Resolutions for the new year

By Darryl Wellington

Tribune News Service

As the new year begins, our nation is in the grip of reactionary fear.

Hysteria and mistrust are overtaking sober reflection. You can hear it in the fear-mongering and immigrant-bashing by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and other politicians who seek to imitate him.

The politics of fear threaten to stymie prospects for real progress on immigration reform, climate change, health care and gun violence. Our challenge is to choose progress over partisanship.

Here are a few ways America could meet the challenge, and forge a more progressive future in 2016:

Remember our history of welcoming immigrants. While fear-mongers imply that immigration could be “a jihadist pipeline into the United States,” there is no evidence that this is true. Since the massive exodus of desperate Syrian families from their war-ravaged country, the United States has accepted a mere 1,500 refugees. A much smaller nation, Germany, has accepted millions. After 9/11, all refugees who come to our country have had to undergo an extensive process of vetting, screening and background checks. As a result, since 9/11, only two refugees who have resettled in the United States have been arrested on terrorism charges. Neither was Syrian.

Address the scourge of gun violence. President Barack Obama has responded to recent gun tragedies by promoting better background checks, a ban on assault weapons and a ban on high capacity ammunition. In addition, Black Lives Matter has petitioned for mandatory body cameras on all police and special prosecutors to investigate police misconduct.

Dismantle America’s prison-industrial complex – the largest in the developed world. It is clear as 2016 begins that both mass incarceration and military-style policing have failed.

Expand health care to vulnerable populations. Twenty-two states still refuse to accept federal funds to expand Medicaid under Obamacare. This is unconscionable. States that have expanded Medicaid have already improved the lives of millions of the nation’s poor.

Fight climate change. Among the most hopeful events of 2015 was the climate change summit in Paris. Some 188 countries agreed to reduce carbon emissions. But the agreement is largely non-binding. Only continued pressure for activists will guarantee carbon emissions reduction that can save our planet from doom.

May the new year begin a new day for our experiment in democracy.

Darryl Lorenzo Wellington is a poet and critic living in Santa Fe, N.M. He wrote this for Progressive Media Project, a source of liberal commentary on domestic and international issues; it is affiliated with The Progressive magazine.