It’s time to dust off our exerciseequipment, call ourparents for the first timein six months and pledge togive up our bad habits.New Year’s resolutions consistedof all of us vowing togo to the gym everyday andso, we do… until about Jan. 21.Why do we abandon ourNew Year’s resolutionsalmost as soon as they aremade? And why do we makethem in the first place knowingthey will likely be abandoned?The answer to both questionsis rebirth. Jan. 1 heraldsa reawakening for all, a timewhen everybody gets a secondchance. But change takestime and effort; it doesn’thappen overnight. It wouldbe a great error to assumethat we can change merely byresolving to do so.Our nature is to choosethe easy road. Great strengthis required to recognizeone’s faults and even greaterstrength is required to workon improving them. We can’tchange in one day.The point of celebratingNew Year’s is not to changeourselves over night, but ratherto recognize our capacityfor change. It is a time ofreflection.It is a time to avoid gettingcaught up in day-to-day livingand to recognize that we havebecome complacent and letthings slip. At 11:59 p.m. onDec. 31, I hope all of us hadan opportunity to look deepwithin andask ourselves,”Did last yeargo how I hadplanned?”If changingone person isso difficult,then changingan entiresociety seemsnearly impossible.As a nation I think weshould come to know thatas Americans we have morefreedom, more wealth anda better quality of life thanmost people in the world. Ithink we should also realizethat things are not perfect.We must admit the regretsthat we have as a nation andmake an effortto change.We cannot beinert. Changingsociety willrequire extraordinaryeffortthat simply isn’tbeing given bymany Americans.Accordingto a recentstudy conducted by politicalscientists Sidney Verba andNorman Nie, only 11 percentof those surveyed engaged inthe full range of both electoraland community activitiesincluding voting, contactinglocal political officials, andcommunity service. Twentytwopercent were not involvedin any community orpolitical activity.This is a gross neglect ofour civic duty. We have beengiven rights that many peopleof the world do not have. Itis our duty to exercise thoserights.We all have different visionsfor how the nationshould be, but that’s democracy.As we create a flurry ofresolutions, most of whichwill go undone, let us resolveto participate more in theimprovement of America.Let us resolve this NewYear to truly work to improveour nation, our state and ourcommunity.Let this resolution be foreach of us individually andfor the nation as a whole.Carpe [email protected]