JANUARY 1, 2014

      With a new year upon us, we stride confidently or shuffle nervously into the future, depending on how well or badly we think our ever-changing country is doing.

      And it does change--customs and laws both.  Same-sex marriage is one good example. Utah marked the new year by asking a federal judge to block another federal judge's ruling that such marriages are constitutional.  The Supreme Court sidestepped a decision earlier this year but will probably have to rule on it eventually.  And more and more states--though still a minority--are saying it's legal.

     Other changes involve politics, not law.  Washington Post columnist Dana Millbank notes that the two major parties are changing--the Democrats, growing more liberal;  the Republicans, more conservative and religious.   A Pew poll shows 48% of Republicans believe man has not changed since he first apeared on earth, while 43% believe we have evolved.  Four years ago 54% believed in evolution. That's a loss of 11% for Darwin.

     So we do change in our beliefs;  we are not the people we were a generation or two ago. Tracking those changes is one of the things that make being a reporter fun.