2008 is upon us. I hope you all celebrated, and celebrated safely. Mr. Ether and I went to the home of dear long-time friends. It was weird to remember New Year's parties of years past with some of these same people, when we all had little kids. Last night we were the only couple there with a school-age child, and she's quickly rocketing through her childhood years. She didn't want to come to the party with us and be the only kid!Highlights of last night: incredibly delicious food, including a seemingly bottomless pot of gumbo made by our hosts; playing "speed Scrabble" for the first time; meeting a gentleman who had been in the very first wave of Peace Corps volunteers; sharing our New Year's tradition, "snapdragons": you spread a layer of raisins in a pan, pour warmed brandy over them, and light them on fire. Then you try to grab a flaming raisin and pop it into your mouth before it goes out. If you are successful, you'll have good luck in the coming year. (And only a smidgeon of a burn on your tongue, really. Try it. It's fun.)
I am not one for making fancy schmancy resolutions. I do have some wishes for the coming year:
*I dearly wish to see George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Condoleeza Rice, Karl Rove, Donald Rumsfeld, and Alberto Gonzales tried and convicted for war crimes.
*I wish for a presidential election that is not rigged.
*I wish for the nonsensical and dangerous debate about whether climate change is real to stop, and a concerted effort made in the upper echelons of power, as well as the level of individuals like us, to mitigate and even reverse the harm that continues to be done.
*I wish for economic justice for the lower income residents of New Orleans.
*I wish for WalMart to go out of business, to be replaced with sustainable employment for all.
*I wish to see the number of unionized workers start to increase in this country.
* I wish to see legal and economic justice, and an end to profiling, for immigrants in this country.
*I wish to see a complete repeal of the NCLB (No Child Left Behind) bill.
* I wish to see not one more luxury condo project approved in my city, that all development be required to be affordable housing and practical for families.
*I wish for Mr. Ether to find work that he enjoys and that will keep our family afloat.
*I wish for a nice fat scholarship for me, so I can quit worrying about how I'm going to pay for each and every graduate course I take.
*I wish to finish my library student teaching, become certified to be a school library media specialist, and get the library position at my current school.
* I wish for my loved ones -- family and friends -- to be healthy, and to live with intention and joy.
*I wish to get it together to have just one music night at our house, and just one knitting party.
*I wish to get my bathroom ceiling repaired and painted.
*I wish that Martha Stewart would quit stealing my ideas, darn it!
*This almost goes without saying, except that it needs to be said and said often: I wish for the troops to be pulled out of Iraq and Afghanistan immediately. I wish for a world without war, where violence is never considered, either as a first or a last resort. War is over, if we want it.
Best wishes for 2008!
