2010, here I come!
Posted: December 28, 2009
1:00 am Eastern

© 2009

I don't usually make New Year's resolutions.

They tend to be predictable and trite. They're easy to list and easier to ignore! I've done my share of that.

Maybe it relates to age. When we're young and dumb, we think we can do and accomplish anything. All we have to do is make a list and it's done!

So we make resolutions, which usually have to do with how we'll act or respond to something – or how we'll change something. Usually that "something" relates to a negative aspect of our lives.

When we're older, we're usually wiser – which means we're smart enough to know what we will or won't do. We're smart enough to know that resolving to give up a bad habit – or start a good one – just because it's Dec. 31 is an exercise in futility. Or stupidity. Or stubbornness. Or maybe, just plain wishful thinking and silliness.

But what's the point? In fact, the whole idea of New Year's resolutions has faded over the last decades.

Maybe it had a lot to do with the fact that we've just gone through a phenomenal period of economic success and a bubble of luxury. We had jobs, money, time and the ability to fulfill dreams. Not everyone, of course, but enough of us that we really had a pretty cushy life.

There were jobs and trips and clothes and entertainment. There was money for just about anything we wanted, and if we didn't have the cash, there was credit – plenty of credit. It was easy to get and easy to increase.

The guidelines that we may once have been taught by parents and teachers, who understood what a budget was and who knew what would happen when it doesn't balance, were lost in the heady excesses that were ours.

It was fun and easy, especially when the bank was willing to give us more than we asked for and tell us there was more where that came from.

Credit cards filled our mailboxes and became the means to the dream. Want that world trip? Charge it. Make a movie or take a year off to write that book? Do it on the charge card. When one card is full, pay it off with another. Talk about a house of cards, and, like any such structure, one day it all fell down.

It did, and it just about took down the whole economy. The fallout isn't over yet, and too many people got a tough lesson in real life. The ones who were really spoiled by the excesses are having it the toughest. Despite the media filled with sad stories of lost jobs and houses – I can't feel much pity for people who paid no attention to the basic fact that you can't spend more than you earn – at least not indefinitely.

No doubt the New Year's resolutions for 2010 will run the gamut, but I suspect that many will focus on improving personal economics – get through school, get a job, save some bucks, pay bills and stay away from credit cards.

I've been thinking about my resolutions for 2010, and I've decided this year I will make some and live up to them! It's been a long time. I've decided to be more courageous.

Part of the reason is that I've seen what's happened to my country, and I don't like it. I've seen what the silent censorship of political correctness has created, and I don't like it. I've seen that young people simply don't know about our greatness and how we attained that – not because they're dumb but because they deliberately have not been taught.

I dipped my toes into the sea of courage and like it. I'm more and more outspoken and not afraid of "what people will think." In fact, I've discovered that many people agree with me when I speak out. They don't do it because they let others control how they think. They've fallen into the political correctness that censors thoughts, actions and words.

I've realized I don't care much about what people think. If I see a wrong, I speak out. If there's stupidity in government, local or otherwise, I'll speak out. If I don't, the bad guys get away with their destructive mischief.

When I first read the words of Italian journalist Oriana Fallaci, I was so impressed with her expressive skills but more so with her courage.

She spoke the truth, regardless of consequences. She had the courage of her convictions and defended her country and its traditions. She saw what was happening in Italy and Europe and spoke out. Many vilified her, but millions more supported her even when her life threatened with an Islamic jihad.

When I had the opportunity to talk with her privately and heard her passion and anger as she watched those European changes and saw the same things happening in the United States, I realized I wanted to be like her. I wanted her courage to stand up for what is right and moral. I'd never had a hero before but after meeting her, I knew she was it.

I resolve in 2010 to develop that courage. I will stand up for my beliefs and speak out. I will defend my country and what is right about the free world. I will not surrender to the evils that aim to take us down.

Happy New Year!

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