I don’t know about you but…

To me it seems like whenever the New Year comes it always brings renewed hope for the upcoming year. I hope that everyone has a better year in 2025 than they had in 2024 no matter how good 2024 was to you.

I don’t know about you but…

I don’t put much stock in New Year’s resolutions. I can’t remember the last time I made one. I believe that if one is resolute to change for the better one can do that anytime of the year and one shouldn’t wait for the new year to do so. Besides, it is my observation that most people don’t do a good job of keeping their resolutions.

The best New Year’s resolution I am aware of came from fellow colleague Roger Malcolm many, many years ago when we taught in adjacent rooms at Kewanee High School. Roger told me that his resolution was “to not make any more New Year’s resolutions”. As of a recent conversation I had with him he has managed to keep that resolution without much problem. Go figure!

January is notorious for having some terrible winter weather. I don’t know about you but…

I really, really dislike cold weather especially when it is accompanied with snow removal. I have no one to blame for the fact that I have to endure the often frigid and snowing winters of north central Illinois but myself. When I moved to Kewanee almost 50 years ago it was the furthest north that I had lived. I was in possession of a college diploma and a teaching certificate. I was young and single and theoretically I could have gone anywhere in the country to teach. I came to Kewanee partly because a scholarship I had that helped pay for tuition and fees mandated that I teach at least two years in the state of Illinois.

My first winter in Kewanee was the infamous winter of 1978-79. Those of you that endured that winter know what I am referring to. It was so cold and snowy I thought that I had moved north of the Arctic Circle. Are you kidding me!!!

I don’t know about you but…

I really enjoy the writings that Dean Karau does for The Voice. He has a style of telling a story or relating an opinion that is easy and enjoyable to read. Two of his recent offerings really resonated with me. His letter to the editor about the anonymous, threatening letter to the editor sent to The Kewanee Voice from a group espousing “MAGA” values” was spot on. I too was bothered by the hateful rhetoric of that letter. I guess I have trouble understanding where all that hate comes from. I just wish more people would heed the quote of unknown origin that states “In a world where you can be anything, be kind”. In my way of thinking if we are to survive as a nation we must choose love, not hate.

I also enjoyed Dean’s piece on December 16, entitled “How to Keep America Great”. I too am a product of immigrant ancestors that came to America from an impoverished Eastern European country. All four of my grandparents immigrated from Greece in the early part of the 20th Century. Without the courage they displayed, without the opportunities afforded to them in America, and without the resolve they had to seize upon these opportunities, I would have never had the chance to live the wonderful life I have lived. When I think of all my relatives that resulted from that migration (my two sets of grandparents had 14 children in all) and all that they have accomplished it is really remarkable. It is just one example of the countless millions of success stories of the “American Dream” and what makes America great.

Speaking of the “American Dream”, we will celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Jan. 20. I don’t know about you but…

I believe that Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech is one of the most inspirational speeches ever given by any American. His life should be an inspiration not only all Americans but also to the world. There is a lot that I could write about Dr. King’s life but most of it would have already been said more eloquently by others. I would like to relate one story of how Dr. King’s life impacted my life.

I was growing up on the Illinois side of metropolitan St. Louis when Dr. King was leading the Civil Rights movement. In fact, I was a freshman at Cahokia High School when he was assassinated. I was a proud member of the high school band which one day shortly after his assassination had been asked to play at the commencement ceremony at tiny Parks Air College also located in Cahokia. They didn’t have a band so the CHS band routinely played at their graduation. We left school that morning and when we returned the school was shut down and all the students had been sent home. It seems that one of the Caucasian students decided that it would be a good idea to raise the flag out in front of the school, which was flying at half-staff in honor of Dr. King, all the way up the flagpole. The school administration decided that there was a chance the response to this act from the African American students might jeopardize the student population’s safety so they sent them all home.

I remember thinking at the time that this was kind of a dumb thing to do. However, I was alright going home after we returned to the school. If there was going to be some sort of race riot at the school, I didn’t need to be there. Besides, I got an afternoon off from school. I guess it wasn’t until much later, when I became better educated about the movement Dr. King led, that I realized all the hardships and hatred that Dr. King and his followers faced at the time. I now realize that this act by a student at Cahokia High came from a deep seated hate that I didn’t understand at the time. Unfortunately, I believe too much of this sort of hatred still exists today. This reminds me of a Dr. King quote I saw on the wall of a classroom at Kewanee High School. “Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend”.

I don’t know about you but…

No matter what, I still have hope. I close with the quote of the month which comes from Jonas Salk, an American virologist and medical researcher that developed one of the first successful polio vaccines. “Hope lies in dreams, in imagination and in the courage of those who dare to make dreams into reality”.

I don’t know about you but…

I would guess that most of you would know what is my favorite thing to do when the winter snow impacts my ability to leave my home safely? Yes, take a nap. Imagine that!