Happy New Year, from the mouths of babes

By Brian Greenspun (contact)

Sunday, Jan. 4, 2015 | 2 a.m.

To suggest that there were many Americans who, at the end of 2014, were awaiting the close of one year in anticipation of a new one that held the promise of something better is an understatement. Here we are some six years removed from the single greatest economic meltdown of our lives, and we are still a long way away from the way things were.

That doesn’t mean life isn’t better and gradually improving. It is. What it means is that, for a large number of people, the promise of America remains illusory and the hope for better tomorrows is just that — a sliver of hope.

But this is a New Year’s column, so we look forward because that is what Americans do.

As I look ahead, I see the CES convention coming together in Las Vegas, representing not only what some of the best and most creative minds around the world can dream up but also the unique character of Las Vegas and our ability to care for and cater to the largest business crowds on the planet.

It is not lost on anyone living here that the welcome mat we laid out for CES was flecked with snowflakes and some freezing cold temperatures, which means that while we hope for better tomorrows we must also be mindful that the changing climate could have a significant impact on our economic futures. Even while some among us would deny the facts of climate change, it will be hard to ignore the financial impact that the reality of unseasonable weather will cause in Las Vegas.

When heavenly sights should have sleighs and reindeer in our thoughts, missing airplanes from AirAsia and Malaysian Airlines have captured our attention. And while it make take some time to find out why one and most likely two airplanes carrying hundreds of passengers just fell out of the sky — one never to be seen again, so far — the message is clear. Investment in infrastructure of all kinds must be made.

Third World countries can’t afford the latest technologies that advance safety and, in the United States, we won’t afford those improvements to our own crumbling transportation infrastructure that we know is just waiting to collapse upon us. When that happens, which leader will stand before distraught Americans and say, “I am sorry, we should have spent the money to make it safe?”

Getting past the bogus ideological excuses that politicians like to throw at us and getting down to the business of fixing what used to be the most enviable infrastructure on the planet would make for a much happier 2015.

I read the columns written by the Las Vegas Sun Youth Forum attendees and find more hope in them than I can in the platitudes of the political class which, regardless of party persuasion, continues to fool the people all of the time.

Listen to the young people. They are not only a lot smarter than we are, they are the ones who, in just a few short years, will be calling the shots anyway.

Here’s a hope: that this younger generation won’t blame the entire mess we leave them on their parents and grandparents and, therefore, take it out on us when we are at their mercy. Although, who could blame them?

In the end, though, and since we are in 2015 this is really the beginning, I have to share the words of my grandchildren who were visiting over the holidays.

I asked them what they wished for their friends and teachers and for each other. Since they are too young to be jaded or brainwashed or colored by political spin, they answered with the honesty of children.

It is their wish that everyone be happy and healthy and peaceful. So, since that is the wish of my grandchildren — and, I assume, all grandchildren — that will be my wish, too.

May 2015 be a year of health and happiness. Let’s get that part right so we can work on the rest.

Brian Greenspun is owner, publisher and editor of the Las Vegas Sun.