And now, for the good news
Surprise, surprise — 2017 was better than you thought.
It’s true that for millions of people around the world, the year can’t end soon enough.
With its fake news and alt-right wing-nuts, with terrorists making mayhem and North Korea threatening a nuclear apocalypse and, yes, with Donald Trump’s non-stop demagoguery, it’s been an annus horribilis that’s begging to be stuffed in the trash. Yet that’s not the full story. Consider that in Britain, this was the year researchers made a historic breakthrough in the fight against Huntington’s disease, an inherited, brain-damaging disorder that causes uncontrolled movements and altered behaviour.
Now, and for the first time, an experimental drug has reduced the levels of the toxic protein that causes the disease.
Hopes are high that not only will the medication defeat a terrible illness but an adapted form can fight other currently incurable brain disorders, such as Alzheimer’s disease.
Other scientific advances let us glimpse a better future where climate change has been reversed and transportation revolutionized.
The number of fully electric and plug-in hybrid cars driving down the world’s roads passed the three-million mark last month.
While that’s a mere fraction of the vehicles driven by gas-guzzling internal combustion engines, it’s part of an increasing trend that will someday become the norm.
As this was happening, driverless cars more than ever became a reality as a company began regularly testing these vehicles — and with no safety driver — on public roads in Phoenix, Ariz.
On the political front, it was inspiring how French and German voters rejected the siren call of right-wing extremists in their national elections.
On the social-justice front, it was heartening to see the #MeToo movement topple powerful male sexual predators who had made life hell for women in their workplaces and daily lives.
Here in Canada, there were special reasons to like 2017.
It was the year this country finally put the Great Recession of 2008-09 behind it.
Twelve straight months of job creation — the best 12month performance in more than a decade — chopped Canada’s unemployment rate down to 5.9 per cent in November — the lowest level since February 2008 at the start of the global financial crisis. Workers’ wages were on the rise again, too.
The nation’s 150th birthday gave even more cause for celebration.
There was a genuine pride in what we’ve collectively accomplished since 1867, even as there was a greater willingness than ever to own up to the sins of our past.
Efforts to build new bridges to Canada’s Indigenous Peoples intensified. And Prime Minister Justin Trudeau rightly apologized for the decades the federal government systematically persecuted sexual minorities who worked for it and the country.
We could go on; but all in all, 2017 wasn’t so bad, was it? The seeds of hope planted in it will flourish in 2018. We must never ignore the evils that mar this world. But neither should we overlook the goodness in most people’s hearts — and the good they strive to do each day of the year.