Now that 2022 has concluded, a year of immense political complexities and hateful strife looming from the last presidential administration, I feel the need to look forward with a sense of hope. It’s an eager desire for long-term positvity to blossom in our world, surpassing the corruption and intolerance, after so much offensive division. This optimism is not based on any special ability to predict the future or a secret knowledge of the months ahead. I’m certainly not equipped to make such monumental forecasts.

But I still feel hope.

In many ways, I admit, this hopefulness may seem premature, given the unscrupulous machinations currently at work in one of our legislative branches. Ever since right-wing extremists gained control of the House, succeeding in their plans to begin an era of obstruction against the truth, terrible consequences could likely be the result. We may very well witness an escalation in domestic terrorism because of the self-serving manipulations that are evolving right now.

And yet I will remain hopeful.

My confidence, however potentially unrealistic in this moment, derives from a passionate belief in the ultimate prevalence of justice that will inevitably usher morality forward. No matter the intensity and the fist-pounding boldness that erupt from a certain faction of so-called lawmakers, the determination to maintain a democratic system, one that doesn’t permit authoritarian to flourish, will triumph.

It might sound naive, perhaps a bit innocent, to say, but I feel karma does exist. Though atrocious events take place each and every day, causing horrible whirlwinds of undeserved mistreatment to unfold across the spectrum of time, this transparent attempt to remove our collective voices and install criminality as representative of the law will not stand.

So, once again, I feel hope.

As a writer, I am prone to my imagination progressing in multiple directions, often leading to worrisome destinations. It is my nature to be fearful, to think the absolute worst about the circumstances that I see around me.

In this instance, though, I refuse to allow brazen hypocrites to distort what it means to live in a healthy society that confronts lawlessness. I will struggle against my tendency to panic and choose hope over despair, an optimistic mindset that this evil is unsustainable.

My interest in writing originated from a similar resolution. I felt this desperate need to be in control, to add some logical definition to a universe that I viewed as cold and indifferent to my silent anguish. Over time, the inclination to transform pain into descriptive sentences developed, mutating into more of an inquistive lens than a means for petulant revenge. I now see greater nuances and wondrous intricacies in the world that surrounds me than I’d recognized so many decades ago.

Based on these observations, harmful energy can only linger for so long before it’s purged in some way, eventually addressed to serve the greater good, however imperfectly or delayed. The process for removing identified threats, whether physical or psychological, may be messy and the resolution might require various adjustments, perhaps even major revisions, but, in general, destructive schemes are ephemeral. They’re bound to be confronted sooner or later. The malice may seem ingrained and the arrogant perpetrators might feel invincible, empowered by a clever navigation of loopholes or other kinds of advantages that they claim as their own. But for a society to survive, openly nefarious measures designed to elevate a select few into endless authority without permission are destined to be eradicated in some manner.

Although, again, I am no expert, I still feel hopeful.

In a new year, where we are well-equipped with extensive knowledge of and experience with a toxic entity set to decimate democratic principles, I feel we’ve reached an encouraging juncture. Over the last couple of years, we’ve built a foundation of crucial awareness. Now we can forge ahead and make 2023 a year of nourishing accountability.

Of course, there will be hiccups. Unanticipated problems will arise. The extremists will enjoy certain victories in their hypocritical committees intent on obscuring the important truths of our recent history and turning people against each other in this deliberately muddying process.

But in the end, the steadfast determination to eliminate criminality within our leadership, which has been quietly pursuing these dangerous threads for months, will claim victory. No amount of intensified yelling and enraged protests on sympathetic cable networks will change this unavoidable course, amounting to a legal quest to cleanse the poison from our system.

Because I am a writer, I also see these entangled elements, destined to converge, as if they were a story’s plot, convulated in places, perhaps, but smoothed out by its conclusion. From this perspective, too, which can often be quite fanciful, even orchestrated to pronounce a particular message, the outcome is exactly the same.

For all of the above reasons, I am hopeful. In fact, I believe that 2023 will be the year that begins the serious endeavor of purifying our ranks, escorting us out of the darkness that we’ve had to endure for far too long. It’s time for hope to dominate and to eclipse the unacceptable behavior endangering our society each and every day. All of us deserve to live in a civilization that represents moral practices, that embraces our nation’s magnificent diversity, that immediately rejects criminal infiltrations to maintain an environment where we can thrive as individuals and as communities.

Hope will shine through the darkness in the upcoming months. Indeed, glimpses of this extraordinary light are already perceptible. And they will only broaden in their bright glow as this promising year progresses. At every stage, I will never lose hope.