Opinion – 2020 in America

This year has been a difficult one for all of us. Some of us have endured losses of many kinds. Others have gained in perspective as they endure many hardships.

2020 started out like all others. The ball dropped and we were hopeful. Many made resolutions even though they knew it wouldn’t last. Others claimed it was a “New year. New me.” I don’t think that many people were aware of what lied ahead of us.

That first month, we heard about a deadly virus in China, but like always we ignored it. That was their problem and not ours. When Australia was burning, we could see poor helpless animals dying. We cared enough to give a little bit of money, but we went on with our lives like nothing was changing. It took a plane crash killing a celebrity to wake us up a little. But even that didn’t change our daily lives.

By February, the atmosphere of the world was changing. We were more focused on the president being impeached. Sure, nothing came of it like we all expected but that was way more important than any natural disasters in the world, right?

March is when it hit us. Sure, we had COVID-19 in our country before then but no one took it seriously. Schools shut down. Businesses shut down. People had to work from home and help teach their children at the same time. Sheer madness in the eyes of the American people.

What do you mean we can’t gather anymore? What about my planned vacation? Why are they closing my favorite store? Why are they telling us to stay in doors or at least cover our faces? These are the freedoms that many complain they are losing.

Many countries band together to endure lock downs and strict restrictions. But the American people are divided. United states? I think not. The president refuses to wear a mask and blames everything on China as if they did it to us. Half of the country thinks it is all some big joke. What would be the point of this intricate prank?

Masks became a political issue. They are meant for saving lives and protecting not only yourself but everyone around you. How could that be seen as a red vs. blue issue? The president is publicly giving his opinion on how to stop the virus with bleach, UV rays, and a random pharmaceutical drug that has never been proven to work. Ignorant people follow his advice.

The stock market crashes, the economy tanks, and people are struggling to keep their homes and get food. Police brutality towards black people hit a breaking point and the Black Lives Matter movement is formed. Instead of uniting us to fight against systemic racism, it showed how deep the divide truly is. The hate in this country is so deeply rooted and passed down by generations of people. Our president feeds off of this hate to get more support for himself.

Murder hornets? Did someone say murder hornets were coming to kill us too? Yeah, I never saw any of those either, but apparently it was a thing. It is pretty bad when that kind of news is considered small in comparison to everything else 2020 was throwing at us.

Now the west coast is on fire. I can’t even imagine how it would feel to deal with all of that and a world pandemic. So, people are dying from fire or they are dying from a virus. The death toll in our country just keeps rising.

Natural disasters like wild fires, flooding, and hurricanes are destroying the country we love. And we are still divided. The death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg rocks the nation. One side is in mourning at the loss of someone who truly fought for equality. The other side is rejoicing as the president nominates a new justice who is known for spreading inequality. The LBGQT community and the women of the country scream about how important it is to vote.

The president gets COVID-19 and then is given experimental drugs to help him. He acts as if this is what every citizen could get in the hospital. He recovers and claims that he is now immune. There is no evidence of this.

As the elections come closer, the president and his followers make so many claims about how the election will be filled with fraud. By the time November 3rd comes around, we are all just so happy for it to all be over. We didn’t realize that we would have to wait 5 days until we we would know won. Those 5 days dragged on forever. Checking our phones and the tv for the latest numbers. Finally, it is all over and there will be a new president come January. The current president doesn’t concede and tells his followers that it is all a lie. The rest of the world must be having a good laugh at us at this point.

So, here we are in the middle of November. The virus is spreading faster than it did in the beginning. Our country is so divided. We are stuck feeling uncomfortable in masks and our hands are cracked and dry from so much hand sanitizer.

How will this year end? Will 2021 be any better than 2020. I can only hope. I would love to see this country united and the virus eradicated by a vaccine. I will remain hopeful that we will find our way to the other side of all of this. Where we can travel freely again, hug our neighbors, and be crammed into stadiums for concerts. We will survive this one day at a time.