Any wishlist for the future is potentially infinite. My Wishlist for 2022 is finite, limited to the first several things that came to mind, more than can be expected to be fulfilled, but things to hope for in a year that is about as inauspicious as any we’ve had of late.

Global Wishlist for 2022

UKRAINE recedes into its proper status quo as a quasi-Nazi independent stete that is neither a threat to Russia nor a pawn of the hegemonic forces of the US and NATO. Easy to achieve if the US acknowledges that a non-threatening Ukraine is as valid a concern for Russia as a nonthreatening Canada is for the US.

IRAN becomes a non-issue because the Biden administration abandons Trump policy, restores the nuclear agreement to its pre-Trump status. And negotiates in good faith with all the parties to the agreement. It’s hard to understand why it’s taken a year for Biden to break with Trump over Iran.

YEMEN recedes from the brink of humanitarian catastrophe because the US finally ends its support for and criminal collaboration with Saudi Arabia’s illegal war. Biden has pretended to do this, but American support for the Saudis continues at the war crime level.

AFGHANISTAN avoids mass starvation because the US and NATO countries release Afghan-own resources. Also, the criminal invaders who lost a stupid 20 year war lift the sanctions that have no more justification than the spite of sore losers.

CHINA is recognized as the fake threat US and global mainstream media portray it. Ask yourself: how is Chinese activity in the South China Sea meaningfully different from US behavior in the Caribbean? How is Chinese treatment of its Uyghers meaningfully different from US treatment of its minorities?

ISRAEL ends its criminal war on Palestinians, who also give up fighting back when they’re no longer under genocidal assault.

COVID and its pandemic extensions recede as a global threat because the rich nations end their self-defeating selfishness and commit to vaccinating the world population. Public health is recognized as a higher valus than profit, even if it means nationalizing drug companies.

CLIMATE MITGATION actually begins on a coordinated, committed, global scale.

DRONE ATTACKS are recognized as war crimes. The US and others outlaw the use of armed drones, even if it means prosecuting American presidents Bush, Obama, Trump, and Biden as war criminals.

JULIAN ASSANGE is freed and exonerated for having revealed the truth about US criminality in Iraq. Telling the truth becomes an absolute defense in any criminal or civil trial anywhere.

Domestic Wishlist for 2022

AMERICAN VOTERS get protection from election corruption pushed by Republicans. Democrats in the Senate will all have to act like Democrats and patriotic Americans, but that’s not impossible, is it?

IMMIGRANTS in the US (and everywhere else) are treated humanely and their appeals for asylum are treated honorable and quickly. This would require Biden to break with Trump, Obama, and other predecessors, but it would be a minimal threat to “national security” (whatever that it) and have the presumed virtue of being the moral choice.

POLICE lose the legal protection that allows them to kill at will without consequences. This has begun to happen. It needs to continue. It’s bad enough that cops are allowed to assault people with impunity.

STUDENT DEBT is erased with a stroke of Biden’s pen.

INTELLECTUAL INTEGRITY breaks out across the land. People in and out of government tell the truth to the best of their ability. So do people in and out of media. People evaluate evidence honestly. People identify their conflicts of interests. Corporations, as people, also learn to behave honestly.

2022 Wishlist comes down to one Master Wish

None of these wishes are predictions. You knew that. If I were predicting, the list of expected, positive events would be short to non-existent. In the US, much will depend on the laws that shape the fall elections. Currently that’s looking disastrous. And much will also depend on how the January 6 Insurrection investigations play out. Will the proposed hearings have anything like the same effect as the Watergate hearings? Is there even time?

The continuing impact of Covid is unpredictable. The continuing impact of climate disasters is unpredictable. The impact of outlawing abortion is unpredictable. The outbreak of unimaginable violence is unpredictable. What am I missing here?

Whatever happens, almost anything would be mitigated by the granting of the one Master Wish referred to above. That would be:

EVERYONE JUST GROW UP

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William Boardman has over 40 years' experience in theatre, radio, TV, print journalism, and non-fiction, including 20 years in the Vermont judiciary and a stint with Captain Kangaroo. He has received honors from Writers Guild of America, Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Vermont Life magazine, and an Emmy Award nomination from the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. A collection of his essays, EXCEPTIONAL: American Exceptionalism Takes Its Toll, published September 2019, is available from Yorkland Publishing of Toronto or Amazon.

Reader Supported News is the Publication of Origin for this work. Permission to republish is freely granted with credit and a link back to Reader Supported News.