Our opinion: A look back at 2024 on Christmas Day

Christmas 2024.

Wasn’t it Fourth of July a few weeks ago? Good grief, time flies by these days!

In between searching for batteries and deciding which wrapping paper might be salvageable for another go-round, time to reflect a bit on the past 12 months.

This has certainly been the year of the celestial. From a total eclipse in the spring to whatever it is flying above the Northeast in recent weeks, we’ve been looking to the sky quite a bit.

Speaking of early and often … voters across Missouri went to the polls every few weeks throughout the year to elect municipal, district, state and federal officials and decide issues ranging from the important (abortion and voting rules) to the parochial (one casino in one location). A good thing to see was the number of local candidates, with more than a few races featuring not just two but four, five, six people stepping forward to serve.

Another positive: Despite the rancor and tension across the political landscape, our local elections came off mostly without a hitch and certainly without the sort of shenanigans seen elsewhere.

Maybe talking about gun violence is the answer. Cape Girardeau’s municipal Gun Violence Task Force began meeting July 23. The last reported murder in the city was July 14, a shooting in the 400 block of Broadway.

Let’s set up a “no more water problems” task force, since pipe breaks and boil advisories have become all too common, but after voters rejected water rate increases to fund system improvements, there is not much significant help on the way.

The folks reconstructing West Park Mall shared a few of the new stores coming to the facility. Surprisingly, not one was a car wash.

Like a scar that never quite heals, COVID was still hanging around. Thankfully, it’s not what it once was, but it seems like it will always be lurking in the background.

The — our — Chiefs were a bright spot in an otherwise forgettable professional sports year as the Cardinals and Blues fell short of always-lofty expectations.

Southeast Missouri State University’s football Redhawks got back to the national post-season, though, and the university’s athletics programs were generally successful.

At the high school level, football, baseball, volleyball, golf, soccer and swim teams from around the region competed at high levels, too, building not only school pride but community excitement as well.

An increasingly unpopular sport became trying to set a new personal best (worst?) for amount of money spent on groceries that required only one trip from the vehicle to the kitchen. Luckily, the gas needed to purchase these gold-plated goods stayed fairly reasonably priced throughout the year.

Anyone wanting to catch a concert or musical production was in luck, as SEMO’s River Campus, Scout Hall, Rock ’n’ Roll Drive-In and other locales kept putting on quality events featuring unique talents.

The year in health care was mostly calm and stable. Mergers and partnerships marked recent years. So, no big, sweeping deals came as a welcome change of pace. What will 2025 bring? Only the C suite folks know.

How to describe 2024? Middling. Not VE-Day great. Not Great Recession bad. And with 2020 not too far in the rear-view mirror, we’ll take it.