To the Editor:

Optimism may have led us to think and/or say, “Sure hope that 2024 will be better than 2023.” But then 2024 rolled in with a spike in COVID and RSV, continued warring between Israel and Palestine, and new extremist terrorist-led attacks on both U.S. bases and commercial ships in the Mideast. Sheer optimism clearly does not make our lives more peace-filled and joyful.

January 17, 2024