Happy New Year to My Fellow Kosians

Dear Fellow Kosians:

It is the last day of a long and mostly very bad year (both for me personally and for our lovely, lonely planet). One of the few bright spots for me this year was discovering a group of people I have in fact never actually met nor seen, people whose names I mostly know as weird sentence fragments, people I experience only as continuously refreshed pixels of pure thought, namely, yourselves. I wish to thank you. When I was inundated by the mindless chatter of pack media, you made me think; when I shook my fists in helpless rage against a callous, mean, and truly dangerous government, you gave me solace; when nothing was going right anywhere, you made me laugh; when it seemed as if the idea of a more progressive, just, and human future seemed like some wild hallucinated dream, you gave me hope. May all of you enjoy a good and healthy and bounteous and fulfilling and inspiring new year! And that goes for you too Markos, who has created this wonderful conversation and this amazing community for all of us -- you have my enduring thanks, and my heartfelt best wishes for a wonderful year for you, your family (with new addition!) and for Daily Kos, the best blog on the net!