New Year Musings . January 10, 2020

Copyright © 2020                               John F. Oyler

January 10, 2020

New Year Musings

Although it is still 2019 as I write this, it will be a brand-new year by the time it is published. In addition, we will be deep into a new decade, the tenth one which I will enjoy. Even more impressive is the fact that my nonagenarian friends will be celebrating their eleventh decade – that is impressive!

Like any other year, 2019 was full of ups and downs. We lost half a dozen “best friends”, each of whom had lived long, productive lives. This makes our continued contact with current friends and with family members even more precious.

Rather than focus on my New Year’s resolutions, which seldom come to fruition, this column will discuss our wish list for the new year and for the new decade which it begins.  A good place to start is with the sorry state in which we find the world today.

Younger folks keep asking us octogenarians if times have ever been as bad as they are today. Certainly the Depression, World War II, the Vietnam discord, and the shock of 9/11 were worse than today’s world-wide unrest. Nonetheless the continuous conflicts everywhere are frightening, and one must hope that they can be resolved sooner rather than later.

It appears that no part of the world is immune to this disease. There are protests and/or open rebellions in Hong Kong, Syria, Libya, Venezuela, Afghanistan, and a dozen other hot spots. Catalonians want to secede from Spain; Great Britain wants to leave the European Union; and the Muslims in India want autonomy.

It seems impossible to reverse the trend toward the splintering of multicultural nations into individual ethnic-centric countries. Yugoslavia was invented following World War I as a diverse Balkan country made up of a variety of ethnic groups; today it has been dissolved into seven different countries.

My New Year’s wish is that we find a way to reconcile the desire for ethnic independence with the necessity for different societies to cooperate for the common good. We thought this was working with the European Union; Brexit is a blow to our optimism.

It is our opinion that extremism is the foundation for much of this problem, and that that is as evident in our own country as it is elsewhere. The experiment that is the United States has evolved through a sequence of extremist eras punctuated by eras of compromise. One hopes that the lessons we learned in our Civil War are sufficient to encourage moderation between today’s extremists in both parties.

My New Year’s wish for our country is that the moderates in both parties flex their muscles and work together for the common good. Let’s quit stalemating on controversial unresolvable issues and concentrate on things like infrastructure, public transportation, the budget deficit, etc. – things that everyone believes can be resolved rationally.

My wish for the Pittsburgh metropolitan area is that its economy continues to diversify in a fashion that provides meaningful, adequately reimbursed employment for all levels of society. I hope they can find a way to support our major cultural institutions as well as they do our professional sports teams. Of course it would be nice if the Pirates’ management could provide us with a consistently competitive team. We sports fans are fortunate for the continued success of the Steelers and Penguins.

Closer to home I have a number of wishes for our local communities. They have managed to survive the transition from their coal mining/heavy industrial beginnings to today’s emphasis on high technology, health care, and education as well as most of their Allegheny County neighbors, and much better than some others. I hope they continue to focus on providing the amenities that make them the kind of home towns we all want to live in.

The Andrew Carnegie Free Library and Music Hall is a perfect example of such an amenity. Their prolific schedule of musical, educational, and historical programs is a remarkable asset to this area., as is the Chamber Music series at Old Saint Luke’s Church.

Regular readers of this column are aware of my obsession with local history. We are fortunate to have Woodville Plantation in the heart of our region. Their year-round program of events is an equally valuable amenity. Last summer’s “Market Faire” was particularly impressive. We hope they will be able to expand their already impressive program/event schedule even further.

We also hope to see the Bridgeville Area Historical Society continue to grow and prosper in the New Year, and we hope the informal cooperative effort by the Collier Historical Society and Pioneers West, the caretakers of the Walker-Ewing Log House, can exploit its unique potential.

We are impressed with the resurrection of Carnegie’s business district and the old time “Main Street” feel that has returned. Bridgeville’s problems are dominated by McLaughlin Run flooding and the consequent deterioration of the Baldwin Street neighborhood. Although recent funding will help reduce the problem, the solution lies in the communities upstream which do not control storm water runoff. Perhaps a “new decade” wish for me would be a change in their attitude.

As far as I personally am concerned, I am selfish enough to hope for continued good health for myself and for improved health for several members of our extended family currently having difficulties. I’d like to be able to spend lots of time with my family and with my friends, especially the Octogenarian Brunch Club. Throw in a bunch of Pittsburgh Symphony concerts, a handful of Operas, and continued informal involvement with the Civil Engineers at Pitt, if I may be greedy.

As for our readers, my wish is that Trib Total Media continues to allow us to produce this column each week and that it provides enjoyment to you.