Questions about America’s future

Will this be the year that Americans collectively take a stand against gun violence? Will this be the year that Americans reconcile our racial and gender disparities? Will this be the year that Americans take the lead in environmental policy?

Or are Americans, and America, going to slide further down a slippery slope towards the impending disaster that we have foreseen for years? Is America going to implode - is that our fate? Will we suffer from the foregone conclusion that we cannot escape our implosion from within?

Or are we a slowly declining superpower that, although not in 2024, will fade into humanity's past without much of a whimper or will. Will America go the way of every other dominant country that has preceded us?

Do we believe in American exceptionalism? Is American exceptionalism a concept that helps our country or further blinds our eyes to commonalities we share with other past dominant countries? Is this the year Americans stand up for Uighers and Taiwanese and Ukrainians and Gazans and migrants from Central America looking for a better life?

Or is 2024 another year in the seeming decline of American influence and the values of freedom and liberty and the pursuit of happiness? Is 2024 going to be part of our future or part of our past? Can we ensure that 2024 is not part of an ending, but part of a beginning that ushers in a future worth living for? If 2024 is a foregone conclusion by mid-January, can we believe in the years that follow?

Before I live the year 2024, I want to know - is 2024 worth living for?

Willis Lambertson

Lake Barrington