Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays from The Daily News

We at The Daily News would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas. We also would like to extend our best wishes to those who celebrate Hanukkah, who will celebrate Kwanzaa or who simply celebrate the remarkable gift of life. There is nothing more precious.

We’re all approaching the end of what has been one of the hardest years most of us can remember. It has been one marked by some of the deepest rifts Americans have seen since perhaps the Vietnam War era.

There has been a lot to disagree about, and common ground has been hard to find. But there are a few things about which we might all agree and reflect on as 2020 nears its end.

One is that a lot of people are hurting in a lot of ways. People who’ve never before had to seek assistance are lining up for food. People who’ve seldom missed a day of work have been out of jobs for months. People who this time last year were secure in their homes are worried about being foreclosed on or evicted.

People secure in their own health are worried about COVID-19 and the restrictions on care enacted in effort to battle the pandemic.

If there ever was a time to recall and reflect on former President George H.W. Bush’s urging for a kinder, gentler nation, this is it; on that, we should all be able to agree.

Let’s go into 2021 with an attitude inclined toward making it a year of calm, kindness and concern for our neighbors.

Most everyone reading these pages is better off than 98 percent of the world. We have clean water running through good plumbing, and a roof over our heads.

But too often, we take this for granted and complain about what we do not have in our life. Let’s channel that energy — and more — into a productive, outward effort to help others.

Many, many people in Galveston County already were in the habit of helping others. And it’s clear that many already have risen to that call.

Every time recently that Daily News reporters have covered one social problem or another, we’ve learned that although the need is greater than before, so has been the community response. Every time, more people have stepped up to give more — more food, more money, more of everything.

That’s what we should remember most about 2020, and that’s what we should carry forward into 2021.

As much as we might look forward to the end of 2020, Jan. 1 will be the end of a more less or less arbitrary period; a mere flipping of the page. All the woes afflicting us and our neighbors will still be there, at least for a while. And there will be no vaccine against the economic ill health COVID-19 has brought.

If you can, make a point of finding a new charity or nonprofit to support in 2021. If everyone added one, imagine what a compounding benefit it would have for our community and on the lives of people who live in it.

Find a mentoring program and make a donation or offer to participate; find a food bank and drop off a bag of groceries. Whatever you do, do something different in the coming year.

Let’s make this year’s Christmas gift our commitment to make the coming year a better one for those in need.

Merry Christmas.

• The Editorial Board