Editorial: Same stuff, different year

If you had trouble telling the difference between 2020 and 2021, you aren’t alone.

The last two years have been a stressful roller coaster of issues that have required almost constant attention. In 2020, it was the pandemic. It was politics with the presidential election. It was the annual census and its implications.

It was also how all of this was bleeding together and how it was trickling down to the state level, the county level and our municipalities.

So in 2021, we got to put that behind us, right? Nope. Issues that dominated the year were once again the coronavirus pandemic, the political implications of the 2020 election and the march toward the midterms and the legislative redistricting that came out of that decennial census.

OK, but we dealt with that. Deep breath. Let’s step into 2022, where the important things on the table will be — oh, come on!

Despite the distribution of vaccines and boosters in 2021, starting with the most vulnerable and progressing to cover everyone over age 5, we are still on a covid-19 treadmill because of mutations such as the omicron variant now hitting Pennsylvania hard.

In 2021, it seemed like anyone and everyone with political ambitions decided to run for either governor or Pennsylvania’s first totally open U.S. Senate seat in decades. That comes to a head in 2022 with the primary a few months away and the general election looming toward the end of the year. And let’s not forget that state senate committee still reviewing the 2020 election.

Then there is the fact that we don’t know exactly which lawmakers will be representing which areas as both the state legislative and congressional district maps have not been solidified under the post-census reapportionment.

It’s enough to make you just throw your hands in the air and say “I’m done!” How much of this “Groundhog Day”-like loop can anyone really take?

The thing is — issues with this kind of endurance are the most important to keep in focus.

Like the coronavirus, they will only grow and mutate if ignored. Like the political races, they are dominoes that will pitch forward, hitting the next and next and next in succession. Like the redistricting, they have the potential to impact people not only statewide but in their own backyards.

It’s important to realize that it all might seem familiar, but these aren’t re-runs. They are new chapters of ongoing stories that have to be followed because they will still affect us all if we don’t. We just won’t understand how.