Archive for December 31st, 2011
Goodbye 2011…hello 2012…Happy New Year!
A new year’s dawning in just a few hours for us here in Chicago. It might already be 2012 wherever you live now. It might be 1985, too, if you happen to find yourself in a Delorean, flying or otherwise.
I hope wherever you are and whatever you are doing that you are doing it safely to celebrate the ringing in of a new year.
If you are drinking, please drink responsibly…and don’t for any instant think you are okay to drive when you aren’t.
2012 will be a big year for our county…and we need YOU alive and well and ready to do your part. I don’t want to harp, but a fun time can be had without the alcohol; a champagne glass filled with ginger ale at a bar looks just like the real thing. No bartender alive will refuse the request to do it, either. Just a simple New Year’s trick from Boystown to you for those whose friends pressure them to drink when they know they shouldn’t…well, now you don’t have to, and the peers-who-pressure will never be the wiser.
I you are staying at home tonight, and have a few moments to spend at your computer or on your phone, maybe you can take that time to tell the people you care about just how much you love them and how important to you they were this year. It would be nice if you could dash off a line or two to each individual, and not one big blanket Facebook post. Let the people you love know you care about them, and invite them to make 2012 the best year ever for all of you by sharing its birth together.
If you are estranged from someone you love, why not let that estrangement expire at the stroke of midnight? Let it be a part of 2011, gone into the history books forever.
Everyone gets a fresh start on New Year’s Day in my book — though, many will no doubt do something awful to affirm whatever negative things I thought about them last year. But, with the new year, I do always strive to give people that second change. Or fifteenth, as the case may be. Even the cyberstalkers. Life is too short to maintain an enemies’ list in triplicate. No one really needs that paperwork or stress on their soul. That doesn’t mean you have to forgive and forget and let the villains of your life get away scot-free…it’s just a chance to free yourself from the shackles of having to be actively mad at those people every day. It’s a wonder what you can accomplish when you dwell only in the sunlight and invest your time and energy in the positive causes that matter to you, instead of the time you may have in the past spent carrying stale grudges. There are so many more things worthy of your time and precious energy.
My boyfriend Justin is with his family this New Year’s Eve, where every one of them is on pins and needles waiting to see if Justin’s newborn niece Astor will survive into 2012. I miss him terribly and can’t imagine what he’s going through, and am beside myself worrying about Astor and praying she makes it. I hope whatever weakness and illness that plagues her gets evaporated into the ether with the dawning of 2012…like so many bad memories and so much grief that I know many of you had in your own lives this last year.
Tomorrow I want to talk about the things I want to work hard on to accomplish in 2012. These won’t be New Year’s Resolutions, but things I think we could all work on together that will make a difference in the election at hand. Defeat Willard “Mittens” Romneycare in the primaries; Defeat Barack Obama in the General Election; Save the country from ruin at the hands of the Left. It’s a tall order, but America’s been up against worse foes in the past…and Americans always persevere when things might look at their absolute worst.
But, all of this talk is for tomorrow.
Tonight I want to listen to Mariah, and to the other versions of Auld Lang Syne that are out there. I want to send my emails out to friends thanking them for making a difference in my life in 2011 and asking them to remain at my side through 2012. I want to call Justin and hear his voice and ask him how Astor is…and ask him again if he’ll join me in a civil-union next fall so he and I will never have to be apart like this again, on New Year’s Eve or any other day.
For all the health problems and other hardships that 2011 brought me, I somehow managed to find the best friend I’ve ever known and the guy I want to spend forever with in Justin.
So 2011 wasn’t such a bad year after all in my book — no matter what the talking heads and other Eeyores out there will try to convince you, as they read the tired old scripts they regurgitate every single year, for want of anything original to say.
We are all only dancing on this Earth for a short time; what we say and do and how we live matters. We all make a difference in our own ways and the stances we take or choose to ignore are important. We all have a part to play, so I hope I’m not the only one in 2012 who looks forward to you playing YOURS…in whatever way God has intended.
With deepest and most loving thanks for all your support, friendship, and readership in 2011 as we gear up for the most important political year of our lives.
– K.D. for H.B
12/31/2011
HillBuzz Open Thread: Saturday December 31st, 2011
[ Note: the above are snaps of the 1810s tree in the Reagan Library's "An American Christmas" exhibit. For those who wonder why we're running images of Christmas trees after Christmas Day, it's because the "12 Days of Christmas" you've heard about actually run the twelve days AFTER Christmas, not before -- from Christmas Day through the Epiphany. I thought it would be fun to take a close look at these "decades-trees" to look at bits of American history hidden in the ornaments. What can you see in the 1810s ornaments that tells you something about American history? ]
Since it’s New Year’s Eve, I’d love you to use this thread to record the things you felt were most important about this year.
One of the things I’d like to draw attention to is the fact that so many very lazy and cliche-prone writers and pundits will be droning on today about what a terrible year 2011 was and how glad they are to see it go.
If you step into your Delorean and remember what these same people said in 2010, they thought THAT was a terrible year, too.
As was 2009, 2008, and every single year before it.
People, every year will have challenges. We’ll all struggle through and endure enormous trials and challenges. Each year, people we love will be lost and dreams we’ve nursed for years will be shattered. Such is the nature of life.
But, I think it’s a very Michelle Antoinette Obama sort of attitude to constantly piss all over everything on New Year’s Eve. “I’m only proud of 2011 for the first time in my adult life now that it’s over,” I can imagine Michelle Antoinette grumping…before sinking her teeth into delicious barbeque on the beach in Hawaii, on the umpteenth vacation she’s taken since moving into the White House.
2011 was a rank and festering bear of year for me in a lot of ways, with medical issues that have sunk me farther in debt than I could have ever imagined was humanly possible. I was demoralized and heartbroken that Governor Sarah Palin did not answer the call and run for president, and I remain stymied and dejected that no candidate I’m passionate about has a chance to be nominated on the Republican ticket next year. I’m horrified by the things Barack Obama has done to our country this year and could rank 2011 as one of the worst years ever solely on the basis that the Left seems to have accomplished more of its goals towards destroying this country than ever before.
But, 2011 is also the year that I got serious with my boyfriend Justin…and it’s the year we moved in together and started planning on a civil union. 2011 is the year I got to spend the week after Thanksgiving volunteering for Operation Gratitude and sending care packages to our troops. 2011 is when I teamed up with my good friend Megan Fox to solve political mysteries on the radio together; it’s the year I met some of the wonderful people who I hope to be lifelong friends; it’s the year I finally saw the “gay community” for what it was and began fighting back against its concerted efforts to malign Christians and separate gay men from their religious friends and family. 2011 is the year when Justin’s first niece, Astor, was born — and her struggle for life as she came into this world makes me appreciate and cherish just how special and important every life is.
Very few things went the ways I wanted them to this year, but that’s the beauty and the magic of life. We’re all here to do the very best we can…for ourselves, and all the little Astors who may be in our lives. This is our watch, folks, this is our time to stand for something and to do SOMETHING important with the time we’ve been given.
In the year 2011, we had access to more technological wonders than in any year before it. In 2011, more people in this world had food to eat and places to sleep than in any time in history. In 2011, we were all alive and sentient enough to make friendships and enjoy the company of loved ones when billions of people who existed in history are dead and gone and afforded no such wonders.
However you plan to signify the New Year tomorrow, please don’t let the Michelle Antoinette Obamas of the world seep into your attitude towards 2011 or any year of your life. Be proud of yourself, your country, your life, and your YEAR not for the first time in your adult lives…but EVERY DAY of your lives.
Be excellent to those around you.
And be ready to kick off 2012 on a positive note and make a solid effort to ensure that EVERY day in the new year carries that same life and life.
