Since this is my last column of the year, let me start by wishing you and yours all the best for a joyous holiday season and a happy and healthy new year. Despite the problems confronting our great country – not the least of which is the downward spiraling economy – I’m optimistic that things will look a lot better next year. The election of Barack Obama, I believe, will be a game-changer for our country. And not only because he will be a friend to workers, which we certainly expect since we helped get him elected.

I believe our new President knows that America needs to change in fundamental ways, that it can no longer be “business as usual.” We need to move towards energy independence without destroying our
environment. We need a health care system that covers all of us. But most of all, we need to understand that we’re all in this together. Prosperity for some, while opportunities for others shrink, will no longer be acceptable.

Perhaps Obama’s election has me looking at things through rose-colored glasses, but some other stories I came across recently gave me some real cheer. Let me share a few with you in the spirit of the holiday season.

There’s the story about Harold “Billy” DeLong, an 87-year-old waiter who still works 50 to 75 banquets a year. The HERE Local 6 member doesn’t need the money. He retired in 2002 after a long career that
included military intelligence work behind the Iron Curtain. No, he lugs those heavy serving trays to fund humanitarian trips to places such as India and Africa. The Russian invasion of Georgia blocked a planned trip last August to a camp for diabetic children. Instead, this month he’s going to Vietnam to feed street kids.

Another story that got my attention was about Klaus Kaiser, a bicycle repairman who still lives in the small German town where he was born. Years ago, he was rejected as a bone marrow donor for a friend. But, each year he was asked if he wanted to stay on the donor list and each year he checked the box “yes.”

In 2000, bone marrow was extracted from Kaiser’ship, packed in dry ice and sent 5,000 miles to Dallas. The transplant, a perfect match, enabled James Chippendale, a wealthy insurance executive, to survive a lethal form of leukemia. Chippendale, who works with celebrity clients in the entertainment business, is no longer so impressed with rubbing elbows with the rich and famous.

“Here, you are on the list for life,” Chippendale said about donor registries. “There, you have to check ‘yes’ each year. I am alive because Klaus checked ‘yes.’” Now, because of Kaiser’s gift of life, Chippendale is paying back. Recently, he and a fellow cancer survivor started a foundation to raise money for cancer screening and treatment.

I almost skipped another story about advances in brain cancer research, but then I noticed a caption that said the featured scientist had been an illegal immigrant to this country. Dr. Alfredo Quinones-Hinojosa climbed a fence between Mexico and the U.S. when he was 19. With no English and no job skills, he became a farm laborer. One night, he was talking of his hopes when a co-worker said harshly: “Stop dreaming. You’ll always be a migrant worker!”

That got him mad enough to take English lessons. Community college followed, as did a scholarship to the University of California at Berkeley. From there he went to Harvard Medical School and now at age 40, and a citizen, he is one the top specialists in his field.

All these stories are inspiring in their own way. Hope. Love.  Perseverance.  All of us – President Obama included – will need those qualities and more to weather the tough times. But, I do believe we will all have something to cheer about next year.