by Bob Sparrow
‘Twas the week after Christmas
In a year of unrest
Let’s review what’s just happened
The worst and the best
The year started out
with a Capitol riot
And a new president,
But D. Trump didn’t buy it
Tiger Woods crashed his car
After one of his rounds
‘Cause he couldn’t drive straight
So he drove out of bounds
The news was still filled
With street gangs and shooters
And stores were still targets
For bandits and looters
OK, I was trying to write a creative and uplifting holiday poem, something recapping the year – both good and bad. But as I scanned the Internet searching for this year’s events, I saw nothing but bad news; how the pandemic was growing, then the Delta variant, then the Omicron variant. After reviewing this past year, all I had to show for it were symptoms of ‘writer’s block’ and I wondered if there was a shot for that – I’m thinking whiskey!
Realizing that we were mostly dividing the country only with politics, we apparently needed something else to disagree
on, so up pops the Coronavirus vaccine. Was it effective? Was it too soon? Was it science? Was it politics? Was it the bottom line for pharmaceutical companies? We’ve been told to ‘believe the science,’ but the science seems to be on whatever side you want it to be on. So now we’ve got people who believe the vaccine will save lives and others who believe the vaccine will cost lives. And some that just say they aren’t going to let the government tell them what to do.
What a year! Well, at least we ended the war in Afghanistan this year. OK, maybe that wasn’t handled particularly well either.
Crime in most major cities reached record highs this year, based on our tolerance for looting and the notion that the police should probably be defunded.
The whipped cream on top of the year’s sundae is that inflation has now raised its ugly head – so we’ve got that going for us. We didn’t need the Grinch to steal Christmas, we handled that on our own. Bring back the poem!
But some good things have happened
Like my reverse mortgage biz
So I think I’ll enjoy
Pops famous ice cream fizz
As a final insult this year, I got a note from Santa in my stocking saying, I’ve read your blog and next year I’m getting you a dictionary, a thesaurus and spellcheck!
So, this New Years, rather than wishing someone a “Happy New Year”, I’m going to wish them a Happier New Year – happier than the last two years! It’s bound to be . . . right?