2020, Bye! Worst Year Ever
When I wrote my review of the year and decade last year, I said that 2016 had been the worst year of my life and the teens were the worst decade. I also said that the fact that I found ten dollars exactly one year ago today suggested that 2020 was going to be a better year than 2019 and that the twenties would be a better decade. It’s too early to reject that last prediction, but last year (I love saying that) was definitely not a better year than 2019. In fact, sorry, 2016, you need to hand your “Worst Year Ever” crown to 2020. Of course, one prediction did come true. I said of the new year “There will be more deaths because we’re all growing older, and we all must die.” By “more deaths” I didn’t mean more deaths than in 2019. I also didn’t mean that more old people would die because of a pandemic or that three of the oldest surviving actors/entertainers—98-year-old Carl Reiner, 103-year-old Kirk Douglas, and 104-year old Olivia de Havilland would finally die. I meant that some older family members and friends would probably die in 2020.
I did lose a family member after the pandemic prevented us from gathering to celebrate the lives of our lost family and friends. But he wasn’t old. He was 51, the youngest child and the only son (he had three older sisters) of the first cousin who died on New Year’s Day in 2019. Bill died not from Covid (I notice that some obituaries will now mention that the deceased died of an illness not related to Covid) but a heart problem. I also lost an older friend, the woman I briefly hoped had died in 2019 instead of her husband Bob because I hadn’t discussed attending her funeral, thus witchily causing her death (see 6/23/19 post). But most of the deaths were strangers dying from Covid. The only year that may have seen more American deaths was 1918 when the Spanish flu was raging during World War I. A third cousin that I barely knew died of Covid as did a somewhat famous (at least in Evanston) black classmate whom I didn’t know or at least don’t remember. And then there was Herman Cain, who proved that being black was a more deadly precondition than being obese and having asthma. The thinner Cain died, but both Trump and the even more obese as well as asthmatic Christie survived. There also seemed to be more entertainers and civil rights leaders/liberal icons dying last year. The most prominent ones were civil rights icon and Georgia Representative John Lewis, the “notorious” and seemingly indestructible Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and the secretly ill while he made several consequential movies and one blockbuster “Black Panther” Chadwick Boseman.
I wrote that I hoped there would be “less hatred and senseless killing” in 2020 at the end of my 1/5/20 post, but clearly there was more hatred as Trump encouraged white supremacists like the Proud Boys to “stand back and stand by” and more senseless killing as so-called pro-life Republicans rewarded 17-year-old Killer Kid Kyle with millions of dollars for killing two white Black Lives Matter protesters after he had crossed state lines (from Illinois to Wisconsin) to protect businesses and buildings. Also, after Trump and AG Barr falsely blamed the rioting, looting, and destruction that accompanied some peaceful BLM protesters on the protesters instead of the white supremacists who posed as antifa and the opportunists who will loot and destroy property to celebrate a sports championship, white folks started threatening black people with guns. But the senseless murder captured on cellphone video that launched the overwhelmingly peaceful protests was the almost nine minute knee-to-neck murder by a white killer Minneapolis cop of black giant George Floyd. At last many whites and other nonblack Americans woke up to systemic racism and took to the streets. Of course, the so-called racial awakening didn’t stop cops from killing black people or shooting an unarmed black man in the back seven times, paralyzing him. Still, the peaceful protests, joined by celebrities and even a few conservative politicians like Mitt Romney, and the appearance of anti-racism books not only in Barnes and Noble but in Target and Walmart were positives in a mostly negative year.
The deadly pandemic brought some other positives. While black folks kept being killed by cops as well as Covid, the fact that we were no longer able to gather prevented mass murders in schools, churches/synagogues/mosques, and at concerts. I also enjoyed driving through empty streets and parking in nearly empty parking lots as well as the cleaner air that came from less traffic. And I hope the so-called essential workers appreciated being appreciated and celebrated. While some white supremacists and other selfish, entitled jerks refused to wear masks or to care about anyone but themselves, other Americans looked out for each other. Early during the pandemic, one of my former students/colleagues (quite a few of my former students became composition lecturers after earning the M.A.) who lives in a nearby town offered to shop for me while most of us who aren’t selfish jerks social distanced, wore our masks, and told each other to stay safe.
Of course, the most positive moment in 2020 was when Joe Biden and Kamala Harris were (belatedly) declared the winners of the 2020 election. Not surprisingly, the should have been convicted and removed by the Republican Senators craziest lame duck ever is quacking and causing chaos, but we know he’s going to be out of the White House at noon on January 20. I don’t care if he leaves willingly or is dragged out in a straitjacket or sedated and driven away in an ambulance, he’ll be gone. I was almost as happy to see Biden and Harris elected in 2020 as I was to see Obama and Biden elected in what is still the best year for me ever—2008.
The most positive development in my personal life (more positive even than having a former student dedicate a novel to me) was the birth of Amir Gregory Sisney. My 44-year-old niece became a grandmother, which means my brother became a Great Grandfather, my mother became a Great Great Grandmother, and I became a surprisingly delighted (maybe because I didn’t have to do anything like have a child at nineteen as my mother and niece did) Great Great Aunt. Where there’s life, there’s hope, so maybe 2021 will replace 2008 as the best year ever. I would say this year couldn’t be worse than 2020, but I said that about 2019 and 2020 last year, and we see what happened. I’m hopeful but wary. Have a peaceful, safe, healthy (even if not happy) 2021, everyone!
I did lose a family member after the pandemic prevented us from gathering to celebrate the lives of our lost family and friends. But he wasn’t old. He was 51, the youngest child and the only son (he had three older sisters) of the first cousin who died on New Year’s Day in 2019. Bill died not from Covid (I notice that some obituaries will now mention that the deceased died of an illness not related to Covid) but a heart problem. I also lost an older friend, the woman I briefly hoped had died in 2019 instead of her husband Bob because I hadn’t discussed attending her funeral, thus witchily causing her death (see 6/23/19 post). But most of the deaths were strangers dying from Covid. The only year that may have seen more American deaths was 1918 when the Spanish flu was raging during World War I. A third cousin that I barely knew died of Covid as did a somewhat famous (at least in Evanston) black classmate whom I didn’t know or at least don’t remember. And then there was Herman Cain, who proved that being black was a more deadly precondition than being obese and having asthma. The thinner Cain died, but both Trump and the even more obese as well as asthmatic Christie survived. There also seemed to be more entertainers and civil rights leaders/liberal icons dying last year. The most prominent ones were civil rights icon and Georgia Representative John Lewis, the “notorious” and seemingly indestructible Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and the secretly ill while he made several consequential movies and one blockbuster “Black Panther” Chadwick Boseman.
I wrote that I hoped there would be “less hatred and senseless killing” in 2020 at the end of my 1/5/20 post, but clearly there was more hatred as Trump encouraged white supremacists like the Proud Boys to “stand back and stand by” and more senseless killing as so-called pro-life Republicans rewarded 17-year-old Killer Kid Kyle with millions of dollars for killing two white Black Lives Matter protesters after he had crossed state lines (from Illinois to Wisconsin) to protect businesses and buildings. Also, after Trump and AG Barr falsely blamed the rioting, looting, and destruction that accompanied some peaceful BLM protesters on the protesters instead of the white supremacists who posed as antifa and the opportunists who will loot and destroy property to celebrate a sports championship, white folks started threatening black people with guns. But the senseless murder captured on cellphone video that launched the overwhelmingly peaceful protests was the almost nine minute knee-to-neck murder by a white killer Minneapolis cop of black giant George Floyd. At last many whites and other nonblack Americans woke up to systemic racism and took to the streets. Of course, the so-called racial awakening didn’t stop cops from killing black people or shooting an unarmed black man in the back seven times, paralyzing him. Still, the peaceful protests, joined by celebrities and even a few conservative politicians like Mitt Romney, and the appearance of anti-racism books not only in Barnes and Noble but in Target and Walmart were positives in a mostly negative year.
The deadly pandemic brought some other positives. While black folks kept being killed by cops as well as Covid, the fact that we were no longer able to gather prevented mass murders in schools, churches/synagogues/mosques, and at concerts. I also enjoyed driving through empty streets and parking in nearly empty parking lots as well as the cleaner air that came from less traffic. And I hope the so-called essential workers appreciated being appreciated and celebrated. While some white supremacists and other selfish, entitled jerks refused to wear masks or to care about anyone but themselves, other Americans looked out for each other. Early during the pandemic, one of my former students/colleagues (quite a few of my former students became composition lecturers after earning the M.A.) who lives in a nearby town offered to shop for me while most of us who aren’t selfish jerks social distanced, wore our masks, and told each other to stay safe.
Of course, the most positive moment in 2020 was when Joe Biden and Kamala Harris were (belatedly) declared the winners of the 2020 election. Not surprisingly, the should have been convicted and removed by the Republican Senators craziest lame duck ever is quacking and causing chaos, but we know he’s going to be out of the White House at noon on January 20. I don’t care if he leaves willingly or is dragged out in a straitjacket or sedated and driven away in an ambulance, he’ll be gone. I was almost as happy to see Biden and Harris elected in 2020 as I was to see Obama and Biden elected in what is still the best year for me ever—2008.
The most positive development in my personal life (more positive even than having a former student dedicate a novel to me) was the birth of Amir Gregory Sisney. My 44-year-old niece became a grandmother, which means my brother became a Great Grandfather, my mother became a Great Great Grandmother, and I became a surprisingly delighted (maybe because I didn’t have to do anything like have a child at nineteen as my mother and niece did) Great Great Aunt. Where there’s life, there’s hope, so maybe 2021 will replace 2008 as the best year ever. I would say this year couldn’t be worse than 2020, but I said that about 2019 and 2020 last year, and we see what happened. I’m hopeful but wary. Have a peaceful, safe, healthy (even if not happy) 2021, everyone!
No comments have been added yet.
