EASY TO SAY, HARD TO FORGET

But no matter how we pronounce our "l"s, we need to look back at 2010. It contained some very BAD events and some very GOOD ones. In the "bad" column is a natural disaster: the earthquake in Haiti, that left the island nation ravaged. Population counts estimate the total killed to be 220,000. International aid sent to Haiti is still arriving. The second event in the "bad" column is the explosion of the BP oil rig that killed 11 people and injured many more. Plus it caused an almost immediate death of and injury to area wildlife. My older son, who lives in Florida, has been helping resuscitate sea birds trapped in the sudden rush of oil.

On the GOOD side, in a way, is the trapping of miners in a 2300 foot copper mine in Chile. Following the explosion that caused the collapse, mine officials rushed to find a means of communication with any survivors. Thirty-three miners had managed to find safety in a "room" carved out inside the mine. Rescuing them became the obsession of not only the owners of the mine but of countries around the world. Finally by sharing ideas, information, personnel and equipment a plan was made for clearing the necessary sections of the mine so that a specially designed "suit" could be sent down and one by one every miner could be rescued. This whole process took over 2 months, but it showed what technology shared to accomplish a purpose could do. The United Nations should take notice.

Another item on the GOOD side is that the United States, in November, held an election that brought out enough voters to totally change the face of Representatives and Senators holding office. With new people in position, laws, policies, programs, and more would have a better chance of steering the country clear of things that were unpopular or just plain WRONG.