January 1 on the Gregorian calendar  is celebrated as New Years Day worldwide and has been since ancient Rome. This New Years Day is of some additional significance because it also marks the beginning of the second decade of this year.

We traditionally look backward and review major events that have occurred, then make New Year’s Resolutions about how we are going to improve our lot in the coming year. Today, the eve of New Years Day, will see a number of people taking a dip in ice-cold water, swine flu notwithstanding.

We have before us the 2010 Census and the national and local elections to select those to run our governments in the coming years. Tomorrow many of us will be watching the Rose Bowl Parade and football game in Pasadena. Even more of us will watch the Times Square Ball spend the last minute of the year 2009 drop to herald the beginning of 2010. The first baby born on January 1 will be recognized with some acclaim.

We have already passed through the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year in our hemisphere. Each day is getting longer.

New Years Eve is renowned for drinking. Those that overindulge need to make a New Years resolution before they begin their revelry. Don’t drink and drive. No need to spend part of your New Years sleeping it off in Sheriff DeMeo’s jail. But better there than in the morgue. Designate a driver. Why spend the money in January for a DUI? Or begin the New Year with the guilt of having caused someone else’s death or injury in an auto accident!

Pahrump is well populated with 2^nd right gun supporters. Alcohol and guns do not mix. Use your head and “leave your gun at home son, don’t take your gun to town,” advised the mother to her son in the well-known song. No point in being dumb as well as stupid.

The past decade has not been a good one. Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the horrendous national debt accelerated by them. Scandals galore. Mortgage foreclosures through the roof. Jobs as scarce as hen’s teeth. The rich getting richer—the poor poorer. People at each other’s throats over healthcare and climate change. Congress controlled by corporate lobbyists. VEA raising electrical rates.

On the other hand there are positive signs. Election recalls here in Pahrump have started and floundered. There are a few jobs in the offing from the new federal detention facility under construction. Nationally there seems to have been a shift from a band-aid approach to addressing ever present problems to a deeper and more comprehensive method of fundamental adjustment to the root causes. Far more difficult than applying band-aids but at least a change to try something different. I sense a more positive attitude than a negative. Perhaps it is the “change” from the status quo of the past to the “Yes, we can” view of the new Obama administration. The horizon doesn’t look as bleak as before. Still a long way to go but at least headed in the right direction. Progressive change is always better than stagnant status quo.

There are groups of positive forward thinking people here in Pahrump working toward optimistically focusing on good things rather than bad. The new League of Women Voters in Pahrump is one such group. The Nevada Center for Public Policy Dialogue is another. There is light at the end of the tunnel and I don’t think it is the headlights of a freight train coming.

Happy New Year to you all.