Column: Vaccinations, the end of the SAT and improved adolescent mental health are on my wish list

As Christmas approaches, I look for reasons to hope.

Feeling hopeful is not always easy. We face so many huge, intractable problems — war, poverty, hunger, environmental destruction — that we might find ourselves sliding toward despair, cynicism or emotional paralysis.

Sometimes holding out hope just seems nuts.

But if Christmas teaches us anything, it’s that we must reject pessimism and banish any inclination to believe that nothing will ever get better.

For my part, I harbor hope that despite the onslaught of bad news we will turn toward substantive progress — perhaps not the end-all-strife, save-the-planet kind, but progress nonetheless.

So, in the spirit of the season, I offer a few thoughts on where I am looking for glimmers of change for the better.

Vaccinations

There’s been a lot of disturbing news in the last few years. Measles, a highly contagious yet easily preventable disease, has staged a worldwide resurgence, leading to hundreds of thousands of deaths.

In the United States, widespread skepticism about the safety of vaccines persists, fueled by misinformation circulating on the internet and promoted by some public figures. This has led to geographic pockets where immunization rates remain stubbornly low.

Last year, amid a national measles outbreak, California saw the overall vaccination rate for school-age children drop below the level needed for communities to prevent disease outbreaks. This troubling trend, which health advocates blamed on unnecessary medical exemptions, occurred despite the state having some of the strictest vaccination laws in the country.

We have new state legislation aimed at cracking down on the inappropriate use of exemptions. My hope is that educational efforts will have the biggest impact and that we’ll see a rebound in vaccination rates next year.

The SAT

The tide finally seems to be turning against this grossly overrated college admissions test. More universities are joining the ranks of those that have made the exam — and its counterpart, the ACT — optional for applicants.

And just this month, two lawsuits were filed against the University of California, accusing the 10-campus system of violating state civil rights laws by requiring the SAT or ACT. I have no idea about the legal merits of the cases, but I certainly sympathize with the sentiment that the SAT is an ineffective test that exacerbates inequality. It has maintained a stranglehold over college admissions for far too long.

Mental health

This might be the toughest issue on my list. Finding hope amid the excruciating heartbreak of the youth mental health crisis is just hard.

And a crisis is indeed what we have.

The rates of depression and suicide among our youth have dramatically increased over the past two decades. Suicide is now the second-leading cause of death among adolescents and young adults, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and children’s hospital visits for suicidal thoughts and attempts have doubled since 2008.

More youth are reporting feelings of sadness, hopelessness, isolation and anxiety. No one knows precisely why this is happening; researchers and clinicians suspect that social media sites are a contributing factor but they continue to study other potential causes.

I seek hope in the mere fact that we are talking about this. Once a subject shrouded in shame and secrecy, mental health issues are now increasingly brought into the light.

Families are bravely sharing their stories, survivors are speaking up, and advocates are fighting to make mental health checkups a routine part of general health care.

Through the tears, we must keep this dialogue going. Hopefully that will lead us to some solutions to this nationwide trauma.

Vaping

Federal officials now deem the escalating use of e-cigarettes by our youth — who manufacturers targeted with flavorings that mask the dangers of these highly addictive products — to be an epidemic. Illnesses and even deaths related to vaping devices have been reported, yet we’re still struggling to understand the full health impact.

It’s a classic “horse out of the barn” situation, where we’re trying to catch up with a problem that got away from us before we even knew what was happening.

Now far too many kids are hooked.

If there’s hope to be found, it’s in the initiation of federal and state crackdowns on the vaping industry, the pledges by some retailers to discontinue selling the products and a growing awareness fueled by aggressive educational campaigns.

Hate

At risk of stating the obvious, I remind you that there’s far too much hate and intolerance in the world. In the past few years alone we’ve had so many examples of hate’s toxicity right here in Orange County that I lack the space to list them.

Yet I take heart from a groundswell of efforts to fight hate. Orange County Human Relations, for instance, is rolling out a statewide anti-hate program that will give schools resources to launch educational and awareness campaigns.

Like many districts, Newport-Mesa Unified has partnered with OCHR to implement its own task force to promote cultural understanding and acceptance of diversity.

And that gives me hope.