The Year in Passing

Another year has gone by with events happening faster than I can blog.

January brought humanity’s first (robotic) landfall on the mysterious world of Titan. President Bush’s Second Inaugural and the annual March for Life made for a busy time in Washington, DC.

March became the most heart-wrenching time when Terri Schindler-Schiavo was put to death by dehydration and starvation through judicial fiat despite the heroic efforts of her family, some courageous public officials and many concerned citizens. It remains to be seen whether this marks our plunge off the cliff into a culture of death or a galvanizing moment that will lead to a culture of life.

Terri’s death was followed two days later on April 2 by the passing of that great champion of the dignity of every human life, Pope John Paul II. It is no exaggeration to say that JPII’s service as the Vicar of Christ for over twenty-six years was the greatest influence of an individual on society during my lifetime and perhaps for much longer. Another strong and holy man, Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, was called to assume the papacy as Pope Benedict XVI to continue the work of leading the Church in the world.

April also brought a new administrator to NASA. Dr. Michael Griffin moved quickly to expedite the Vision for Space Exploration announced by President Bush in 2004.

The year’s best July Fourth fireworks occurred millions of miles from the good old USA when the Deep Impact spacecraft accomplished its encounter with Comet Tempel 1. Late July brought the Return To Flight of the Space Shuttle Discovery over two years after the Columbia catastrophe. The enhanced monitoring added to the Shuttle system proved its worth by showing that work was still needed to allow future flights to continue.

Fireworks of a different sort surrounded W’s nomination of Federal Appeals Court Judges and eventually Supreme Court justices. The nominations of John Roberts to replace the late Chief Justice William Rehnquist and, after the bizarre turn of events surrounding the Harriet Miers nomination, and of Samuel Alito to replace Justice Sandra O’Connor brought out the howling-and-shrieking of the usual suspects. Of course, John Roberts is now Chief Justice and Samuel Alito’s hearings start a week into the new year.

Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Wilma made for the most devastating hurricane season in modern American history, causing images of extreme suffering and some official finger-pointing, but also brought about a tremendous outpouring of public support for relief efforts. The devastation left by these storms in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast is far from being completely erased but resilient efforts are ongoing. Meanwhile, a devastating earthquake killed many thousands in Pakistan as other parts of South Asia still try to recover from last year’s tsunami.

The December elections in Iraq, following two preliminary votes earlier in the year, underscored the desire of Iraqis, like people everywhere, to live in peace and freedom. The domestic acrimony over the war goes on, even as underreported progress is being made toward Iraq determining its own future despite frantic terrorist acts. The sacrifices being made by American men and women in military service cannot be appreciated enough.

Underlying all of the controversies of the past year is the story of the Old Media ‘spinning’ out of control as the various New Media continue to change the landscape. While a healthy media skepticism is vital to keeping public officials accountable, the continuous distorted hyperventilating on alleged scandals in the Bush Administration and Congress, treatment of suspected terrorist prisoners, Katrina response, Valery Plame, NSA surveillance, etc., etc., etc. is only making the Old Media look ridiculous.

I believe that much of this Old Media frenzy is a sort of ‘proxy war’ for the ongoing cultural struggles over issues of life-and-death, sex, and religion. To use an analogy familiar from living in California for seventeen years, the pressure on the fault lines is building.

Meanwhile, with God’s providence, humans will continue to progress toward the stars and on many fronts close to home. Happy New Year and fasten your seatbelts for another wild ride in 2006.