HAPPY NEW YEAR FROM LONGBOX JUNK!

 Happy New Year from Longbox Junk, the blog absolutely STUFFED with comic reviews you didn't ask for!

Yep. . .another one down.  The last few years have been a little rough, so I hope you made it through 2022 okay.  Everything else aside, it's been a GREAT year for Longbox Junk.  There's been a significant (And still growing!) increase in readership and I thank everyone who takes a bit of their time to visit this little corner of the internet. . .stick around, there's plenty more to come in 2023!

It's at this time of year when I look back at the year before and forward to the one to come that I like to send out a little non-comic book related message to anyone reading here.  If you don't mind indulging me for a moment. . .

DISCLAIMER: The following is really for U.S. readers, but I'm sure the sentiment applies just about anywhere.

Let's not try to make it sound pretty. . .this country is divided.  There's a huge political ideological gap between Conservatives and Liberals that's been growing for about the past 10 years and has only gotten wider during the past two Presidential elections.  And it's gonna get worse before it gets better.

Now, before you tune out, I'm not going to try and throw my support behind one or the other viewpoints.  There's other places for extended and detailed political discourse.  As far as I'M concerned, I'm an Independent leaning to the Right a bit, but I've voted for both sides over the years. A Centrist, I guess you'd call it.

My wish for 2023 is that we TRY to work together to close that ideological gap.  Even a LITTLE bit would be a help for the country.  Where we are at right now just isn't healthy for the future of this nation.

In the coming year, PLEASE try to remember that just because you disagree with someone. . .even if you disagree strongly. . .that doesn't automatically make that person your enemy.  There's GOT to be some common ground you can both stand on.  Even if that common ground is just a shaky little patch, it's there.

Listen.  Learn.  Just because something is coming from a different political direction than yours, that doesn't mean it's automatically bad and not worth listening to.  Both sides of this ideological divide have good points to them.  They don't often match up, but that doesn't mean they aren't there.  It doesn't mean that one side doesn't have ANYTHING to teach the other.

Extremism on BOTH sides of the divide is pulling the country apart.  In this coming year, try to step outside of your particular comfort zone a little bit and try to find a way to pull things back toward a middle ground.  

And when it gets to be too much. . .PLEASE just try and relax a bit.  Politics aren't EVERYTHING and they were never meant to be!  Just as a constant focus on politics isn't healthy for the country, the same constant focus isn't healthy for us.  Just relax! Take it easy.  Washington D.C. is NOT the center of the world.

Once again, thank you for taking a bit of your time to visit Longbox Junk!  I truly appreciate each and every reader of this blog, and I hope that you all have a happy and prosperous New Year!