New Year's resolutions

Incredible as it might have seemed only a year ago, in 16 days, residents of the City of Pacific will be ushering in a New Year in which the city will, at best, be a zombie government -- alive, and yet lifeless. I say "usher," because "celebrate" isn't really the word to use this New Year's. I don't expect a fireworks shows with lots of cheers. Instead, I expect resignation, uncertainty, and for some, a deep depression. And a sense of defeat and loss.

But people pick up the pieces and move on. That's what they do. So now is as good a time as any to ask what "moving on" means.

Traditionally the New Year is a time when people make resolutions. This is a good time to start thinking about those resolutions. And I think for everyone who has either witnessed or been involved in the decline and fall of Pacific, it would be a particularly good time to courageously and honestly ask what went wrong and how they could have responded differently. It would be particularly easy at this time to point out the personal failures of others. But if anything ought to be clear, it is that Pacific's death represents a failure of community. The death of Pacific has  been a group effort.

But the failure is not necessarily a bad thing. Think of the slate as haveing been wiped clean. We are not only facing a new year. We are facing a new opportunity. We have all the information we need to know the mistakes we should not be making. We have the potential acquisition by a government that is removed from the problems that dragged Pacific down. The new government has no buy-in to the old ways. In the parlance of some Christians, we are "born again."

No-one is going to bring Pacific back. But the change that will come as a result of the death of the city means Pacific's residents will have a new relationship with a new government. And a new beginning. It is on that foundation that we might consider our New Year's resolutions, and the hopes and aspirations they might inspire.

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