It would be tempting to say good riddance rather than goodbye to 2015.
Locally and nationally, as years go, it wasn't the best.
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* Making headlines: Chattanooga area's top 10 stories for 2015 * Chattanooga events make AP's list of top 10 stories in state
Here in July, a foreign terrorist-inspired gunman killed five servicemen at a military center off Amnicola Highway. Nationally, similar incidents have occurred. And mass murders seem to be at least once-a-month occurrences in the United States. Internationally, a coalition of Islamic extremists has swallowed up parts of several countries and looks to gobble up others; a nuclear agreement signed with Iran already has been violated; and a climate agreement signed in Paris - whether you view it positively or negatively - has no teeth.
In September, Superior Creek Lodge in East Ridge was condemned, turning out 1,500 people into the streets. Despite help from many agencies, churches and individuals, the human need was great. Nationally, despite a slowly improving economy and a humming stock market, poverty hasn't declined, wages haven't risen and many people are still looking for full-time employment.
In Nashville in February, Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam's custom-designed Insure Tennessee pilot program for those caught in the health insurance doughnut hole went down to defeat in the General Assembly without ever making it to the House or Senate floor. Nationally, the Affordable Care Act has allowed more people to have health insurance but has caused insurance premiums for many others to soar, has forced insurance companies to drop policyholders and in no way has been the panacea seen by its creators.
Earlier this month, Volkswagen had bad news placed on top of bad news. A small section of skilled workers at the Chattanooga manufacturing plant, against the wishes of the company, voted to unionize. The vote came as the company was still reeling from an emissions-cheating scandal involving more than 11 million vehicles worldwide and facing losses of billions of dollars.
The United States, as the year draws to a close, has as its top contenders for the presidency Hillary Clinton, whose lies about a Benghazi terrorist attack were exposed in 2015 by her emails and whose family foundation fundraising legitimacy is, at best, suspect, and Donald Trump, a blowhard businessman who routinely insults as he campaigns and seems to have little vision behind his policy pronouncements.
Fortunately, Americans are a resilient, generous and patient people who still believe the best may yet to be at the ballot box, in the streets and in government. May that be our 2016 fortune.