Jeb Bladine: Before year in review, it’s still season of hope

Come New Years, media will look back at the most prominent stories of 2025, many of them disturbing reminders of sad news, bad weather, tragic events, and conflicts with local, state, national and international repercussions.

We’ll be reading recaps of wars against Gaza, Ukraine, Venezuela, and undocumented immigrants; about catastrophic weather and natural or man-made disasters; about unrestrained polarization and distrust at the national level seeping ever deeper into state and local politics.

National and international news has been so pervasively negative that network news shows try to remedy viewer depression with a positive program-ending segments: On NBC, “There’s Good News Tonight”; on ABC, “America Strong”; on CBC, weekly “On the Road” plus positive features ending nightly broadcasts.

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Jeb Bladine is president and publisher of the News-Register.

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For now, however, it’s still Christmas — the season of hope — so here are a few hopes for 2026.

In McMinnville, I hope the city can resolve the Ultimate RB debacle to the benefit of the community, and of city and Urban Renewal budgets that have taken major hits from so-far fruitless efforts. Here’s hoping a revamped recreation bond can win voter support. And, if McMinnville City Council decides 2026 is the city’s sesquicentennial year, here’s hoping for more community unity based on knowing the past and building the future.

In Yamhill County, I hope for something positive in the county parks systems — more positive than shutting down a promising rural trail system community. Upcoming comments will touch on the Westsider Trail, Crabtree Park and Charles Metsker Park.

In Oregon, many people are hoping for regime change. It’s been 40 years since Oregon had a Republican governor, and over those decades we have become counted among the most over-taxed and under-served states in the nation. It’s past time to revisit and reinstall some moderate, independent — not MAGA — Republican leadership.

In America, we can only hope for a more boring year with continued taming of inflation, job growth, lower interest rates, financial relief from exploding costs of living and no new national crises. Unfortunately, all of that could happen but be overshadowed by the suffocating blanket of political polarization that dominates our news with segments that should be titled, “Finger-pointing in America.”

In our own lives, we can celebrate the Christmas season of hope – in the traditional Christian sense of concrete, faith-based hope, or in our ordinary human experience that suggests time to make amends, remember the lonely, and rekindle important ties of family and friendship with small, repeatable, hope-practiced rituals.

Life doesn’t suddenly become easy during the Christmas season, particularly for those suffering from family losses, financial stresses or physical/mental health challenges. But people with fewer trials and tribulations can help remind others, and themselves, that hope involves shining a light into even the darkest rooms.

Jeb Bladine can be reached at jbladine@newsregister.com or 503-687-1223.