Even if they soon go by the wayside, New Year’s resolutions are a hopeful welcome to a change in the calendar.

That’s why it was a little troubling to read in Monday’s Journal-World that many people have given up on the resolution tradition. A J-W staff member asked 20 people about their New Year’s resolution and was told 20 times, “I don’t make them.”

One person added, “I kind of see them like diets; they tend to let you down.”

Maybe this is just an old-fashioned tradition that has fallen out of fashion, but it feels a little like a cloud of pessimism has fallen over our lives. Not only do we feel “let down” by the world around us but also there’s also an element of feeling powerless to change things for the better.

Recent events in the state, nation and world understandably trigger some feelings of despair. Dangerous trends are all too prevalent around the world. The recent assassination of Pakistan’s Benazir Bhutto is just one indication of the serious religious and political situations that continue to threaten world peace.

News about climate change and economic challenges dominate national news. Although our area apparently hasn’t been hit as hard as many others by the subprime mortgage crisis, the economic effects of that debacle will touch all of our lives and erode confidence between lenders and borrowers.

It’s also been a tough year for Kansas. Mother Nature dealt us some devastating blows in the form of the Greensburg tornado, serious flooding in southeast Kansas and a December ice storm that left many people without power for two weeks or more. If that weren’t enough, political storms also rocked the state, most notably the recent revelations about personal behavior that have driven our attorney general from office.

One might ask, in the face of all this turmoil, why anyone would be optimistic. The answer is that without some hope for the future, humans have little reason to go on.

The new year is a largely symbolic milestone. Most people’s lives won’t be significantly different today than they were yesterday, but Jan. 1, nonetheless, is an appropriate time to take stock and look to the future.

It’s important that we approach 2008 not only with some hope but also with a certain sense of empowerment. We need to believe that we have the ability to change not only our own lives but also the community, and perhaps the world, around us. Life isn’t just something that happens to us.

Maybe it’s time to dust off the tradition of New Year’s resolutions as a symbol of our hope for the future and our resolve, in some small way, to make the world a better place.

Times are troubled, but it’s a whole new year. We wish you a 2008 filled with health, happiness and, most of all, hope.