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Last year at this time, as area residents were preparing to greet 2023, the Mirror challenged its readers in an editorial to do their part toward making the new year generally better and more productive than 2022 -- still recovering from the coronavirus pandemic.
"As an individual, you have the power to make a difference, if you commit yourself to it," we wrote. "Generally, people of the Southern Alleghenies region are good, decent, down-to-earth individuals who are capable of sorting the good things from the bad things they will encounter over the next 12 months."
Over the past 12 months, nothing has changed regarding the quality, goodness and dedication of most of the people living in the six-county Southern Alleghenies region -- Blair, Cambria, Bedford, Somerset, Huntingdon and Fulton. Most people here are hard-working and loyal to their communities.
Nevertheless, Southern Alleghenies residents and the at-that-time-new 2023 calendar were among those ambushed by a train derailment Feb. 3 in eastern Ohio that caused anxiety not only in Pennsylvania's western neighbor, but also in Altoona and Johnstown, who are no strangers to the railroad industry.
News reports related to that Feb. 3 derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, were frequent components of newspaper pages and electronic media coverage over subsequent months.
Meanwhile, upcoming, about a month from now, there will be new coverage dealing with how that community has rebounded from the derailment and whether and/or how memories of the accident continue to impact residents in a negative way. Many residents likely will have much to say.
Then, as if that railroad accident was not enough bad news, frequent Mirror editions over the course of the year were compelled to report on numerous sex crimes inflicted against children, as well as the continuing illegal drug scourge affecting not only Altoona, but communities across the Southern Alleghenies region, Pennsylvania and this nation.
The drug scourge will not be eradicated in 2024. Meanwhile, it is obvious that the efforts aimed at apprehending sexual predators must not be relaxed.
Looking back on 2023, from Altoona's perspective, the evolving attack on blight was encouraging.
The news concerning additional Amtrak service also was welcomed.
Last year's beginning-of-the-year editorial said "the coming year needs to be a year when mending of America's fabric must be the predominant priority, regardless of what elements seek to undermine its strength and very existence. Perhaps, progress might have been made but not nearly enough.
Progress continued on reinvigorating Downtown Altoona. Although more needs to be done, the progress in the city dwarfed what was happening at a number of other areas of comparable size in Pennsylvania.
No doubt many people in and around Blair County were unhappy about municipal tax increases that were approved, effective Jan. 1, but units of government continued to feel pressures that need to be addressed in 2024, and small increases are better than ignoring problems when they are small.
That beginning-of-2023 editorial referred to earlier recalled President John F. Kennedy's famous quote "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country." That quote remains relevant today, and it would remain relevant if the words "country" were replaced with the words "local community."