2020 v 2021

Can 2021 be better than 2020?

2020 Round-up

2020 was a total shit show, there can be no denying that. Apart from the personal losses my husband and I had last year, the world was literally burning at times, drowning at others and all of this while a pandemic ravaged the land. 

If I were a religious person I would say that 2020 was a series of plagues sent by God to punish us all...but I am not. Basically a few things were unexpected and others were totally in our control and we should have done something about them a long time ago.

Really it was shocking and saddening that in 2020 we were still having to see people fight for their freedoms. The Black Lives Matter movement got going again at a level not previously seen after George Floyd, an African-American man, was killed by police during his arrest for allegedly using a fake $20 bill. The officers in question initially saw no justice and, rightly so, protests were seen across America and eventually the world. 

Australia began 2020 with wild fires raging out of control. The first major sports event of the year was the tennis Grand Slam, the Australian Open. Tennis players were raising money to help fight the fires that were raging just down the road and, at one point, threatened Melbourne itself. It is believed that many species of animal could have been made extinct by that fire. Although it was the middle of summer, and fires are not so unusual, the extent and ferocity was the scary part and clearly a sign that climate change was playing a huge part.

COVID-19 was out of control in some places. What these places fail to realise is how it can be controlled in other places. New Zealand, Vietnam, Australia, China, etc. held proper lockdowns and put in proper measures to control the virus. Apart from odd flare ups, many of these places started 2021 with life as normal as it can be. Meanwhile, the UK, US, Brazil, etc. are suffering the greatest losses of life and, as I type, the UK is in another national lockdown. We were in this position 10 months ago and it feels like there has been no progress. I know we have a vaccine now, but it seems a long way off until we can be normal again.

In 2020 it felt like we would wake up every day and something else had happened. There was a sense of dread in going to bed every night because you never knew what you were going to wake up to in the morning.

2021

At time of writing we are only eight days into the new year. We have been put in lockdown since the year began (in the UK), vaccines are being delayed and no one is entirely sure why. America is really pushing it as well. In case you have been living under a rock, here is what happened...

Trump and the racists

On Wednesday 6 January 2021 Congress were set to ratify the results of the US Presidential election. They were in the Capitol Building in Washington DC and everything was going according to plan. Yes, there were some Trump die-hards who were there to try and delay proceedings, but everyone knew that the results would be ratified and Biden would be set for his inauguration in two weeks.

Meanwhile, Trump was holding a rally up the street. Thousands of his supporters turned out to hear him speak. When it became clear that VP Mike Pence would not tow the party line and would just do his job by ratifying the results, Trump told his supporters that they would march down the street to the Capitol Building and demand that the results be thrown out. Trump began marching with the masses, but he soon disappeared, leaving thousands of people to storm the Capitol Building.

As elected officials had to find a place to hide, hundreds made their way into the building, while thousands remained outside. They raided offices, stole lecterns (of all things) and made a mess of the stage set up for Biden's inauguration.

However, there was something even more uncomfortable about the scenes. Many of these people, all supporting Trump, were wearing far-right and Nazi symbols. One man paraded a Confederate flag through the halls, a symbol now of racism from the pro-slavery troops of the past. One was seen wearing a hoodie with '6mww', an anti-semetic slogan meaning '6 million was not enough' in reference to the number Jewish people who lost their lives at the hands of the Nazis during the Holocaust. Another wore a shirt with the words: 'MAGA Civil War' and this had further racist connotations as racism was a big factor (if not the biggest factor) behind the American Civil War. 

Not only were there many far-right/Nazi supporters of Trump there, but there was a vast contrast in the treatment of his supporters against the BLM protestors of the previous summer. When the BLM protests took place there were heavily armed police all around the Capitol Building to prevent them from entering. On top of this heavy force was used and this included the use of tear gas. None of this was present on 6 January 2021. In fact the police that were there were seen taking selfies with Trump supporters and helping them down the steps. 

As one person put on Twitter, the BLM protests were not a call for the, predominantly white, Trump supporters to be shot at and manhandled like they were, rather they were a call to treat Black people the same way the Trump supporters had been treated.

This is hard to argue against, because the BLM supporters were peacefully protesting at their nation's capital. They were merely asking for fair treatment and for real change from their elected officials. The Trump supporters were committing acts of criminal damage and were walking around with fire arms in the nation's centre of politics. It was scary and worrying.

There is still hope for 2021

Change takes time and nothing will be better over night. We didn't get to 00:00 on 1 January 2021 with an expectation that the virus would be gone, all racism would be ended and the world's financial and climate issues would all be solved. We all have a part to play in getting the world to a better place.

For my part I will take the vaccine when offered and, in the meantime, I will stay home and make sure I do not contract or spread the virus in my local community. I will continue to try and educate myself on issues like BLM. I will promise never to vote for a government that enables racism and has no plans for tackling climate change.

By the end of 2021 we should be in a position to be with loved ones again and have a fairly normal life restored to us. We can do it, but we all have to make the effort. Things will not fix themselves. We can all make 2021 a better year than 2020.