I’ve been told that many columnists pen an “end of the year review” summarizing the highlights (and lowlights) of the preceding year.
As the sole columnist, editor, and owner of this particular publication — IrkedModerate.com — I feel obligated to do the same.
On January 1, 2020 at 12:01 a.m., this decade seemed like a potential new beginning. A presidential election was looming. The horrors of the financial crisis seemed to be waning. But little did we know that the sinister forces of Mother Nature were plotting and stirring in a Wuhan wet market.
Many, if not most, would say that 2020 was an anathema. It was a year of social unrest, cynicism, disease, financial turmoil, and death. Those people would be right. The glass is half empty.
But in other ways, 2020 was a year of hope. In the darkness of the pandemic, heroes emerged. The first responders, frontline healthcare workers, and brilliant scientists demonstrated to us what selflessness looks like in the face of disaster. In less than one year, humanity did the impossible. We developed a vaccine to a novel virus that is over 90% effective. The glass is half full.
But, we also saw selfishness thrive. Selfish politicians and skeptical citizens placed their egos (and ignorance) above the recommendations of scientists. A selfish President (and his enablers) refused to concede defeat in an election, and instead sowed even greater unrest in our society.
In my opinion, a decade both begins and ends in the final year of each ten-year cycle. The 2010’s ended and the 2020’s began this year. In this way, 2020 may be viewed as a transition year to a new chapter, albeit weighted down by the hardships of the decade that preceded it.
Now that the transition year is coming to an end, we can focus on a new beginning. If we don’t blow it, 2021 may offer us something grand — a return to normalcy. We will have normal social lives. We will have normal working environments. We will have normal holidays with our abnormal relatives. We will have a normal President.
In our return to normalcy, however, we cannot forget the lessons that 2020 taught us. Democracy is only as strong as we the people demand it should be. We can conquer global challenges only when we work together and sacrifice just a little bit for the greater good.
May 2021 be a year filled with the promise of normalcy that we deserve.
the irked moderate 