2017: FIRST THOUGHTS

I'm not the first to observe that it's been harder this year to say "Happy New Year" than in years past. Yes, 2016 was rough, in some ways personally, in other ways politically. But looking back at the year as a whole - I spent more time with my sons than I have in any other year of their life. We traveled together, talked together, played games together, worked hard at school and at life together. I'm glad I had that year with them and I'm looking forward to one more. The worst for me, of 2016, was political. And of course, as it was for so many many others, the political of 2016 hit in a deeply personal way.

I am a principled person, very deeply. I believe in honesty (as, apparently, has my family, for many generations: the name Verity means truth, and the Verity family was founded by strong believers in the value thereof), integrity, courage. I believe that all humans should be treated with respect, that diversity brings us strength, that listening to and learning from one another is how we grow as individuals and communities. I belief in taking responsibility and ownership of your good choices and your bad, that the buck stops with each and every one of us. I believe that we have already taken our natural environment off a precipice, that not only is climate change real but that it has already caused enormous harm to people, communities, entire species. That this is human caused and our responsibility and we must, as a collective globally, do everything in our power to acknowledge that, reverse the causes, mediate and mitigate the harm we have done to each other and to our children and every generation after us.

And in 2016, honesty and truth were thrust aside and deemed irrelevant in ways I've never seen in my lifetime. There has been a rise in hatred for the "other" - women, people of color, muslims and jews, people with disabilities, that parallels so powerfully the 1930s in Germany that my breath is literally taken away. I've never believed that hatred is gone - that racial tensions were erased, that any group in this country had actually achieved equality with White Men, that social injustices were minor. But I've loved the increasing awareness of, and support for, social justice for so many groups that we've seen over many years now. I did not expect the increases in equality to continue unchecked indefinitely, but I did not expect the tidal wave of hatred that has grown since November 8th. And of course, as a professional in the world of climate change, I have interacted with climate skeptics and deniers continuously, for years. But I've seen such progress, recently, that I dared to hope.

Hope is scant on the ground right now. Not gone. Never gone. But scant. And so I look forward to 2017 not with relief that last year was over, but with a wariness in my heart I've never felt before. Where are we going? What will this year bring? My principles have been battered by a group that now controls the House, the Senate, the White House, and soon the Judiciary. There is no anticipation here.

And, just like that, on the very first day of the very first new Congress of 2017, the House votes to gut the independent Office of Congressional Ethics.

This year's Republican-controlled House: their very first move. Their very first priority. Let us eliminate the ethical oversight that could have checked dishonesty, cheating, lying, bribery, backdoor payments, pay-to-play. Because if the President Elect has no problem with clear and obvious lies, with conflicts of interest, with discriminatory statements and actions, with changing the rules to suit his own interests, why on earth should Congress have problems with such things? House members clearly see that now there is open season on the American People. We don't need ethical oversize of our representatives. Ethics are for wimps. Despite the weak-hearted objections of some top Republican leaders, this is Congress's first act of 2017.

And then - whiplash! The President-elect tweets "Drain the Swamp" in protest, and the House GOP moves to withdraw those self-same changes, electing instead to "study" them and decide by August what they will do. Is this good news for Ethics? Is this some sign that our President-elect actually cares about ethical behavior, actually does wish to drain the swamp? Is he - surprisingly - a good guy after all?

I wish! I wish it meant that. I have hope, but I do not have delusion. He got elected on a message of Drain the Swamp, and this act - this stupid, public, overt, obvious act which announces to the world - and Trump's base - that Congressional representatives plan to act for their own interests, and damn the means or the consequences: it's too public. Even the base can see through this one. Besides, Trump's not in this for what the Congressmen can get out of it. Let's be clear, he's in it for himself. He's not a do-gooder raising the Republican flag for the Republican cause, and he's not a scammer scamming to line anyone else's pockets. So "study" the independent ethics committee. Prioritize something that might actually look good to someone not closely related to a Congressperson. His tweet didn't say "don't do this, we need ethical oversight." It said "don't do this yet - let's just make it a little more subtle, guys."

And so to you in 2017, I can't say Happy New Year. I can say: keep the faith. Keep hoping. I wish for you good happen in your world. I will spend this year working for that. I hope you'll join me.

(photo credit: Tekke via Flickr Creative Commons)