A man reflects after at the Javits Center in New York after election night. (Todd Heisler/The New York Times)Hello, 2017.
See ya, 2016. Don't let the door hit you in the you-know.
Last year was a sad year, most of us can agree. Lies, hate, hacks, nastiness.
It was a year of war, terror and death in Syria, Orlando, Nice and Brussels.
It was a year of disease and child maiming thanks to a little mosquito that carries the Zika virus.
It also was the year of revolt and of revolting votes that brought us Brexit and our own President-elect Donald Trump. And it was the year in which a Republican-majority Senate stole moderation from the Supreme Court by refusing for more than nine months to vote on President Barack Obama's nominee Merrick Garland to replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia.
There was street violence. After far too many police shootings of unarmed black men, protesters took to the streets in cities like Charlotte, Baton Rouge and Minnesota - sometimes violently. Later in Dallas, an unhinged veteran attacked police in a peaceful protest, wounding a dozen of them and killing five.
There were disasters. Hurricane Matthew hit Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina in October, killing 45. Days before, it tore through Haiti, killing more than 500. In the summer, floods ravaged West Virginia, killing 23.
Closer to home, 2016 was a year of drought and wildfires in the Southeast. We lost 14 lives and much of Gatlinburg to wildfires, along with large patches of forests on Walden's Ridge and in Georgia's Blue Ridge region.
Hamilton County saw more tragedy just before Thanksgiving when we lost six precious children in the Woodmore Elementary School bus accident.
There were bright spots. The Paris Climate Agreement was signed. The Ebola outbreak that began in West Africa and spread to both the U.S. and Europe before it was brought under control was declared no longer an emergency on March 29. By then it had sickened 28,616 people, killing 11,310.
A bloodied 5-year-old named Omran was rescued from a bombed-out building in Aleppo, Syria. His brother wasn't so lucky.
The U.S. and Cuba restored diplomatic relations, and a U.S. cruise ship set sail in May toward Havana for the first time in decades.
This brings us to hope - hope for this new year, 2017.
Even though the economic indicators are good, the U.S. election taught us that too many Americans don't feel their future is secure. They see a growing economic divide between the rich and the poor, and fear they and their children will fall further behind.
Here's hoping that when Donald Trump is sworn in as president on Jan. 20, he won't just push so-called supply-side tax cuts for the rich, but also will push a stimulus infrastructure package to provide many workers with better-paying jobs.
Here's hoping that Trump and Congress will take to heart the hacking threats of the Russians and others on our election and banking and credit systems. Congress should form a bipartisan committee to publicly examine the election hacks.
We must hope, too, that Trump will not be the threat some think he may be to our democratic institutions like the freedom of the press and civil liberties.
Here's hoping that Trump's better angels will get the best of his I-am-king-like understanding of executive power that he using already to put other branches of government on the defensive.
Likewise, let us hope he'll take the wiser advice of conservatives who've shaken their heads as he warned businesses that if they move their plants overseas he will take punitive action. (Of course, he could start with some of his own.) Trump still hasn't disclosed his tax returns, still has more conflicts of interest than can be detailed, and still owes America apologies for the gropes, insults, and knee-jerk comments that cumulatively numbed us: What once outraged us now is "normalized," so we just shrug.
Here's hoping Trump learns to read more than his own tweets, and becomes more thoughtful about world affairs, so as not to blunder through calls with Taiwan, insult religions and ethnic groups, threaten to strengthen and "expand" our nuclear capability. He even followed that one up with a quip: "Let it be an arms race. We will outmatch them at every pass and outlast them all," he added in a statement to a morning talk show host.
America is entering 2017 deeply divided - at a time when we really need to be strongly united.
Half of us fear the consequences of a Trump presidency. The other half has grand expectations that his new administration and this new year will bring positive change.
Here's hoping - no, actually, here's praying - that the fearful among us will be calmed by a rational new president Trump has not yet shown us.
Here's hoping and praying that as bad as 2016 was, it won't be "normalized" by 2017.