctions due to the virtual legalization of bribery, our feeble attention span and a lack of credible alternative candidates in primary elections (since the cheating known as gerrymandering has eliminated most competitive general election districts).
Unless the people of the United States decide to take this experiment with democracy a lot more seriously, we are doomed to remain stuck in 2022 no matter what the calendar says.