I’m sure no one started 2020 off by thinking that anything that has happened this year would have happened… that would be crazy. But there is also a lot of talk out there about how “2020 is the worst,” “Can 2020 just be over?,” and “Things will be better in 2021.” That kind of talk is scary and naive, because most of the problems we have been exposed to this year have been building up, and will not go away any time soon.
A global pandemic is something scientists have been talking about for decades. Just look at Bill Gates, who has been planning global outbreak procedures for years. A sense of panic when it actually came is extremely warranted, but the response we saw from national governments were severely lacking. In the United States, this pandemic only showcased how broken the American Healthcare system is, with so many people not having any kind of healthcare to fall back on. The eviction and rent crises throughout the United States show how fragile and corrupt the real estate market is. And let’s not forget the extremism of politics that made caring for others and putting others first something that is tied to political parties.
The tragic deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and more earlier in the year finally grasped national attention. The Black Lives Matter movement is gaining traction, and people can no longer turn a blind eye to the systemic racism that has plagued our nation since the day it was created. Police brutality and racism have been a national crisis people in power tend to ignore. 2020 was not the start of these movements. The official Black Lives Matter organization actually began in 2013 after the death of 13-year-old boy Trayvon Martin. 2020 was the tipping point, where more senseless deaths by the police finally woke people up. This has been slowly bubbling up, and 2020 was the boiling point. Things need to continue to change. This change has been needed for far too long.
The West Coast wildfires are also something that have been happening for a while, but are only getting worse because environmental conditions are degrading by the day. Climate change is very real, and these large-scale events are the effects of climate change being ignored. These environmental crises did not happen just because it’s 2020. We have been seeing irreversible environmental damages for a while now, and it will not get better until we make change.
So, yes, 2020 has been horrible. We all want it to be over. But the end of 2020 will not bring the end to all this change. It will only grow until the necessary changes are made to make the world better for EVERYONE, not just the few. One of the biggest things that you can do right now as an individual is to educate yourself on the topics. It is crucial that you vote in the 2020 Presidential election, and EVERY election after that too. Small elections matter! Your voice matters, and if 2020 hasn’t shown you that changes need to be made, you are not paying attention.