Goodbye to 2011

Looking at 2011 from my recliner, the World is in pretty much of a mess. The “Arab spring” was amazing, until it disintegrated with the military torturing protesters in Egypt and the dictator slaughtering his own people in Syria.

Like everyone, I rejoiced when the President finally bought the troops home from Iraq, leaving the Iraqis to blow each other up (as they always have done), and 90,000 American boys facing the same hopeless situation in Afghanistan.

In our own country, farms and ranches produce so much food we have a problem with obesity. Manufacturing jobs have disappeared, and in this global economy are not coming back any more than the horse-drawn plow. Congress is paralyzed and unable to deal with the horrendous unemployment.

Now we have the spectacle of the Republican farce starring candidates for President. In Texas the Democrats were so ineffectual Rick Perry was reelected as governor. Now he’s made a laughing stock of himself, yet some people still consider him a serious candidate for President of the United States.

I comfort myself with history. Before the Civil War, Congress bogged down in acrimonious debates. Henry Clay was a big hero for his speeches protecting the rights of slave holders. We had mediocre presidents. George W. Bush is the most recent, but there were also Franklin Pierce, William McKinley, both the Harrisons, and others. Does anyone remember them? The country survived. Somehow.

This year we’ve also survived the assaults of Mother Nature. Even the most hardened World War II veterans sympathized with the Japanese for the loss of life due to the earthquake and the Tsoumi (can’t spell that – but you saw the pictures). Joplin, Missouri, where I used to sleep in motels on my treks back and forth between Albuquerque and Chicago, was devastated by a tornado.

As I sat, wrapped in a blanket like a warm cocoon in my recliner, I watched all this on television and realized how lucky I am to have excellent health insurance and a secure income. My life seems insulated against all catastrophes. My son David is in earthquake-prone California, but I’m in Texas, which is the place in the U.S. “less likely” to have earthquakes.

Then it happened. I was sitting in the recliner, as usual, with the cat dozing on the little green chair facing me. The chair began to shake. Not violently, but a definite tremble. Then the glass shade on the “Tiffany-style” lamp beside me began to rattle.

Charlie woke and sat up. I said, “Kitty, we’re having an earthquake.” The trembling stopped. Reassured by my calm voice, the cat lay down and went back to sleep.

The next day the television told me that it was indeed an earthquake. The epicenter was up in a rural area of Oklahoma. It did little damage, but the shock was felt from Iowa to Dallas.

What will happen in 2012? Mother Nature and the Arab extremists are sure to provide surprises. Hurricanes will roar out of the Gulf; perhaps this time FEMA will be prepared. Let’s also hope voters will wake up and throw out all of Congress, both Democrats and Republicans. And if they don’t – well, we survived both Franklin Pierce and Henry Clay.

Finally, I hope 2012's disasters are no more serious than the earthquake, which didn’t frighten the cat enough to make him jump off his chair.