2009 is just about in the books and it’s been quite a year. This darned recession seems to hang on and quite a few of our neighbors and friends are out of work or retiring early. The market is seemingly coming back, but employment seems to be lagging. The real estate market has been a disaster for some and an opportunity for others, so there’s a bit of balance there. We suspect 2010 will continue to be a bit of a wild ride economically, but most of us should be okay if we stick with the basics of living within our means, eschewing debt and trying to put something by every pay period, even if it’s just a few quarters in a mason jar.

We started the year out with some good feelings and maybe a bit of optimism as we inaugurated Barak Obama as our 44th, and first African-American, president. Politics aside, it was exciting to see the fruition of what we have always espoused that whatever the background of an individual there is always an opportunity to compete, and to succeed. Opportunity is never equal, that’s really not the human condition, but there is always opportunity. Though our politics tend to be a bit more conservative than the current administration’s we can’t but hope he does well.

The story of the year may be the so-called health care “reform” battle. For the life of us we can’t figure this thing out at all. Our bias is that anything that is moving forward with absolutely no bi-partisan support cannot be good for anyone. Perhaps calmer heads should prevail and we should go back to square one and debate a national health care system with the option for private supplemental insurance. 2010 should be interesting with this business.

The war in Iraq seems to have wound down to a constabulary operation and our significant presence there will soon end. Afghanistan is heating up again and that is the foreign policy story of 2009. We don’t really understand the mission. Is it to engage in open-ended nation building in a medieval society? Are we just there to have open season of Islamic militants who threaten the civilized world with terrorist operations?

A little closer to home it’s more difficult to be optimistic about Massachusetts governance and the economy. Governor Patrick seems to have a political tin ear as he deals with government cut backs, transportation issues, public employment, taxes and administration of public services. He seems constantly at war with a Legislature that is a one party disaster. This train wreck can’t seem to get anything right. 2009 saw another speaker, Sal DiMasi, leave in disgrace. The Senate is wracking up felonies left and right. None of them have the courage to stand up to the big public employee unions and the only solution to fiscal problems seems to be raising taxes. Why now we even have taxes on taxes given the new sales tax on alcohol.

In August we said final goodbyes to Senator Edward Kennedy. Like him or not he was a major player in the U.S. Senate and gave Massachusetts some influence out of proportion to our population and economic impact. Neither Martha Coakley nor Scott Brown will be able to match the gravitas of Senator Kennedy. 2009 may have marked the end of the Kennedy family having any significant influence in Massachusetts politics. Our new senior senator just doesn’t seem to have the charisma Ted brought to the table, nor the fire in the belly.

Here in town we deal with some changes like welcoming a new town administrator. Things are generally pretty stable as we end the year. Somehow we’ll deal with the budget issues. We’ll continue to do a good job educating our kids. We’ll take care of our neighbors and we’ll get along in spite of, rather than because of the folks on Beacon Hill.

We live in interesting times. I guess we always have. May we all enjoy a Merry Christmas season with friends and family. May we all look forward to a Happy New Year with faith that some how it will all work out.