My View: To have a Happy New Year, something must change

It's that time of year again, when we wish each other a Happy New Year.

But do those words have any real meaning?

Last night in the first 17 minutes of our newscast, we reported on 10 different violent acts. Four people shot  while sitting in their homes including a 7-year-old girl shot dead as she played with Christmas presents.

A man was shot dead at a mall, another at a gas station and another in a carjacking. An old man was strangled to death in his home, maybe by a relative and woman slashed as she walked down a street.

It's My View that if we are to have a Happy New Year, something has to change.

It is time for each of us to begin a campaign to promote  tolerance, understanding, kindness and safety. Let's use the new year to talk that up.

That may seem hokey, but it has to start somewhere and perhaps that somewhere is within each one of us.

And it may seem trite to quote a line from a fortune cookie, but when you think about  it, it does make sense.

"If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you always got."

It's My View that we can't afford to let that happen in the new year. So my wish to you is not  Happy New Year, but have a year of tolerance, understanding, kindness and safety.

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