Adios, 2016; don't let the door hit you in the backside on your way out.

Welcome, 2017; let's all have a happier new year.

The aforementioned old year ranked with the rankest. The world became a scarier place, largely because Russia took on a more aggressive posture. We saw horrifying violence in Syria, perpetrated against the Syrian people by their own government, with the help of Russia. We saw Russia commit illegal aggression against the people of Ukraine. We even saw the Russian government interfere in our elections by supporting and perhaps ordering computer hacking into U.S. election systems.

At home, we saw acts of terrorism committed by American citizens, including the worst in history in Orlando, Fla., shocking violence against and by police officers, and here in the Chicago area we saw gun violence, mostly involving gangs, that led to scores of appalling injuries and tragic deaths of innocent children.

Our election process, which has always been a reason to be proud of America, degenerated to unheard of levels of insult and personal attacks. Most disturbingly, it apparently worked, as the candidate who ran the rudest and crudest campaign rolled over his Republican primary opponents and squeaked out an electoral college victory despite losing the popular vote by almost 3 million. What we admire as Americans apparently is changing.

And here in Illinois, state government remained stalemated as leaders of both political parties decided there was nothing to be gained by having serious discussions with the opposition

On top of all this, the Cubs won the World Series — and Armageddon did not follow. Some South Siders might say the Cubs' winning is Armageddon, but most of us celebrated … didn't we?

Overall, 2016 was not our most favorite year. Let's hope for a better 2017.

Let's hope President-elect Trump can succeed in his promise to shake up the federal government and make it function in the best interests of all Americans. President Obama has been telling us that if Trump is successful, America will be successful. Maybe he's right.

Let's hope Gov. Rauner and Speaker Madigan can get together and have a conversation, maybe even get the state government running again.

Let's hope someone, anyone, can find a way to end the gun violence that plagues many of our communities and threatens all of them.

Perhaps most importantly, let's hope the new year sees Americans everywhere do a better job of communicating with each other.

One shocking lesson we all learned during 2016 was that we have divided ourselves into groups that don't talk, that don't even have an idea what the other is thinking and why. That's a recipe for big trouble.

Let's hope 2017 is a brighter, more peaceful year. Happy New Year to our neighbors near and far.