What a year. The last 12 months (OK, 11 and a few days -- but if VH1 and Comedy Central can broadcast their end of the year specials now, I can too) were hectic, crazy and highly contentious. Between the presidential election, the gay marriage debate and the end of Friends, it seems that a lot has changed in our country and the world since December 31, 2003.
But has it really? Perhaps the most infamous question of the electoral hunting season was, "Is the country going in the right direction?"
Americans were pretty split, though the naysayers held a slight edge over the annoying glass-half-full optimists. The fact is, however, that the country hasn't moved one way or another in the last year. It's just stayed stagnant, like a kid remaining stationary because they forgot to release him after a game of freeze tag.
Lindsay Lohan, while now legal, still doesn't know how to cover up her breasts.
People are still wearing trucker hats ... and "Getting Lucky in Kentucky" shirts, even though most of them have never stepped foot in Kentucky ... and "Everybody loves a Jewish/Catholic/Italian/Irish girl" shirts ... and Ugg boots.
I'm still an English major with almost no chance of earning much money after graduation, and I'm still OK with that. My engineering major friends are still taunting me.
Reality TV shows still cast beautiful, vacuous people to cheat on each other and talk behind each other's backs, and despite myself, I'm still watching it. Damn Laguna Beach.
Paris Hilton still has more sex tapes to release.
Celebrities still think they can influence the political sphere and, unfortunately, they probably still can do just that. I know I only voted because P. Diddy threatened me.
George W. Bush is still our commander in chief.
John Kerry is still the junior senator from Massachusetts.
Americans overall still disapprove of same-sex marriage.
Emergency contraception is still not available over the counter.
Abstinence-only education is still the preferred method of scaring schoolchildren about sex.
HIV still infected about 40,000 this year, the same number of people as in 1994. That's still well below the American "goal" of "only" 20,000 newly-infected individuals a year.
Hundreds of "enemy combatants" are still being held in Cuba without legitimate opportunities to plead their cases.
We're still embroiled in Iraq. Americans are still dying for weapons of mass destruction that haven't been found and for a nation of people who still largely believe they were better off under Saddam Hussein.
Most of the rest of the world still hates America. Bush's supporters still don't care. Some people may believe that these are all positive signs of the country, and some may think that these are atrocious examples of a fear of change. Americans are meant to be world leaders, always on the cusp of a new discovery, a new way of life, a new attempt to make life better for people around the world. But we've stalled over the last year, culturally, politically and socially.
In the upcoming year of 2005, we will have lots of opportunities to jumpstart the car and move forward.
Will we take the chance, or will we just stay as we are, in the middle of a blog-battleground civil war of beliefs, while being looked on with disdain by those who used to see the United States as leaders?
When the ball drops on December 31, 2004, who will you kiss and what will you wish for? Will you wish for things to stay the same, or will you hope for change in the coming new year?
