Opinion: New Year's Day adopts Dangerfield's 'no respect'

New Year’s comes in the wake of the all-out intense hoopla surrounding Christmas. For most folks it is an excuse to celebrate one more time before returning to the post-holiday season.

The traditional symbols of the holiday put its significance into perspective. Unlike the many Christmas holiday symbols, the major symbol of the new year involves partying the previous night. Champagne and other adult beverages are a given for many celebrants. The New Year itself, for many, is a time of hangovers. Traditionally, the day has been spent watching college football bowl games between the best teams in the nation. Big-time football and New Year’s Day have been synonymous.

It’s a mystery to me why college football games are played on Jan. 1, when the regular college football season ends in November. Players in bowl games twiddle their thumbs for more than a month waiting to play.

Alas, the football tradition is waning. This year, 32 bowl games are scheduled, most of them before Jan. 1. Just about any team able to win more games than it loses are among the 64 invited participants in bowl games.

There are so many holiday bowl games that the 32nd game, the one to determine the national champion, isn’t played until Jan. 8.

No respect

You might say New Year’s Day is the Rodney Dangerfield of holidays – it gets no respect.

Don’t rush getting out the crying towel for the New Year holiday. Because of another tradition, I am very fond of it. You can’t beat the New Year’s tradition of gathering with close friends to ring out the old year and ring in the new. As one who treasures friends as precious assets, a holiday urging that old acquaints not be forgot is one I can snuggle up to.

Another reason for celebrating the passing of the old year is that it provides a golden opportunity to put our mistakes behind us and start over again.

Some might consider New Year’s resolutions attempts to right last year’s wrongs. Whatever they may be called, looking back with an eye on changing for the better is a good thing.

Year in politics

During the closing days of the year, the media spent much time looking back on the major events of 2006. The format of some reports took a month-by-month approach to important news stories; others listed the big stories of the year in order of their importance as determined by media – including Springfield Business Journal.

The November 2006 off-year elections garnered a lot of backward looks. Media excel in dissecting elections and projecting meanings from the results.

As for me, past elections are worth celebration because they are in the past. We survived the 2006 season of abominable political campaigns. Unfortunately, we don’t have long to savor the quiet; 2008 is a presidential election year. These campaigns will make the junk rhetoric of last year seem short, calm and polite. Enjoy 2007 while you can.

Looking back at 2006, and beyond, my fondest political hope is that politicians of all stripes who promise to practice bipartisanship would actually practice it. As I understand bipartisanship, it means politicians of both parties try to work together to pass legislation that will be good for the nation. The new year seems a wonderful time to tell lawmakers from both sides of the aisle that we didn’t elect them to fight with, and get the better of, the other party. Some real bipartisanship could make any year a happy one.

May you welcome in the new year surrounded by people you love and cherish. Happy New Year!

Joe McAdoo is former chairman of the communication department at Drury University.[[In-content Ad]]