Forget resolutions. Here are our hopes as we embark on a daunting 2022
We begin this year full of hope and fear.
Surely, we hope, this will be a better year. But it begins with fear, brought on by a reprise of last year’s beginning. We hope this omicron tidal wave will pass soon, and we can find our way to a new normal that restores our connectedness.
On the hopeful side, we ended 2021 in far better shape than we started it. More of us are vaccinated. We have a normal president, who finally succeeded at Infrastructure Week. We are making progress on police reform and racial justice. Our schools are open. A changing climate has finally created a tidal wave of support for real action.
Here in Thurston County, we just celebrated the opening of Unity Commons, a building whose ground floor is a shelter for 58 vulnerable adults who’ve been homeless, and whose upper floors will provide about 60 units of permanent supportive housing for very low-income people who need support.
But still, not enough of us are vaccinated and boosted. Congress is locked in conflict. We’re still a long way from mutual trust between Black people and police, or to rooting out systemic racism. Too many of our kids have lost ground in academics, personal development and mental health because of the pandemic. The Arctic and the Antarctic are melting faster. And we need at least 10 more facilities like Unity Commons just to meet the needs of today’s homeless population, much less to prevent the growth of homelessness.
Underneath all this, each of us has our share of personal hopes, fears, victories and losses from the past year. Piling everything together makes for a very full life. Some find this bracing, others find it overwhelming, and most of us toggle between the two.
For today – and for 2022 – let’s lean into hope.
Here’s what we can hope for this year:
COVID will calm down. It won’t disappear, but we will continue to get better at preventing it and treating it. Far fewer people will die. Life will start to feel normal again.
Somehow, some way, Congress will pass at least some key pieces of the Build Back Better Act, including good things for kids and the climate. It also will pass voting rights legislation, including — wild hope here — reform to prevent partisan gerrymandering.
Police practices will continue to improve; in the past year alone police killings in Washington declined by 62 percent. Racial disparities remain, but more people are alive today because of reform efforts. We will continue to strive for equity in health care, education, and everywhere else too, building on momentum from the past two years.
By spring, we will finally have enough available COVID tests to make our kids, their teachers and other staff safer in school. We can focus on improving their mental health rather than worrying about their physical health.
Momentum for climate action will intensify at every level. There will be more solar panels on local rooftops. Working at home rather than commuting will be normal. Major national legislation and funding is likely. State and local governments are fully engaged.
Housing will be hard, but there is likely to be more federal and state money to support local efforts to build more. It won’t be as much as we want, and it can’t come fast enough, but at least more is coming. Local elected leaders and citizens will work together to speed it up. By the end of the year, more projects like Unity Commons will be in the works.
These are the hopes we must nurture and support in the coming year. There’s too much at stake to let our fears slow us down.
Omicron may make the next month or two rough. We will have to dig to find deeper personal aquifers of patience and resolve to shore up our hope. But we have what we need to do that: We have each other.