Last post for this year before pulling the plug for a couple of days (I hope). 2008 has been a bittersweet year. Mostly bitter. A war with no end. An administration with no sense and even less decency. A collapsing economy and the ruination of millions of lives and families -- with a lot more to come. Shameless and disgusting behavior by an unaccountable and indescribably greedy economic elite worthy of the most decadent stage of any empire in history. An unraveling Middle East. More nuclear proliferation.  Descent into lawless barbarity in places like Zimbabwe, the Congo and Somalia (who would believe that in the 21st century we would witness a resurgence of pirates?). On the other hand, we saw an historic mushrooming of political engagement and organizing in the past year's campaign. An energized and optimistic movement of young people who led that renaissance -- and with no to little assist from the hoary and noisome "political experts" of my aging generation. The result,-- the election of an African American president born before the enactment of the Civil Rights Act. And despite the nostalgia of recalcitrant curmudgeons, we seem immersed in the opening phases of a  sweeping, revolutionary, if imperfect, democratization of information. No tears should be shed for the rocking and perhaps crumbling of an obsolete and arrogant elite commercial media contraption which, for far too long, thought it simply knew better than the rest of us. What that leaves us for 2009, in a word, is HOPE. Not a bad campaign slogan, I might say. An even better promise. And a great wish to be fulfilled. I am equally confident, as a good friend put it to me a few moments ago, that the incoming administration will have no choice but to act boldly and dramatically as I am that its majority lacks the political will to do so. We shall see, as they say on TV. My Person of the Year is unquestionably Barack Obama.  I hope he will retain that status through the next 12 months. Again, Hope. I also want to squeeze in my kudos for my personal choice for journalists of the year, if you don't mind. When it comes to domestic reporting, I bow to Jane Mayer of The New Yorker and Barton Gellman of The Washington Post. Their respective books, The Dark Side and Angler are the only two works you need to read to fully understand the withering consequences of the last eight years. They are stirring examples of reporting and storytelling at their finest. As for online writing, my first place choice -- far and away- is Yoani Sanchez who runs the courageous Generation Y blog out Havana. She's a lyrical, gifted writer, brimming with biting insight and on top of that she is, apparently, quite fearless. It takes a LOT of courage, a lot of heart, a lot of guts to run the sort of exposure she does. I can't imagine doing what she does. I am far too much of a coward. Not coincidentally, the turn of the year will mark FIFTY YEARS of one-family rule in Cuba, a phenomenon sometimes mistakenly or, at best wistfully, referred to as "the Cuban revolution." But this revolution which has claimed to create a New Socialist Man -- for a full half century now-- has so far been unable to trust anybody except two brothers to run a government that operates in the name of the people but is no way accountable to them. It's a theme about which I am often accused of spending too much time writing. If you also think that, then I suggest you make use of the mouse that God put in your hand and go click off. I write frequently about Cuba precisely because I think capitalism is a heartless, inhumane (perhaps inevitable?) system that accentuates greed and inequality. So those who operate in the name of opposing it have bitten the apple, so to speak, and bear a special responsibility for demonstrating the viability of alternatives. They should be given no license to hijack and bespoil the moral capital of those who would want a more humane world. The Cuban example is clearly, and unfortunately, failed one.  The United States bears great responsibility for the Cuban debacle, no doubt. But the buck stops at the Castro residence. No amount of hostility from the United States, not even armed intervention, justifies the intellectual imprisonment of an entire population and the deprivation of all basic civil liberties for fifty long years. And the sooner a modern left accepts that reality, then the sooner some sort of exit from the injustice in which most of the world wallows can be more fully imagined. In the meantime, there is no substitute for simple freedom. Liberty, above all, should be our First Principle. Free education means very little if there is nothing to read and if it is a crime to write. So, tonight, I celebrate the New Year with great Hope that we will soon all live in a more just society, that our vulnerable will be treated with compassion and not contempt, that our mutual aid and not our greed will prevail, and that around the world, those who live under dictatorships and authoritarian regimes of any and all political colors -- from Egypt to Gaza to Zimbabwe to Cuba to Burma, Tibet and China will soon taste the sweet rewards of freedom. P.S. On a much lighter and far less pompous and self-righteous note, I refer you to this delightful little tale written by my pal Cecilia Alvear. It's a perfect story for this 50th anniversary of Castro's seizure of power. Have fun.

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