What we want(ed) for 1946 -- and still want in 2018

Editor’s note: This editorial originally ran on Jan. 1, 1946 and has been edited for our current style standards. Subscribe to The Point to see what in it we still are advocating for in 2018.

New Year’s Day is fine for making resolutions – and the day after even better for breaking them. We gave up making resolutions years ago because we found that the mental anguish of breaking one always led us to do something so foolish that we automatically broke another one.

Instead we make up each year a list of Things We’d Like to See. Last year our biggest wish came true – the Nazis finally gave up. That happy fact outshone all the other less pleasant facts which 1945 flashed at us.

But today is another year – and we’re ready with another list. Some of the items concern everybody everywhere. Others apply only to Americans. Still others only to residents of this county. Every one of them can be accomplished if we work hard enough at it.

Let’s start off with the county:

1. Better bus service.

2. A Planning Commission that will get things done.

3. Peace-time industry to absorb our jobless war-workers and returning veterans and to bring more money into Long Island.

4. More and better cross-island transportation facilities – train, bus and highways.

5. First-run movies.

6. Quick installation of the county sewer system.

7. A North Shore county park.

8. An investigation that hits the heart of the gambling probe instead of the small fry huddled on the fringe of it.

9. A county water authority to preserve our most precious asset – fresh water.

10. An indoor sports arena.

11. Merger of the services.

12. A bottle of soothing syrup for the Big Three so future conferences will go off smoothly.

13. An air force capable of taking on any nation or any combination of nations.

14. Lower taxes.

15. A home for the UNO on Long Island.

16. An atomic-bomb commission that can really control that hot potato.

17. Fewer strikes – meaning a friendlier attitude between labor and management.

18. More scotch.

19. More nylons.

20. Better girdles.

21. Quicker and cheaper plane service overseas.

22. Better-tempered sales people.

23. Speedier reconversion.

24. Enough housing so that everybody can get in out of the rain.

25. Enough railroad cars so everybody can sit down.

26. More cars.

27. Elimination of all LIRR grade crossings.

28. A ton of soap and a carload of rags to give to the LIRR to clean its cars.

29. Less snow than we had in December, 1945.

30. A State Teacher’s College to serve all Long Island.

31. Enough food for everybody – which will also mean the abolition of the OPA.

32. Abolition of double feature movie bills.

33. An end to the fighting in Iran and Indonesia and a sensible settlement of the issues involved.

34. Enough telephones.

35. Enough – excuse us while we put in a plug for ourselves – newsprint.

36. An end to the wartime scarcities and shortages which have plagued us.

37. A UNO which will make sure that the need for wartime inconveniences never recurs.

And finally – most universal of all needs today –

38. A hangover cure that works. And a Happy New Year to you.