“The good, the bad and the ugly” should be the motto for 2020. In the last eleven months, Americans have been through more than they bargained for.
The year began with President Donald Trump’s impeachment, and later acquittal. Many Americans feared that we were on the verge of war with Iran. Somehow, that ended up being the least of our worries.
The virus that emerged in China last December quickly spread through Europe, devastating Italy and Spain. It wasn’t long before the coronavirus reached the United States, causing unimaginable death tolls.
In the midst of the Democratic primaries, coronavirus cases in the United States soared, growing to over 140,000 cases in March from the 66 cases reported in February.
Before we knew it, the World Health Organization declared a global pandemic. Lockdowns and stay-at-home orders plagued the world, leaving streets silent and empty.
The emptiness didn’t last for very long. In May, after the death of George Floyd at the hands of a Minnesota police officer, protesters filled the streets Protests against police brutality and for Black lives erupted across the country and continued throughout the summer in cities across the world.
Clashes between protestors and police broke out in several cities, including Washington, D.C. Police forcibly removed protesters in front of the White House, using pepper balls and smoke canisters to allow Trump to reach St. John’s Church for a controversial photo-op.
If a global pandemic and the Trump administration’s mishandling of the virus weren’t enough, the deaths of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and civil rights leader and former U.S. Rep. John Lewis of Georgia shocked the nation.
In 2020 fashion, Election Day defied past history. Trump has yet to concede to President-elect Joe Biden even though Biden has won 306 electoral votes. Trump has called this election rigged, demanding recounts in several states.
The country saw record voter turnouts. Biden set a new popular vote record and Georgia and Arizona, two traditionally red states, flipped to blue.
As states continue to certify election results and Trump denies them, the virus rages throughout the country. A glimmer of hope, nevertheless, comes in the form of at least two coronavirus vaccines poised to receive FDA emergency use authorization by the year’s end.
As we struggled to survive 2020, we were also lived through history-making moments. Just as today’s students learn about the end of World War II in 1945 and the assassinations of John F. Kennedy in 1963 and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968, tomorrow’s students will learn all about the good, the bad and the ugly of 2020.
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