Happy New Year 2008

Happy New Year 2008. 2007 was a helluva year. Not as bad as 2006, thank God, and there are good things percolating. So I can’t complain, and as they say, it wouldn’t do any good.

Looking back over the year I can actually be encouraged, because it looks to me that this is the year the Green Movement entered the mainstream. In my field of technology there was the concept that when introducing something really new that people broke down into four parts:

• The first 10% were pioneers, people that liked and were willing to try new things.
• The next 35% were called early comers, those that caught on after the pioneers.
• The next 35% were late comers; when they saw the others they thought, “I guess I’ll do that too.”
• The last 20% were the never comers, and you didn’t need to concern yourself much with them.

The trick was to move from the 10% pioneers, to the 35% early comers. I think that’s what’s happened with the Green Movement, this is the year that it jumped from the 10% to the 35%. Kudos to Al Gore for almost single-handedly bringing the issue of global warming to the forefront of the global stage. That and a little help from the pictures of the Arctic ice cap melting at an unprecedented rate and the northwest passage becoming reality for the first time in history. Oil hitting a hundred dollars a barrel added an exclamation point.

That’s the good news.

On the other hand we’re stuck with Bush-Cheney and the Neocons for another year to see how much damage they can do to our country. I’m holding my breath until the next election. Sadly, I’m half afraid we might not get to vote these guys out of office, and the other half afraid it’s all rigged by the computers anyway (as a computer professional, I don’t trust those things one bit, pun intended).

The credit crisis precipitated by the subprime debacle could be the stone that tips things such that they cannot get out of it, and serious recession or depression here we come. The dollar is crashing overseas, which means prices will be rising. American companies are being bought by foreign firms at record levels. Bankruptcies and foreclosures and the gap between rich and poor are at the highest levels since the Great Depression, This isn’t the country I grew up in. It’s all due to conservative policies, beginning with Ronnie Reagan, and on through Bush the First, Clinton, and Bush Junior.

So, in all, looking ahead to 2008, I’m reminded of the immortal Betty Davis, “Hang onto your hats, boys. It’s going to be a bumpy ride.”

Then again, what do I know. I hope 2008 is your best year ever. It’s a whole new one. Do with it what you will.