“With a fond goodbye
And our hopes as high as a kite
How can our love go wrong if
We start the new year right?”
“Let’s Start the New Year Right” — Bing Crosby

Featured in the movie Holiday Inn, staring Crosby and Fred Astaire, “Let’s Start the New Year Right” was written and recorded in 1942 - yes, more than 80 years ago! The song was featured in the movie, but it wouldn’t be until 1979 that a full soundtrack for the movie would be released.

The song focuses on a couple that is looking back at the previous year with hopes to have it be a much better year for them once the midnight bells chime to ring in the new year.

Many are already lamenting the calendar flip that will bring about 2024. Those who are not looking forward to the new year cite the upcoming presidential election, multiple international conflicts, and an unpredictable economy as just some of the main reasons that moving from 2023 to 2024 is worrisome.

Count me in the group of hopeful optimists who truly hope that 2024 will allow us to move forward from some of the division and split that became the centerpiece of our world in 2023.

Much of that division has circulated around an increasing desire to the “do what’s best for me…the world be damned!” mentality that has ingrained itself into our daily lives.

A recent letter to the editor struck a chord with me when lamenting that certain groups are allotted entire months to be recognized while Christmas Day is the only day that we honor Jesus.

Let’s put this out there to begin…I’m very proudly Christian, having worked in ministry full-time and attended seminary courses. I still do preaching for churches as a lay minister. So this perspective is coming from someone who is a believer and wants to see the Christian church strong and healthy.

That all said, pretending as if Christmas Day isn’t already favoritism to the Christian religion is seriously missing the mark and puts a bad taste on all those who are searching for reasons to dislike or distrust Christians as a whole.

No other religion has a federal day off for a religious holiday. Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah are very well known, but neither is a federal day off. Ramadan and Hajj are significant festivals for our Muslim population, but neither has a federal holiday involved.

And before the comment of “the country was founded on Christian values” comes out, the majority of the signers of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were not Christian, but were Deist, which is a belief in human reason to bring about social and political change and progress.

This includes four of the first five Presidents of the country, with John Adams the exception, though he was also a strong spiritualist and followed the Unitarian belief system.

Heck, Jesus was not even born on December 25 - or in December at all. The first attempts to put together a timeline for His birth were after the New Testament story had been passed down through oral tradition for multiple generations and translated from its original written form multiple times.

Coordinating what we know from the Christmas story and other historical records, Jesus was most likely born in late summer/early fall.

So, Christmas Day really doesn’t celebrate Jesus Christ’s actual birth, yet anyone, Christian or not, is required to take a federal holiday on that day. If Christmas hadn’t been adopted so strongly as a non-religious tradition within the country at this point, multiple attempts that have begun to remove Christmas as a federal holiday would have had better standing.

One judge even cited such in throwing out one of the cases, saying that he was not Christian, but he and his family exchanged gifts and took family time around Christmas, which is what the holiday is for most Americans at this point.

The judge is not wrong, either.

Fifty years ago, more than 90% of Americans identified as Christian, however, that number is now closer to 60%, with more than 30% of respondents answering that they consider themselves “unaffiliated” with any religion, up from four percent fifty years ago.

It’s exactly this sort of divisive, us-versus-them attitude, wanting our things recognized and funded and pushed forward as most important, which has led to our Congress having its most unproductive year in history, as far as passing bills for the good of you and I, the taxpayers who funds their six-figure-plus salaries.

Instead of continuing to pull away and dividing from one another as the new year begins, let’s focus our energy on coming together.

One of the major focuses in our year-end wrap up piece on the first page of today’s paper is building, as plenty of construction was begun and more was completed in Huron and the surrounding area in 2023.

Having sat in on many of the meetings that planned for these construction projects and approved them, it’s incredibly obvious that in order to build something, there is an inherent need to coordinate with others and plan ahead to consider the impact of that building on many outside the direct influence of the work.

The construction on Dakota Avenue that will begin in 2024 has been going through city commission meetings and public meetings since 2020.

The Department of Transportation was planning the project for years prior to that. While some preliminary undertakings are completed, the first real work is yet to be done, and planning and meetings have been held for five years - or more - to plan the project, talk with those who would be directly and indirectly affected by it, and, finally, to take the first step of actual construction.

Considering those around you, even if they’re not directly affected by your actions. It’s something we try to teach to our children, but our political leaders and opinion news talking heads simply work to de-program our care for our fellow humans (and even non-humans) as citizens of the planet.

Rather than finding ways and reasons to split this year, let’s all start the New Year right by finding ways to take the extra step, doing the research to understand opposite viewpoints, and learning to respectfully disagree.

That will make 2024 one to look forward to, not one to dread.