It’s that time of the year when many folks make new years resolutions. Hell, I stopped doing that years ago because I was a failure at keeping my promises to myself. It would be more appropriate to say what I wish for, dream about, to wit:

-that anyone living in a major Utah city must be required to recycle at least paper and plastic and that if it’s unaffordable then the local governments should kick in part of the cost.  Around two-thirds of all paper products in the U.S. are being recycled but only 10% of plastics are recycled.

-that public transit (UTA buses, TRAX, light rail) should be free-always. I pushed for that when I was a board member at UTA and generally got laughs, but with our bad air and all the new construction of ‘transit oriented’ new housing in our major cities Utah needs to help not just the air but give a break for low income folks as well. I believe ‘Santa Cox’ likes the idea but the legislature has to figure out how to fund it. There’s talk on the hill that there may be a one year pilot program to test an all free transit system.

-massive new affordable housing options. There is a ton of land owned by the state, local governments and even non-profits/churches that could be dedicated to extremely low income, permanent housing. For those people in the service sector making poor hourly wages, single parents and especially seniors on fixed incomes need help now and will need more help in the future as prices go up for housing, utilities, food, insurance, transportation, etc.

-95% of the men I know personally are terrific people. My dream is that they convince the other 5% that are warlords, rapists, and murderers of women, elders and children around the world to stop the violence. Women could pull the old Lysistrata story out, where sex is withheld from men until they stop warring, but both past and modern history prove that this 5% don’t care about women and will rape and murder them regardless in their quests for power, control, and money.

Finally, I wish that 2024-the next presidential year for us-doesn’t turn into utter hell of worse vitriol than what’s currently out there and that by some magnificent miracle the U.S. Congress figures out budgeting solutions and passes reasonable bi-partisan bills. This current Congress proved to be the 2^nd laziest, most embittered group ever elected.  The 118th Congress is on track to be one of the most unproductive in modern history, with just a couple dozen laws on the books at the close of 2023. This is the fewest since at least the 101^st Congress in 1989.

If wishes were fishes we’d all cast nets. May you have a great year end and may we all survive 2024!