Sunday, Dec. 11, 2022 | 2 a.m.
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Best wishes, birthday wishes and heartfelt wishes for this holiday season.
December is the end of the year but, always, the lead-up to the beginning of a new year — a year filled with promise based on hopes and dreams but dosed with enough reality to realize nothing good ever comes easy.
So, before I cede this space to younger, brighter and more hopeful minds (those would be the Las Vegas Sun Youth Forum finalists of 2022), I want to share in the holiday spirit with a few wishes of my own.
For starters, Nevada has elected and re-elected its state and federal leaders for the next few years. I wish them all well — by that, I mean success in representing the hopes and dreams of their constituents, all of them, as best they can. That is how democracy works once elections are over.
On a personal note, I wish that our current Sheriff and Gov.-elect Joe Lombardo can get past his personal pique and his cynicism about democracy and the voters quickly. Nevada has a great deal to do and not a lot of time to do it right. His success will be Nevada’s, which means if he fails, well, that’s ours too.
I wish deeply that America stays the course in its decision to help Ukraine fight back against a brutal Vladmir Putin-led Russia. There is already too much talk from some politicians — people without memory, context or a basic understanding about what happens when the bad guys are allowed to have their way — that might persuade those Americans who are easily moved to abandon the plight of those who seek freedom elsewhere while they work to restrict freedom here at home —but just for the others.
And what kind of American would I be if I didn’t wish for the continued good health and good leadership of President Joe Biden and his administration, which in just two short years has done more to advance the lives and well-being of ordinary people than has been done in the past 20 years.
Toward that end, we should all wish for enlightenment in those dark corners of our country. And for transparency on the internet, which ruthlessly feeds hate-fueled conspiracy theories to people seeking something to make them feel better about themselves.
Of course, I wish for the peacefulness of this season to last longer than a month. Maybe small steps to start. Let’s try the month of January to be nice to our colleagues at work, our politicians who want to lead and our families who want and yearn to love.
And, finally, since it is my birthday —a number that shall remain unspoken — I get a very personal wish.
And that is to wish the love of my life, my dearest Myra, a most happy and healthy birthday this month.
And to say thank you to her for proving the early skeptics wrong by putting up with me for yet another anniversary of our wedding so many years ago.
You see, it’s easy to be kind, it is easy to be thoughtful and it is easy to say “I love you.”
I think I have my New Year’s resolution. How about you, dear readers?
Brian Greenspun is editor, publisher and owner of the Sun.
