Hello to 2006...

so long to 2005. It was a good year for me, on a personal level, but in other respects I hope it's a year we will not see the likes of again.

In 2005 I graduated from library school and got my first professional job. Less importantly, I also got my black-belt; more importantly, my wife and I made the decision to start a family--the big event is scheduled to go down at the end of May. So, for me, 2005 was a year of positive change, and I expect the momentum to carry on into this New Year with the arrival of the Little Samurai, the progression of my career, and perhaps a major move.

It seems as if 2005 also generated a lot of momentum socially and politically, but unfortunately this momentum is heading in the wrong direction: copyright laws have taken a turn for the draconian, the war in Iraq (which was initiated under false premises) is leaving a bloody legacy, doublethink and newspeak issue forth from major media outlets and the President alike, surveillance of public and private spaces increases, the world has been largely unable to deal with a number of significant natural disasters, and governments continue to ignore the erosion of the environment.

Yet, I'm not pessimistic, at least not for the long run. It seems to me that people have had enough, and so long as we're in a democracy the people are sovereign. All around I see sings of resistance, whether i's a journalist with enough guts to tell the truth, an organization fighting intellectual tyranny, or some one who has just had enough and is willing to say so. Even if this isn't a real democracy, which it may or may not be, the power to catalyze positive change in the hands of the people, and as people wake up and acknowledge the truth of things, this will become apparent.