2004 For Better Or Worse

Perhaps it is because the religious holidays of Hanukkah and Christmas are so laden with tradition that New Year’s has been stripped down to the bare essentials for celebration –– a late night out, a sip of champagne, and someone dear to kiss. Some have added serious sloth in the guise of football watching to those traditions. For the most part, however, not much is asked of us on New Year’s Day so that these dark early days of winter do not become so weighted with tradition that the year becomes awkwardly lopsided rather than pleasingly elliptical –– like the orbit of our planet, which prescribes our 365¼-day year. With time on our hands in the middle of the workweek, we also indulge ourselves with two more lightweight New Year’s traditions: reflection and resolution.

Reflecting on the top five stories in Connecticut this year, as compiled by the Associated Press, we find that only one –– the participation of Connecticut troops in the war on terrorism –– was not a story about failure, either moral or political. With this exception, the biggest headlines of 2003 went to the federal corruption investigation of Gov John G. Rowland’s administration; the conviction of former Waterbury Mayor Philip Giordano of violating the civil rights to two preteen girls whom he sexually abused; the conviction of former Bridgeport Mayor Joseph P. Ganim on 16 federal corruption counts; and the huge state budget deficit, which resulted in thousands of layoff notices going out to state employees and a budget stalemate between the governor and the legislature that nearly lapsed into the new fiscal year.

When it comes to corruption and moral turpitude in elected officials, mere resolutions for a better year in 2004 do not seem strong enough. Intolerance –– or “zero tolerance” as we say these days –– seems more like it. As the people who elected the scoundrels to office in the first place, we bear a special responsibility to ensure they do not stay there once they are exposed. Unfortunately, we must often exercise that responsibility through still more elected officials, whose resolve seems focused mostly on never giving an inch to partisan rivals. In our search for meaningful reflection and resolution in the New Year, Hartford may be the last place we should look.

 Ultimately, this search should end where it begins –– with each of us in our moments of reflection. Even in the most hardscrabble political landscape, the formula for change remains the same. Thought begets talk. Talk begets resolution. Resolution begets action. Action begets change. Whether 2004 changes for better or worse depends in large part on the nature of our private thoughts. We must ask ourselves: Are our thoughts negative or positive? Do they reflect despair or hope, anger or compassion, cynicism or faith? The answer to these questions could write the headlines for the top five stories for 2004.