A time for self-appraisal

It’s that annual time for self-appraisal, and I, no less than others, feel somehow morally compelled to participate.

During this time for self-appraisal, my own stock-taking begins with my writing for this outlet, The Independent. By my own rough count, I wrote over 50 pieces this year, including four book reviews. When I separated my opinion columns by overall topic there were few surprises. Six columns dealt with issues affecting women. And equal number dealt with issues of race. Three addressed issues that impacted the LGBTQ community. Two were reactions to gun issues. Two were responses to specific acts of terrorism, and two addressed the craziness known as the Department of Alcohol Beverage Control in our own fine state of Utah.

The fact that certain topics rose to prominence on my writing radar is not surprising if you know me at all. Passion largely motivates my writing, and those issues aroused a passion within me. What is disturbing, however, is that it is likely that the same topics will hold the same relative rank when I conduct this sort of personal audit next year. Women will still experience marginalization, racial bigotry will still be the elephant in the room of American legal jurisprudence system, and the LGBTQ community will still be riding an out-of-control roller coaster they boarded simply to claim their share of the rights pie.

Although I didn’t, I could have given politics a category of its own. While I was counting, though, I tried to slot those articles with political themes into groups with similar contexts. I can almost guarantee you, however, that my most written-about topic at this time in 2016 will have a political shade to it.

I then checked the comments made about the opinion columns of 2015. Several, I’m pleased to say were submitted in support of the positions I’d taken. Those that were opposed were respectful, for the most part. Only one began with, “If the author only knew what she was talking about,” and none suggested that if I didn’t like it here I should pack up and take my pinko self back where I came from. For the absence of such vitriol I am grateful, but by such I am not lulled into complacency.

The result of such stock-taking in this time for self-appraisal? It seems that my attention is often drawn to how national issues, political and social, might play out at the local level. It also seems that there are only a few hot button issues that prompt people to respond. Those include abortion rights and gun possession. Both issues are often flash points for arguments over the relative sovereignty of states’ rights over the federal rights. By extension, similar discussions erupt when personal rights are pitted against state rights. Teasing out the junctures at which the arguments overlap as well as the points at which they diverge, often dramatically, is part of the challenge as I write.

I often wish I granted myself the freedom to write some simple humor now and then — to write about the diminutive inanities and insanities that crop up in my life as a woman of a certain age and of a certain social persuasion living in a place where such sentiment is in the minority. And maybe I will write more about that. It is easier by far, but my conscience nags at me. When given the choice, I am compelled to tackle the bigger topics. Maybe because I represent the minority, I take my responsibility to speak out most seriously. Part of that is my own inner gyroscope steering me forward, but a larger factor is those of you who confirm that I am not alone in the positions I hold and that you, too, want certain views to see the light of day.

As I look forward to writing in 2016, I make my own set of writing resolutions. The first is never to miss a deadline unless a natural disaster intervenes. This might sound trivial to most of you, but to me and the folks who edit my work, it is significant and not all that easy for me to deliver on. I also pledge never to end a sentence with a preposition, mostly.

I pledge to be respectful to all, even when I feel compelled to critique behavior open to the public. After all, everyone is someone’s son or daughter and deserves that level of respect. I promise not to write two columns back to back on the same topic, unless I deem it absolutely unavoidable. In my mind, I get one shot to say what I think about any given issue, and then in a nod to fairness I need to move on. Or not. And there we have another preposition. Geez.

I resolve to be open to suggestion. If you have a constructive criticism or a suggestion for a topic, send it to me. Whether I act on it or not, I assure you I will give it due consideration.

Finally, I resolve always to due my best work, because at the end of the day, writing for public consumption is a privilege. I take it seriously.

Thank you for reading my work in 2015, and thank you to my friends at The Independent for publishing it. Stay tuned for 2016.

Oh. And one more resolution: I swear I will not go for the easy joke and say that whenever I play bridge in the new year, my opening bid is going to be …

NO TRUMP!