Happy New Year, Sonya!

I’ve been busy helping the community build awareness around vaccinations and the fight against COVID-19. I wrote at length about the logistical challenges of administering the COVID-19 treatments in the Bakersfield Californian last week, reinforcing the importance of acting as responsible citizens with our individual behaviors while encouraging everyone in the community to get vaccinated as soon as they are eligible.

I was also invited to answer some questions about the vaccine during the Richard Beene Show on KERN Radio. I would encourage everyone to listen in, as we had an honest and informative yet straight-forward and hopeful conversation about the logistics around COVID-19 vaccination in the Southern San Joaquin Valley. I also came on the show a few days ago to share my thoughts about the situation in the Capitol, calling upon the community to come together in love, compromise and camaraderie.

Today, I wanted to wish you a heartfelt start to 2021. It pains me to enumerate what went wrong with last year. The COVID catastrophe wrecked health, education, business, travel, finances, families, and fun, smothering life. The pandemic came in rising waves, punishing our exhausted humanity like ulcers growing on sores.

Helplessness punctuated loneliness. Some leaned on their vices more than usual. Nostalgic memories that weave the tapestry of our lives failed to find the precious moments in 2020.

It took a while, but rays of light are piercing the dark clouds. The vaccine is here, even if the rollout will take a while. Our prayers have found their wings, and we will ascend again, tempered by adversity, reinforced in spirit and reinvigorated by hope.

Let’s welcome the new year and the new decade. Happy 2021, Sonya, and Happy New Year to everyone in Kern County and around the world.

-Brij