Skip to main content

Annus Horribilis with a Side of Hope

 




The last day of the year. A day that prompts me to make sense of the last twelve months and to look at what I wrote a year ago. 

There is no, absolutely, no making sense of the last twelve months. So here are a few things I wrote a year ago:

Community disappointments? I think the long slow fizzle of the Lakefront Library is such a missed opportunity but there’s no denying it didn’t set everyone aglow with spark of possibility the way it did for me. 

We still desperately need more housing. 

Resource-hoarding and racism still hide behind pleasant and respectable faces. 

- - Joys and Sorrows, 12/31/2024

I have some small hope for the Downtown Library. Despite recent developments I can’t assume it’s a sure thing. We will be electing a new County Executive and their commitment to seeing this project through will be critical. 

Speaking of the race for County Executive, I take a dim view of folks who think it doesn’t matter what political party you belong to, especially these days. This is probably a post unto itself but I just couldn’t let that go by without saying something. Every single decent human being should be out there loudly decrying the deliberate cruelty and injustice being perpetrated daily, outrages which would not be possible without the Republican Party. 

If you think you can run for office in my community - - and not reckon with that legacy - -  you are mistaken.

As to housing: a recent post on the Columbia Reddit entitled “Let’s talk housing costs” was another reminder of how difficult it is to live here. The premise was hypothetical.

Let's say (hypothetically) I'm a young person who grew up here, just graduated high school, and would like to continue living in Columbia, working at a local shop or restaurant.

Where in Columbia might I afford to make my home? (Either apartment or house.)

It’s an interesting discussion. I was happy to see that people who responded were helpful and not critical. Overall the consensus was that you probably can’t afford to live here as a high school grad working in restaurants/retail unless you live at home with your parents. 

Oh, and that last bit:

Resource-hoarding and racism still hide behind pleasant and respectable faces. 

That’s probably still true but the big change in the last year are the folks who are outright bragging about resource-hoarding and racism, to hell with pleasantness and respectability. 

*****

Thanks to everyone who responded to yesterday’s post about looking for light. I’ve been thinking a lot about that. During our awful house crisis this summer I became acutely aware of small kindnesses from people I didn’t even know: health care workers, waitresses, store clerks, hotel housekeeping staff, library staff, people who answered the phone when I called with questions. A positive interaction from someone like this was often the brightest spot in my day.

We are told day in and day out that these aren’t the important people. That they are insignificant, forgettable, unskilled or without value. This could not be more wrong. I saw them shining and some days they were the only thing that lit my way. 

How can we be light for others without acknowledging their light? 

Onwards to 2026: less cruelty, more justice. Shared light.


Village Green/Town² Comments

Comments

  1. Julia A. McCreadyDecember 31, 2025 at 4:49 AM

    Please do not submit comments here. This function will be disabled shortly. Use the link above instead. Thanks!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Teacher Gifts

Today is the last day of school before the Winter Break. It’s a good time to remember the far-reaching nature of our public school system. You may not have children. You may have sent your children to independent schools. It matters not. You will be impacted one way or another. Yesterday I read a long thread on Facebook about several waves of illness in the schools right now. There’s influenza A and norovirus, I believe. And of course there’s COVID. Apparently in some individual schools the rate of illness is high enough for school admin to notify parents.  When I was little the acceptable holiday gift for a teacher was one of those lovely floral handkerchief squares. (I don’t know what it was for male teachers. They were rare in my elementary years.) These days the range of teacher gifts is wider and I have fond memories of Target gift cards which I have written about before. I think it’s safe to say that giving one’s teacher Influenza, norovirus, or COVID is not the ideal holiday...
1 comment
Read more

F ³: We Are Not Entitled

  A college student went missing. His family and friends were distraught. The community was encouraged to be on the lookout and spread the word.  Days passed.  They must have been agonizing days for those who cared about the missing student. Thoughts that foul play had been involved cannot have been far from their thoughts.  Then, at last, the student was found. Alive. The news was shared with the public.  So. Much. Relief. A family had been reunited with their child. Even though we know that life is complicated, I think it is okay to accept this as a happy ending and leave it at that.  But the world of social media says no. For every expression of joy at the news came questions and even judgement. It became clear to me that some folks felt entitled to an explanation. They wanted the backstory. It’s as though they felt that, by enlisting the help of the public on social media, the authorities now owed them all the details. Television dramas often weave curr...
2 comments
Read more

Separate and Unequal

  Remember “Separate but equal”? Remember how that really meant that Black schools languished in  broken-down buildings without adequate heat or toilet facilities, with cast-off, ragged learning materials, underfunded and largely ignored? The Supreme Court struck that down in 1954. The evidence was clear that separate was not equal. Plessy v Ferguson had led to - - no, endorsed - - deeply unequal schooling and opportunities. We tend to think of Brown v Board as being purely about racial integration. It was not.  It was about the logical consequences of segregation. And they were not, not, not equal. The ruling in 1954 didn’t transform public education for non-whites into a land of milk and honey by any means. But it articulated some essential truths in a way that made including everyone a legal precedent which could be relied upon and built upon. It was better than what came before it but it rested upon unsteady ground. It did not necessarily change the hearts or minds ...
1 comment
Read more