WS Chronicle

The year 2017 certainly was eventful and had its share of drama and surprises.

It is my opinion the biggest surprise was who was elected to be president of the United States of America. While he didn’t win the popular vote, he did win the Electoral College and that is all that counts.

Sexual harassment allegations and charges were quite plentiful as men once rich and famous were made poor in reputation and became infamous in character. I believe there will be more men who will come out of the dark and will admit to their bad behavior.

The National Football League was at the forefront not just for football but because of social justice issues. Colin Kaepernick, former quarterback for the San Francisco 49’ers started kneeling during the playing of the National Anthem in protest of how black men were being treated in America by the police. These efforts will continue to grow in 2018.

Terror reared its ugly head almost monthly somewhere in the world. The news reports made us hesitant to travel. France, England and America all had its citizens in harm’s way. Lives were lost and families were changed forever. 

While we have had mayhem and madness on all sides, we left 2017 thankful. We are kneeling and thanking Him for a reasonable portion of health and strength. Thankful of waking up in the morning knowing our right from our left. Thankful for being able to speak and be understood.

We are thankful for our neighbors who helped us out more times than we could count. We are blessed our communities while not perfect are headed in the right direction. Thankful that when we couldn’t say anything good about someone that we didn’t say anything at all.

Thankful that if you are a senior citizen like me that we lived long enough to see a black man become president of the United States of America. His name, Barack Obama, will be etched in the history books of the world.

We are grateful that we don’t take ourselves too seriously. We can admit we made a mistake and say I am sorry. We can laugh at ourselves and make others laugh as well. And as we age, we are thankful for our friends.

I am blessed to have had friends so long that I don’t remember when they weren’t my friends. Some date back to elementary school. We laugh about those days and can remember some events like they happened yesterday. On the other hand, we can’t remember what happened to us ten days ago.

This year, 2018, will be a happy new year. It is full of hope and promise. We have the hope that our world will be just a little bit better. We have the hope that America will embrace all of us and not just some of us. Our hope is that opportunity will not be just a dream but will be a reality.

This year will be a year for us to grow in wisdom. Let us honor those who have made a way for us. Let’s be respectful of each other and love one another just a little bit more.

Happy New Year. God Bless.

James B. Ewers  Jr. Ed.D. is a former tennis champion at Atkins High School in Winston-Salem and played college tennis at Johnson C. Smith University, where he was all-conference for four years. He is a retired college administrator.  He can be reached at ewers.jr56@yahoo.com.