Things I’d like to see in 2011 (and probably won’t):

• Less greed and selfishness; the entire Tea Party movement is geared towards cutting the taxes of its adherents regardless of the ill effect on other people or the country as a whole;
• Legislators stop looking inward at what benefits themselves and begin looking outward at the needs of the majority of people whom they are supposedly serving;
• Congress stop holding the working class and unemployed hostage so they can provide benefits for the wealthy;
• The governor stop trying to create a caste system in which his rich allies are favored by the state government and public employees are treated like untouchables;
• Less hypocrisy by people who claim to have the common good in mind, when actually they only give a damn about their own selfish interests;
• People who know absolutely nothing about education, other than having sat in a classroom themselves, stop blaming teachers for all the ills of public education, when in fact they themselves do absolutely nothing to support their children’s education;
• Teachers stop being castigated as working too little and paid too much. Anybody who has a teacher in the family knows that is nothing but a damned lie;
• People finally take an interest in protecting the environment, instead of seeking ridiculous ways to claim that global warming is a hoax;
• Less stupidity! I fear for the future of a country whose citizens believe in so-called intelligent design and who might elect a president who believes she can see Russia from her house;
• Less bullying by the governor who seemingly believes he can treat the state’s residents as the weaker half of an abusive relationship, and that getting his own way is more important than doing the best thing for the state;
• The state legislature finally start paying their legal share of state workers’ pension funds, rather than stealing that money for political ends in spite of the state Supreme Court twice ordering them to fulfill their legal obligation;
• The state Supreme Court tell the state they cannot cheat all state workers out of their duly-owed pensions due to the greed of the legislature and the selfishness of many of the state’s citizens.

Things I’d like to see in 2011 (and hopefully will):

• My family continue to be happy, healthy and relatively comfortable;
• At least two novels completely written before the year ends;
• My former students continue on the track to good careers and happy lives;
• My former high school find a way to get rid of the incompetent people who are ruining both the school and several programs;
• Peace on Earth and good will to all people.