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As another year fades away and a new one comes into view, many of us stand at the divide and reflect on our blessings (or not) of the old and our hope for the blessings to come in the new.

Looking back as an individual, 2016 was a great year for me, at my advanced age just being here and still able to live comfortably in my own home in this wondrous part of God’s creation in this Great nation is an awesome blessing for which I am very grateful. Looking back as a citizen, a veteran and a patriot who loves his nation, my heart sinks and my soul weeps as I think of the awful desecration that has been heaped on our beloved nation over the past decade. The slaughter of the unborn continues unabated; our debt continues to rise exponentially; those in our military forces are being punished for their Christian faith, moral of the troops is at an all-time low and our streets are dotted with homeless veterans; our borders are still wide open for any and all comers, the good and the bad alike; we have abandoned Israel; Obama’s extremely racist attitude and continual racist remarks have set race relations back at least 50 years and have resulted in a terrorist war against our law enforcement personnel wherein many good cops have already lost their lives; many of our colleges and universities are nothing more than ultra-liberal indoctrination centers where constitutional freedoms don’t exist and participation degrees in the fine arts of political Marxism and political correctness are passed out to semi-illiterate graduates who can no longer think for themselves, many of whom you saw on TV protesting and rioting after Mr. Trump was elected; the list is much longer but there’s only so much space.

Looking ahead I see a big question mark. The incoming President, Donald Trump is totally apolitical with zero experience in government, but his cabinet selections and nominees thus far have been of highly experienced and successful individuals in politics, business, industry, education, the military, law, etc. This gives me reason to be optimistic that, if he can establish a cooperative working relationship with the congress, he just might pull off the weirdest Presidency in our nation’s history by doing a credible job of damage control and cleanup of the deplorable mess he will be handed on January 20th. I will be praying daily for the success of this new administration, please join me. —Larry Metzger, Bigfork