Here’s Hoping for Different Fireworks in '15

Not to make light of the contentious year we just had…

but it’s astonishing how many versions of this photo appeared at different times and places around the world in 2014.

If the result of all the friction is more democracy and a coming-to-terms, the chaos is at least understandable.

In the meantime, and especially on the first day of a new year…

let’s hope for more constructive engagements and enlightened outcomes.

(photo 1: Leo Ramirez/AFP/Getty caption: An opposition activist hurls a homemade explosive device toward National Guard troops during a protest against the government of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, in Caracas, on March 3, 2014.photo 2: Efrem Lukatsky/AP caption: A protester throws a Molotov cocktail during clashes with police in central Kiev, Ukraine. photo 3: Robert Cohen/MCT/Zuma Wire caption: A demonstrator in Ferguson, Missouri throws back a tear gas container on Aug. 13, 2014 after police worked to break up a group of bystanders who were protesting the death of 18-year-old Michael Brown. photo 4: Mario Tama, Getty Images. caption: A man rides a stand-up paddle board as fireworks explode above him during New Year’s Eve festivities on Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro. )