JUSTIN A. HINKLEY
Things are very bright and merry around my house this time of year. The tree is up. The Christmas lights are on. Christmas carols belt nonstop from my stereo, driving my wife crazy. She's ready to choke me with the stereo cord.
But I need an escape at the end of every year before I can even think about looking at the next year. When I try to look ahead, my chronic pessimism — a disease I was diagnosed with when I was 15 — gets my brain swelling. By New Year's Eve, my whole head is covered with massive welts and my forehead is always dripping sweat from my brain's overexertion.
I always see doom when I try to look ahead, so I take time out during Christmas to screw on a little egg nog and think happy thoughts.
I have enough sourness to look forward to in 2008, which the Chinese call the Year of the Rat.
The Associated Press reported the other day that the oldest American World War II veteran died in Ohio at the age of 109. Whenever I read stories of WWII vets, I think of the stories they can tell, the stories I've heard, and start to agree with the grand consensus American opinion that says World War II was the last noble battle our bullets were fired in.
Rather unlike the war in Iraq, the American perception at least was that WWII served a grand purpose, our boys overseas were all heroes and The President would never steer us wrong. World War II was just, they said, and it seemed that way to the people back home and it echoes that way through our history books.
But every war since then, including Iraq, is different. Support for both George W. Bush and his "crusade" is hurriedly falling. People are angry and frustrated and impatient and more and more, people are seeing doomsday coming down the pipe.
I am one of those people, but it is not just the incessant death we hear about on CNN. No, there is more: 2008 is an election year, and politics always gets me on edge. I love the game, but I hate the consequences, both for the winners and the losers. Too much blood spilled for so little change.
Well, it's Christmas Eve now and I think I should get this out of my head so that tonight and tomorrow can be simple and easy. These premonitions are heavy on my heart, forcing it to slow to about two beats per minute and sucking all the blood from my brain. I need them out to increase the circulation. Here are my predictions for the coming year:
1.) Hilary Clinton or Barack Obama will cinch up the Democratic nomination early, but will be unable to capture the presidency in November, since they'll be running against a white male Republican. I think Rudy Giuliani or John McCain will be elected. The polarizing effect of people voting either for or against a black man or a woman will have long-lasting effects in political circles and rallies in support or against Obama or Clinton will see violence. Bigotry is not as dead as people would like to think.
2.) Corporate America, especially the auto industry, will see another year of massive layoffs and cutbacks as it struggles to comply with new auto emissions standards developed at the Bali UN Climate Conference. The ends are certainly necessary and justifiable, but the means will be tiresome and hard as manufacturers struggle to meet said standards.
3.) The War in Iraq will continue and our troops will stay, so long as we aren't side-slapped by Iran or North Korea, which would force such terrible atrocities I don't even want to think about it. The next president will be the one faced with the tough decisions necessary to get US troops out of Iraq, and he will face backlash from all sides on how he does it.
4.) Music will get very interesting. These signs were coming heavy in 2007: The Foo Fighters' country-esque breakdown in "The Pretender;" The White Stripes' "Icky Thump;" the growing popularity of bands like Arcade Fire and We Are Scientists. It will not all be good; it's hard to write interesting and unique sounds without really sounding like crap. Movies in 2008 will suck; with 2007 such a a great year, it'll have to be an off year for screenplay writers.
5.) One more tough year for newspapers and journalists. We're struggling with this whole transition from print product focus to what corporate Gannett calls "Web-centric," meaning a strong focus on Internet multimedia, like this blog here. Many journalists will be out of work this year and probably the next, until the Internet boom starts to pay off (as it will) and we ramp ourselves back up to the 1970s-era prestige we had.
God, I can't do any more of this... That's it, for now. We'll check back into this maybe New Year's night.
There will also be a live showing of this presentation
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