We are now in that sweet spot of optimism and new beginnings that comes around every year. The gym’s going to be packed for a couple of weeks, maybe some folks are taking time away from social media, and others are reflecting on 2022 and how to make positive changes. I’d like to take the opportunity to reflect on 2022 as well—whether or not changes will be inspired is still to be determined.
Bayou Observant kicked off 2022 with commentary on the omicron strain of COVID. The lunacy was still spreading back then, and New Orleans was bringing back a mask mandate. Hospitals and other healthcare services were firing employees who don’t agree with forced vaccinations and then complaining about their lack of workers. As a result, I am starting to feel more and more called to trust homeopathic cures and medicine women over proper hospitals. Bunch of jokers.
Russia started messing around with Ukraine, causing tons of problems for folks across the world (and especially Ukraine). While Ukraine has bravely stood up and resisted the Russians, some of the first effects that reached us here in the United States was gas prices.
Florida came out with their “Don’t Say Gay” bill which sounds scary but is extremely reasonable in practice, as it prohibited teachers from discussing sexuality with children who aren’t even 10 years old. Of course, the woke crowd freaked out and made fools of themselves. This cast of all-stars included workers from the Walt Disney Company staging a walk-out and ESPN reporters saying vague human-rights speaking points that were completely out of touch with the reality of the bill. These folks really do great work at discrediting anything “woke”.
Roe v. Wade was FINALLY overturned, scoring an actual win for human rights. With that decision came protests that were misguided and poorly planned. Whenever the pro-life/pro-choice discussion comes up, the same arguments come up from the pro-choice side. These are weak arguments that rely on a tiny minority to justify the majority—a majority which discredits the pro-choice side as a whole.
Following the poor protests mentioned above came another round of poor protests that includes many of the same crowd and a bold organization who is trying to take on the entire Catholic Church. This was sparked with a local Catholic high school clarifying their position on members of the LGB community who are active students. The organization immediately came out with ridiculous requests, though to be fair I believe they have amended their original aims to be a little more reasonable. It’s still a misguided organization, which is a shame because they have shown themselves to be people of action and could probably make real change in the community if their efforts were redirected or restructured.
President Biden announced a wild student debt forgiveness plan, which is a nice idea but poor in practice. The plan has yet to be implemented, however, and is currently sitting in the Supreme Court.
Russia kept messing around and giving us a good look at why domestic oil production and refining is extremely important. Europe was hit by massive surges on the price of energy as Russia choked supply. Just a reminder, we have the tools and resources to avoid a similar situation, and we need to be using them.
The brains behind the company Patagonia showed the world why capitalism is the way to go, by turning ownership of his company to a trust in order to have it operate in the same spirit he started it in. This will help his overall mission of continuing to run charities and social programs to help those less fortunate. The important message: citizens can make a difference in the lives of others and no one needs the government to force them to do so.
We saw the rise of “quiet quitting” and looked at the kind of folks who actually take part. Certainly not anyone we want on our team.
The State of Louisiana elected and re-elected various members of our local, state, and national representatives and civil servants. No big surprises in the outcomes, but we did have a fair share of characters running.
2022 wrapped up with the first several installments of the Twitter Files, which was entertaining then and still is now as each latest installment is published. They gave us great reasons to continue not trusting the government and social media, but especially in times like an election cycle or a pandemic.
2023 is already off to a hot start! I’m looking forward to continue providing Common Sense Commentary on the good, the bad, the ugly, and the strange that happens in our world.
Bayou Observant 