Up To Date With Ethan Callender Entry 12: 2020 Vision

 Up To Date With Ethan Callender Entry 12: 2020 Vision

2020…

What a crapshoot of a year this was. I know this is a tired joke by now, and has been for months; however, what if I said that this year could have been even worse? I mean, there was a pandemic, a racial reckoning, and the continued existence of the Trump administration. We should all be lucky the year didn’t cause any further instability beyond what already happened. Unfortunately, what did happen was bad enough for a lot of people, and there’s still a lot to cover. It is time for a year-end review of 2020.

January began with a drone strike that killed a top Iranian general, and that was speculated to be capable of leading to World War III at the time. Thank God that didn’t come to pass, especially given the current world order’s already-frail state in 2020. In retrospect, it’s nice to see that something went right in 2020, but only in the very beginning. After that, Trump got impeached because of likely obstruction and corruption, but he was then not removed once February’s Senate vote rolled around. However, in global news, a burning Australia wasn’t even the biggest story. That was the spread of a novel coronavirus in the Chinese city of Wuhan. As this epidemic became a pandemic, it would eventually become clear that the spring would be a total virus-infected turkey.

March was the beginning of that spring, and the virus got predictably out of hand. States issued lockdown orders one by one, and everyone freaked out about wiping their bums. You know, when toilet paper was a hot commode-ity? Anyway, this was also the time that the American public was asked to stay home for just two or three weeks, and we still didn’t listen. As President Kennedy famously said, “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.” Spoiler alert; we didn’t do s*** this time, and our global reputation is paying dearly.

April and May were nearly the same as the second half of March, with lockdowns going on for longer than anticipated. However, resistance to the lockdowns steadily increased in those months, with hilariously misguided protests against wearing masks happening in the capitals of more GOP-leaning states like Pennsylvania and Michigan. Trump largely parroted the beliefs of these protestors, setting the stage for much of the rest of the year. But on May 25th, George Floyd was murdered by four cops gone rogue in Minneapolis. This would add another element of tension to a year that already had quite an unusual amount.

In June, the controversy over Floyd’s murder exploded into nationwide and worldwide protests, as well as a revival of the Black Lives Matter movement.  And then, there were the unfortunate counter-movements. This, in turn, reignited conversation about America’s particularly severe streak of systemic racism. As other incidents like the Floyd murder were uncovered in the past and present, we saw some serious outrage from within our own nation. “ACAB” entered the vocabulary of many, while some in Seattle tried to create their own autonomous zone, supposedly not under American jurisdiction, in the middle of the city. That bizarre experiment went about as wrong as you might expect. Also, the Trump administration forced out peaceful protestors -- by using tear gas, no less -- for a photo op that would soon spectacularly backfire. After all, Bibles, like most books, need to be read right side up. 

July and August were similar to June in many ways, as the pandemic took a relative breather. Vacations and in-person gatherings became a thing again, as people wanted to go back to normal and ignore the microscopic elephant that was still very much in the room. One of those people was President Trump, who began withdrawing the US from the World Health Organization. Also, the Biden-Harris ticket won the Democratic nomination for President. And then there was California, who unfortunately had yet another devastating fire season.

Then September happened. Schools opened back up with an unconventional mix of in-person and online learning. However, the schools had opened their doors prematurely, at least for in-person classes, and that led to many schools and colleges having their own COVID outbreaks. The proverbial turkey was now seen to have gone bad in the oven, and it became clear that this year wasn’t really worth holding out hope for. 

Then, democracy itself would prove to be in a precarious position. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg unfortunately passed away from pancreatic cancer. To replace her, Trump would nominate Amy Coney Barrett, an extremely conservative and religious woman whose qualifications were unconventional, but nothing worse than that. By the way, the ceremony where she was nominated was a COVID superspreader event. Surely, that was a very successful evening. The fears at the time about Barrett were that Trump would have an incredibly favorable Supreme Court backing him up, which could have allowed him to guarantee a second term for himself, even if he lost the election. In October, she was confirmed to the court, a mere month before the next election.

In that same month, the President and First Lady both got COVID. They thankfully recovered, and I say thankfully mainly because I would never want to see what people do in a martyred Trump’s name. In all seriousness, this was a critical moment, with the President ending up in the Walter Reed hospital for a few days. Despite this, President Trump still raised doubts about the severity of the pandemic, and cases promptly began to skyrocket.

November was a month of good and bad news, which was certainly better than most months this year. On the one hand, Biden winning the election proved that there was a light at the end of this tunnel. On the other, COVID cases were approaching all-time highs, and resistance to Biden’s victory, within government and not, was unusually fierce. Heck, that resistance even existing was quite peculiar. Trump and his team tried to use the courts to overturn results in the states that went from him in 2016 to Biden now, but that ended with hair dye pouring down Rudy Giuliani’s face and at least 7 SCOTUS Justices laughing Trump’s cronies out of the room.

In December, these efforts continued, but by then, it became clear to most that the worst had passed, and that Trump was not going to be President for the next four years. That doesn’t mean he gave up, and nor did some hardcore supporters, but on Dec. 14th, the last legal option was exhausted. Biden officially won the Electoral College and the popular vote. Trump’s side still hasn’t given up, but nothing’s changed except the number of farcical lawsuits burned at the stake. Also, COVID cases hit the worst levels yet at this time, and the distribution of vaccinations has unfortunately been a bit of a shambles. As a result, 1 in 1000 Americans are now dead of COVID. That number cannot be taken lightly, and we’d best not forget this tragedy. Still, the light at the end of the COVID tunnel is visible, much like with Trump a month before. 2021 looks to start as a continuation of this, as what should’ve been expected. However, even if the year comes in like a lion, in the end, it may be little more than a lamb. We shall overcome.