Lucky me, I get to write the very first post of 2017! Most years I find it pretty easy to anticipate the New Year with excitement and optimism. I confess, this time it’s been much tougher. In many ways I feel worn out and beaten down. My usual sunny outlook has been dimmed by disappointment and shock at the anger and pain that bubbled just under the surface of our American psyche.
I’m trying to remember how I felt exactly one year ago. Was I excited? Optimistic? Joyful? Yes, yes and yes. Why? A new year is an unwritten story, a chance to start fresh, blah, blah, blah. No! Last year I was excited to usher in a new era in our history. There was the promise of more progress for women, minorities, LGBT, the differently abled, indeed for all of us. Because when one of us rises, we all rise together.
Today I feel afraid that the progress made in my lifetime could be pushed back and that my children and grandchildren will have to fight all over again. Irrational fears? Perhaps. But since there is only one way to go, forward, I am mustering my powers of optimism and hope. I’m practicing gratitude for my life, my good health, my family and friends and for all of the Savvy women who paved the way for me. Their fight was not in vain. I, and the women of my generation, will not forget and we will share the stories of those struggles with our daughters and granddaughters, and with our sons and grandsons. And the time will pass, and we will all be watching, working, safeguarding and remembering so that we can write the next chapter in our American history.
This is a new era, perhaps not the one we anticipated, but it is here nonetheless. Be vigilant, savvy readers, be hopeful, be joyful and most of all, love one another. Happy 2017 to all!
About Barbara Dab
Barbara Dab is a journalist, broadcast radio personality, producer and award-winning public relations consultant. She is the creator of The Peretz Project: Stories from the Shoah: Next Generation. The Peretz Project, named for her late father-in-law who was a Holocaust survivor, is collecting testimony from children of survivors. Check it out at http://www.theperetzproject.com. If you are, or someone you know is, the child of survivors of the Shoah, The Holocaust, and you would like to tell your story please leave a comment and Barbara will contact you.
Like what you’ve read? Feel free to share, but please… Give HerSavvy credit. Thanks!
HerSavvy
Susan Hammonds-White, EdD, LPC/MHSP
Jan Schim
Norma Shirk
Renee Bates
Barbara Dab
HerSavvy 