The beginning of a new year is a natural time to take stock of what’s gone on in the past year and make plans for what’s to come in the new one.

At this time of year, resolutions and grandiose plans abound.

Every year at this time, people begin glancing at the treadmills in their garages, or the dumbbells gathering dust in their closets, and say to themselves, “Maybe I’ll lose a little weight this year.”

So we thought, before we start configuring our own diet plans, we’d take a moment to ponder what we’d like the coming year to bring, not only to this paper, but to our readers.

First and foremost, we’ll borrow a phrase coined by a Southerner, Clinton campaign strategist James Carville, who said “It’s the economy, stupid.”

We hope that 2010 brings jobs to those who desperately need them, as the economy recovers from one of the worst financial crises on record.

We hope that both unemployment and foreclosure rates go down and that sales go up for all our local businesses.

We hope to see the construction industry recover, with new homes and subdivisions, and new infrastructure needed.

We hope that no one else has to choose between making a house payment or feeding their family that month.

As the war in Iraq continues and a new troop offensive gears up in Afghanistan, we hope that all our troops serving in those war zones come home back safe.

We hope that all our troops around the world come back to their friends and families safe and sound.

We hope that civility returns to politics, though we wonder if that horse has left the barn.

We urge our politicians to remember, that though they are divided on the issues, that personal attacks and tangents only side track the political process, ensuring that, in the end, nothing at all gets done.

The mud-slinging on both sides needs to stop.

Let’s have no more comparing of any modern-day politicians, no matter who they are, to Hitler.

Argue about the issues, please.

But remember that the issues are what matter, not scoring media coverage, or setting up future political goals, with a well-timed and well-placed low blow.

Finally, we hope that we can continue to serve our readers, and our community, the way we’ve been doing for the past 139 years.

We know that there are rumors floating around regarding the financial reorganization of the Sentinel’s parent company, but we’d like to take a moment to paraphrase the great Mark Twain, and say that rumors of our demise have been greatly exaggerated.

We’ve been counted out before in our long history, but we’re still here, and we plan on staying here a lot longer.