HAPPY NEW YEAR
Thursday, January 1st, 2009Yeah, I know…some out there are muttering, “Whaddaya mean, ‘Happy’!?!?”
Yes, the economy sucks…but people who not only read the magazine Backwoods Home, but take its advice and cleave to its ethics, are going to be more ready for that than the rest.
True, we “gun folks” didn’t get the election results we wanted…but we’ve survived hostile Presidencies before. I expect we’ll do it again.
Indeed, we can anticipate attacks on firearms owners’ rights from the “change-dot-gov” folks now at the helm, who have made it abundantly clear where they stand on those issues. But we do have the landmark Heller decision from the Supreme Court of the United States that came down in mid-2008, and I think that’s gonna help.
I just got back from a post-Christmas sojourn on the west coast with my younger daughter, her husband, and my adorable granddaughter. If I’m uncharacteristically optimistic, well, so be it. I’ll just bask in those good vibes for a while.
Lots of folks think the incoming Administration will leave law-abiding gun owners alone, maybe even for a couple of years until the interim elections. God knows, they avoided the gun issue studiously enough during the campaign, and the new team will indeed have its hands full with real issues, perhaps enough so that they’ll lay off of the “gun control” that so many of them have touted for so long.
The logical side of me is still skeptical about that, though. Rumor has it that the incoming administration wants to hit the ground running hard enough to make some very deep footprints, and their powerful majority on Capitol Hill will allow them to do that.
I figured out when I was a little kid that it was better to be a pessimist than an optimist. You see, when you’re an optimist, the best that happens is that things go as you planned, and half the time you’re bitterly disappointed. But when you’re a pessimist, the worst that ever happens is that things to exactly the way you were prepared for them to go, and half the time you’re pleasantly surprised.
With the musical babble of my two-year-old granddaughter’s voice still ringing in my ears, I’ll allow myself some cautious optimism, if only because my usual pessimism has left me prepared for the worst.
I’d be interested to know what all of you out there see coming for 2009.
And I wish you all a prosperous, safe, and productive New Year!
