Reminiscing about days now behind us is a common pastime of the year-end holiday season. It’s an understandable human endeavor — thinking about where we’ve been and how we got from there to the present day.
Memories — good, painful and every point in between — come naturally to mind in this final month of a year that, like all others, seem to pass with increasing speed, and stress levels to match. Making sense of it all and seeing needed work through is our ongoing task as humans. For those blessed with a sound network of family and friends, sharing memories and making new ones is a popular activity during these festive weeks. Which is as it should be in the interlocked community of humankind.
As 2014 races toward an end, it’s worth consideration, we believe, that our broad challenges — the triumphs and tragedies of human existence both large and minuscule — bear striking commonalities across the decades and centuries. In many instances, there really is nothing new under our sun.
To support that point, we present today a selection of opinion commentary from The Atlanta Journal and The Atlanta Constitution of 50 years ago this month. Many of the themes will be familiar. Human and societal struggles and victories have a way of enduring across time.
Now, as then, it’s up to us to remain steadfast in pushing toward a better future for us all. That’s reason to celebrate the end of an old year and the fresh start of a new one.
