January, 1989
A NEW YEAR
As one grows older, the years seem to go by in a constant
unending procession. It seems but yesterday that your editor was busily writing
the newsletter for 1988, and now he finds that he must apologize for being late
in completing the one for 1989.
Although the world still seems to be filled with troubles
and tragedy, and although many persons, after reading the headlines in the
daily newspaper may be heard to mutter, "The world is surely going to the
dogs!" not realizing that this particular expression of pessimism has been
in common use, through the world, in various languages, at least since the
earlier days of Greek history, some hundreds of years before the birth of
Christ. Your editor can only remark that the "dogs" must be very
patient to have waited so long!
Reagan and Gorbachev have made considerable progress with
their announced program of nuclear disarmament, and peaceful co-existence seems
to be working as well as could be expected. For the time being at least, the
grim spectre of nuclear war has receded somewhat into
the background, and if 1989 produces as much progress as 1988 did, we may hope
for a fairly peaceful world by the turn of the century.
Of course we will have to learn to deal with terrorism
quickly and dependably. As long as a few people feel that they can break any
law they please and still be free to plan other crimes, including the murder of
innocent people just to call attention to their wishes or desires, the law will
never mean much to the ordinary citizen, and a healthy respect for the law is a
prime essential for peace and security. That is why the word law is so often
coupled with order. Each is indispensable to the other.
If some of our National budgeters should note the saving
in our "No Nuke Program", and manage to pinch off a few trillion from
our military budget for the year, they might even be able to balance the pesky
thing. A feat that none of our political and fiscal acrobats have been able to
do within the last few decades, and has been laughingly been called impossible
for many years, although each president has, during his Campaign, promised
to do it, but forgot about it as soon as the election was over. Any president
that does manage to balance the National budget even if for only one year,
and no matter what form of leger-de-main was used to
accomplish the feat will go down in history as the doer of the impossible.
The only serious cloud on this country's horizon for this
year seems to be the still unanswered question as to just are
we going to loan the debtor nations enough money to pay the interest on their
loans when we are the largest of them. However there is not much to
fear, our bankers have had decades of experience in giving our money away and
we may be sure they will find one this time. Our only fear is Bankruptcy!
However, we have a habit of bouncing back even from that! (Not every nation can.
If you think you are in a bad way, think what Soviet Armenia is going through
today, and what the survivors will go through for the next decade. Then get on
your knees and thank God you live in America,
and pray that it never happens here.
Daniel W. Fry
Best
Wishes for the coming year,
(hand written) and Love, Cleona Q.
