Opinion

Ask around any community, and you will hear many people voice a need for volunteers. I have been creating a list of organizations in my area that need help in order to write a series of articles on volunteerism, and the opportunities for volunteering are great.

Local fire departments, community libraries and museums operate with volunteers. The schools need volunteers and many of the sports programs and activities for children, such as Cub Scouts, can’t be offered without volunteers.

The coming year will determine whether — or in what form — health reform survives.

The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to rule on reform’s constitutionality before it adjourns in June. If it survives the court challenge, it will at least face a political gauntlet — if not its demise — if the Republicans capture the White House, Congress or both in the 2012 presidential election.

There’s been a steadily building crescendo for 2012 doomsday prophesies. It seems the end of the world, civilization or the human race — depending on who you listen to — is supposed to occur in a little less than a year: Dec. 21, 2012, the winter solstice.

A 2008 History Channel delved into the coming end of the world. Combining a mishmash of astronomy, the Mayan calendar and Nostradamus’ prophecies from “The Lost Book of Nostradamus,” the History Channel uses an earnest voiceover, talking heads and somber music to predict the end of life as we know it.

The last My Turn column of the year should be profound, shouldn’t it?

One year I wrote about how I avoided resolutions. Does anybody really enjoy all those well-meaning thoughts so many writers want to share? It’s enough to make one gag, really.

My best column this year was the one that resulted in a good lambasting by a reader the next week in the Letters to the Editor. I just loved getting a written reaction from someone, for a change.