Like the opening day of baseball and that time when you accept a jar of sourdough from a friend, the dawn of a New Year is a time of hope and optimism. And despite the headlines, there is plenty of encouraging news available if we just take the trouble to look for it.
So as we look to 2022, I choose to believe that things are pretty good… and set to get a lot better.
I know, I know, it’s an election year, so we’ll be tortured by mind-numbing campaign rhetoric and inevitable disappointment, but let’s put that aside for now and focus on reality.
Since omicron is a priority these days, let’s start with the good news about the variant and the lingering pandemic.
Almost 70% of eligible Coloradans are fully immune to COVID; the state is full of vaccines available, safe, effective and free for those who still want them; and the risk of serious illness or death among vaccinees is very low despite the high infection rate for omicron.
A year ago, when we gathered around homes so that we could be with our friends or alone inside watching “Ted Lasso”, we could only dream of the luxury of a vaccine. It’s now a reality available in churches, athletic stadiums, or the grocery store pharmacy, for Pete’s sake.
Thanks, Donald Trump and Big Pharma. (I can’t believe I just said that.)
In other news, the unemployment rate in Colorado continued to fall faster than the national rate, and the state’s economy has rebounded so vigorously that taxpayers are expected to see refunds and lower tax rates less than two years after the COVID closures closed restaurants and brought the global economy to a screeching halt.
READ: Colorado Sun opinion columnists.
I bet you didn’t see any of this coming.
In addition, the legislature is still sitting on $ 2.6 billion in unspent federal money for pandemic relief. That’s huge because it can be used to fund important measures to address the lack of affordable housing and the increasingly desperate need for behavioral health care – or any number of other serious issues across the state. .
Electric vehicles, Colorado’s best way to solve persistent air quality problems and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, are quickly increasing portion cars and trucks on state roads as car buyers gear up for new technology and UPS and Amazon begin the transition to plug-in trucks and vans in their delivery fleets.
And under an agreement with truck maker Rivian, level two charging stations are being installed at 42 state parks. This means you don’t have to be in an urban area to charge your car, so get over your range anxiety and join the 21st century before insurance companies started broadcasting ads about how stupid you are.
Meanwhile, just as things were starting to look grim for the ski season (and, finally, the ecosystem), a series of storms dumped beautiful powder drops on the western slope just in time for vacation tourists’ crushes. The snowpack miraculously hovers around the median levels for this time of year after an autumn characterized by incredibly high temperatures and low precipitation.
So go out there and enjoy it. That’s what you live here for, after all.
One of the coolest things this year is happening, literally, in space.
Coming from an almost science-fiction technology, the James Webb Space Telescope, which was designed in part by Ball Aerospace in Colorado, began its million-kilometer journey into the cosmos after a successful launch from French Guiana at Christmas.
Astronomers all over the world watched with enthusiasm the successfully completed mission. They say they can only imagine what information might be revealed when the Webb ventures beyond the sun to see 13.7 billion year old stars and galaxies that were left in the tracks of the Big Bang.
It will be six months or more before the telescope is in position and sending data to Earth, but after eons of wonder and speculation among scientists, the time until new information about the universe is released. finally transmitted will appear to be a nanosecond.
And for anyone who’s grown to love quiet nights on the couch during COVID isolation, we’ve got a lineup for you in 2022.
We will see the return of “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel â€; an epic production of Min Jin Lee’s wonderful novel “Pachinko”; and the streaming of “The Tender Bar” by former Rocky Mountain News reporter JR Moehringer.
So come on people. Quit picking fights on planes and complaining about the difficulty of purchasing a Platoon due to supply chain issues. Look at the bright side.
Life is Beautiful.
Diane Carman is a communications consultant in Denver.
The Colorado Sun is a non-partisan news organization, and the opinions of columnists and editorial writers do not reflect the views of the newsroom. Read our Ethics Policy to learn more about The Sun’s Opinion Policy and submit columns, suggest writers, or provide feedback to [email protected].
