It doesn’t seem like much to celebrate. But the achievement is worth noting, and it should give us a glimmer of hope.

For the past few weeks, the sum total of drug overdose fatalities — confirmed and pending — have not increased. A few of the pending cases have moved to the confirmed category, but since at least Dec. 12 the total has stood at 46 cases total in 2018.

That is exactly half the 92 overdose deaths recorded the year before. By this one measure, Butler city and county might derive some satisfaction and hope. Today is Dec. 27. There are just four days until the new year.

We said this before. It bears repeating. It’s shameful that we must resort to make a rallying cry of such things. To be the city and county that can say: hooray! We cut our overdose deaths in half in 2018.

That said, it is a silver lining to an otherwise dreary gray cloud that hangs above us. Let’s be the people who rediscover hope in the final days of 2018. Let’s be the city and county that restores its purpose and confidence for a constructive future.

We can do this. Only four more days to go until the end of 2018. We’re almost there.