Publisher Pen Dec 31

Wednesday marks a whole new year and a whole new decade. We leave the teens behind and will begin a new year and new decade with a clean slate. Of course, we will drag along unfinished business from 2019, but a new year and new decade may enable us to look at issues through new lenses and perhaps be better at solving past, current issues with new solutions
A friend of mine from Nova Scotia in a card sent to friends across Canada listed the wishes of his teens and university students. One who has suffered from diabetes his whole life wishes that there was no more diabetes. The second oldest wishes that there was clean water for drought-stricken places. The oldest daughter wishes that all children had a safe school to go to. The youngest daughter wants a world that future generations can hold on to.
I can’t help but think of Greta Thunberg, the teen crusader trying to make our world a greener and safer planet by reducing green house gases. She too is trying to make a world that future generations can hold on to.
As a member of the “Boomer” generation, we believed that we could do it all. We could have bigger homes, bigger cars, more wealth and that would make the lives of our children better. We sought higher education, created more technology than any previous generation and where has that left our children and grandchildren.
I wonder at this as I cuddle my 10-week old grand daughter. As she begins to try and talk, I wonder what she is really asking of me. Will her world be better than mine? Will her opportunities outshine the opportunities that exist today?
Will her drinking water be as safe to drink as mine? Will we have converted entirely to electric vehicles and will most of our electricity be derived from solar, wind, water or geo-thermal means?
In terms of health, will our doctors do health analysis just like Dr. Leonard “Bones” McCoy of the USS Enterprise in the television series “Star Trek”. Will our scientists continue to make break throughs on diseases such as diabetes, ALS, Parkinson’s, and Multiple Sclerosis by repairing genes? Will we be able to deliver these new skills and techniques to even the poorest of countries and people to offer them improved lives? “Can we as Canadians make that happen?”
It is a new year and a new decade. Somehow the troubles we are experiencing in Canada today are but a single frame in a movie of time. We should be able to talk about our differences between east and west and come to a better understanding so every opportunity found in one section of Canada can be found in every nook and cranny of Canada.
I ask you; “Why can’t we make that happen?”
Welcome to 2020 and a new decade.