2006: Year in Review
Happy New Year! Happy 2007!
As I reflect upon this past year, I note how the three-year old conflict in Darfur has escalated, how the conflict in the Middle East has intensified, and how, while the Israel-Lebanon war was suspended, it remains a threat for the future. I mourn the deaths of Gerald Ford, Coretta Scott King, and Steve Irwin. I think about the illegal wiretapping in our own great nation, and the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld that rendered military tribunals unconstitutional. I wonder about the recent death of a former Russian spy that the British police are treating as a murder. I note that the world mostly failed to note when Saddam Hussein was sentenced to death on November 5th, and that the Democrats control of Congress after the elections on November 7th appeared to receive more news. The happiest news this year was at the bookends, and it was all personal: my marriage at the very beginning of the year and the birth of my first child at the very end.
The major challenges facing the world in the year to come are: diseases ranging from AIDS to Malaria; Iran and its rising nuclear power in the Middle East; North Korea and its nuclear weapon objectives in Asia; the rape and destruction in Darfur; need for peace and an end to the violence in the Middle East; global warming and other nervewracking environmental problems; and terrorism and distribution of weapons of mass destruction. Once again, I hope for solutions to these challenges, for a democratic world, for an inclusive United Nations, and for respect for the environment and humanity. For my wife and my newborn daughter, I hope more than ever that we meet these challenges in the coming year.
As I reflect upon this past year, I note how the three-year old conflict in Darfur has escalated, how the conflict in the Middle East has intensified, and how, while the Israel-Lebanon war was suspended, it remains a threat for the future. I mourn the deaths of Gerald Ford, Coretta Scott King, and Steve Irwin. I think about the illegal wiretapping in our own great nation, and the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld that rendered military tribunals unconstitutional. I wonder about the recent death of a former Russian spy that the British police are treating as a murder. I note that the world mostly failed to note when Saddam Hussein was sentenced to death on November 5th, and that the Democrats control of Congress after the elections on November 7th appeared to receive more news. The happiest news this year was at the bookends, and it was all personal: my marriage at the very beginning of the year and the birth of my first child at the very end.
The major challenges facing the world in the year to come are: diseases ranging from AIDS to Malaria; Iran and its rising nuclear power in the Middle East; North Korea and its nuclear weapon objectives in Asia; the rape and destruction in Darfur; need for peace and an end to the violence in the Middle East; global warming and other nervewracking environmental problems; and terrorism and distribution of weapons of mass destruction. Once again, I hope for solutions to these challenges, for a democratic world, for an inclusive United Nations, and for respect for the environment and humanity. For my wife and my newborn daughter, I hope more than ever that we meet these challenges in the coming year.
posted by Dr. Michele R. Lyons at 11:39 AM
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