Happy New Year!

I wish you joy and happiness, even when conditions around us can get us down.

I wish you love and kindness, even in a world with so much hatred and brutality.

I wish you peace, even as wars rage.

I wish you justice, even amidst all the inequities.

I wish you reverence for the Earth, even as our governments fail to grapple with global warming.

I wish you a job you like, knowing that any job is hard to come by in this Great Recession.

I wish you good health, physical and mental, because the health care reform bill won’t guarantee it—not by a long shot.

I wish you enough food to live on, and good food at that. No one should go hungry in America—or anywhere else in the world, nor be deprived of the pleasure of the palette.

I wish you time, that most precious resource, to enjoy art, music, poetry, literature, theater, nature, and to engage in sports not only as a spectator but also as a participant.

I wish you an end to resentments and grudges, which are poisons we take in the hopes that our enemies will die.

I wish you a community of progressive friends, who can join you in protest and in celebration.

I wish you—and all of us—an end to the wars and hatreds that roil the planet.

I wish, for all of us, the abolition of nuclear weapons, a cause that Barack Obama has thankfully embraced.

May 2010 be better than last year, and may you and all you love be safe.

P.S. Start the New Year out right by subscribing to The Progressive magazine, if you haven’t already. A one-year subscription costs just $14.95. Please subscribe now by clicking here. Thanks!