Good Riddance, 2016

As with many people out there, I’m very ready for this year to finally be over.

I had high hopes for 2016. Instead, we’ve dealt with blow after blow as childhood idols of stage, screen, and song died, and as fear, bigotry, racism, xenophobia, misogyny, and hatred resulted in the least qualified presidential candidate in living memory to be elected to office. Throughout the year, it felt like blow after blow, like every moment of optimism was swiftly met with a swift and severe backlash, and as if the world just got successively darker each day.

This year has been filled with tragedy on scales both large and small, and has frequently been difficult to deal with. But, of course, that’s what we do, and as the cliché goes, what doesn’t kill me gives me a dark sense of humor and unhealthy coping mechanisms (okay, so that version might actually be a Facebook meme), and it’s time to give this year a swift kick in the ass on its way out the door.

2017 is here in just a few hours (for me, at least), and we’ve got a lot of work to do. It’s said that the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice — and I believe this, but I also think it’s obvious that we need to do what we can to help it along. We’ve had a hard year, we’ve weathered some pretty serious blows, and lost a number of allies. But there are still many of us here, willing and able to fight for what’s right, for ourselves, for those we love, and for those who cannot fight for themselves.

2016 is done. 2017 is here. Let’s make it ours.