Four Achievable New Year's Resolutions for America

Baby steps!

Well folks, here is it. It’s that time of year again, the funky few days between Christmas and New Year’s where you’re not sure what day it is or why you’ve become the kind of person who dips oreos into sour cream but hey, here we are. While 2020 felt like it could be forgotten, for many many us 2021 was even worse.

Here’s to the new right? It’s time for all of us to reflect on our not-so-ideal selves, and plan ahead with a rigid set of promises about an unattainable perfect future in a ritual we call self flagellation “making resolutions.”  

Every year, the advice handed out by my favorite collection of male influencers who sleep three hours per night is to make enormous changes even though the vast majority of behavioral scientists concur that it’s smarter to start small. So if you're a couch potato, don’t expect to run a marathon tomorrow, start with a walk around the block. Or if you’re unsubstantiated vaccine propaganda, start with mommy bloggers on instagram and slowly work your way to Aaron Rodgers. Rome wasn’t built in a day!

I want to end the year on a hopeful note so here are five things that American leaders could do next year and that we can do as individuals that are completely achievable:

Resolution No. 1 - Fight Economic Inequality by Canceling Student Debt

President Biden just extended the freeze for student loan payments for an additional 90 days. This is the fifth time student debt repayment has been frozen over the course of the pandemic and unsurprisingly most borrowers took the deal. But my hope is that Biden takes this one step further and just forgives the debt altogether, which totals more than $1.7 trillion, one of the highest contributors to household debt. It would boost GDP, stimulate the economy, make a significant dent in the racial wealth gap and would disproportionately help women since they hold two-thirds of all student debt. The move would especially uplift Black women who owe 22% more student debt than white women.

Pressure is mounting from progressives lawmakers like Senator Warren and Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez for the president to pull the trigger and do it by executive order, but since he might want Congress to approve it, time is of the essence with the midterms creeping up).

Akilah Hughes Twitter

Resolution No. 2 Get more Men into Therapy

Getting more men the psychological support they need could help curb some of the most seemingly unsolvable problems in our society. It could help curb gun violence, suicide (most gun deaths are from men killing themselves) domestic violence, femicides, curb heart disease and even help solve climate change. And of course male therapy can take many forms, it can look like creating a mindful masculinity workshop for teenage boys in Chicago, offering group therapy in an oil rig in New Mexico or creating a hotline for men who have issues with control, jealousy and violence in Columbia called ​​The Calm Line. If we have hotlines for victims of violence, we need one for the perpetrators too. But sadly, men lag far behind women when it comes to seeking mental health services. Thankfully telehealth has made therapy more accessible for men through apps like TalkSpace and Betterhelp, and some specifically directed at them like Tethr. Male support groups can also provide a lot of guidance, like those organized by Evryman (one specific group in Cambridge MA is looking for a few more guys!) The National Alliance on Mental Illness’ even has a hotline (1-800-950-6264) ​​to find out free or low-cost alternatives to counseling no matter what your gender is. We’re living in a time where remote therapy service and online communities are plentiful and relatively inexpensive. These accessible services give me hope that more men can discover therapy in 2022! 

Resolution No. 3 Bring more Disabled People into the Workforce 

People with disabilities are more than twice as likely to live under the poverty line in the United States. Even worse, adults with disabilities lack the kind of support and community resources that are more often available to them as children, making them experience more loneliness and isolation. One easy and frankly obvious solution is getting more adults with disabilities fully integrated in the workforce. 

Skeptics love to ask “Isn’t integration expensive?” But it turns out that the answer is a resounding “no.” Companies who hire people with disabilities are more innovative, more productive, have lower staff turnover and have a better bottom line. The myth that hiring people with disabilities would cost a lot of money for employers is not just silly, it’s wrong. There are about 15.1 million working-age people living with disabilities which makes them one of the largest pools of untapped talent. America would get an estimated $25 billion bump to its GDP if just 1 percent more of them were able to join the workforce. Sounds like a win-win to me!

Resolution No. 4 Begin Reconciliation with Native Communities by Giving Back Stolen Land 

Big fancy summits are great but giving Indigenous populations control over vast territories would have the largest immediate impact because their approach to land management is holistically tied to sustainable environmental practices. Erin Myers Madeira, the director of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities program for the Nature Conservancy told the Yale School of the Environment that the simple act of transferring those property rights is both morally justified and ecologically urgent. “If you look at it practically, Indigenous people are the original stewards of all the lands and waters in North America, and there’s an extensive knowledge and management practices that date back millennia.” I have nothing against bros investing in lab-grown meat and bio-engineered cheese companies, but giving back stolen land sounds way more fun to me.

Let’s get cracking on these resolutions before it’s too late! And so to you my dear readers, I ask that we continue to support each other in whatever way we can even if it’s in small ways. Volunteer to help the elderly, join a vaccine distribution organization, call your parents, donate to that charity you always wanted to donate to, ask that grumpy guy at the grocery if he’s doing alright and IF YOU can do anything for him! Do something, do anything! Or just keep eating oreos. That’s okay too. They’re vegan anyways? Kinda.

See you in 2022. 

Actually, see you tomorrow, I really can’t get enough of you!

Liz-