Monthly Archives: December 2020

Looking Back on 2020, Forward on 2021

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I’m writing this at 8:30 on New Year’s Eve (Pacific Time). We have a few hours left in 2020 and almost everyone I know is celebrating the end of the horrible year.

But I’m struck by the fact that New Year’s is an artificial marker but so many events are. I wasn’t eligible to drive a car alone when I was 15 years and 364 days but the next day I was. At 17 years and 364 days I wasn’t able to vote, etc.

The change of one day doesn’t in itself make a huge difference, but we commemorate it all the same.

Tomorrow morning we will still battle COVID-19 and Donald Trump will still be President. Our planet will continue to warm because of human activity and we will continue to have complicated relationships with other nations in the world.

But we still look forward to 2021 because we (at least I) hope that some things will turn around and begin to get better rather than continue to get worse.

There’s no way I can talk about the pain of 2020 without talking about President Trump. Last year at this time we started hearing about a new and dangerous virus coming out of China. In February I spoke with a respiratory therapist who told me that this virus was really, really bad.

At the time President Trump told Americans it wasn’t our problem and was being controlled by China. This was before be began blaming China and referring to it as Kung Flu.

From Day 1 our scientists have spoken about the importance of wearing a mask and keeping at least six feet apart. But time and again our President has refused to wear a mask and has ridiculed those who did. Time and again he hosted gatherings of unmasked people in close proximity to each other. And time and again those who gathered got sick (including the President).

Tomorrow morning little will be different. But it’s a new year and 2021 could be a good year. I pray 2021 will be the year we eradicate COVID. I pray it’s the year we begin to take seriously the challenges of climate change and partner with other nations. I pray 2021 is a year when we rebuild relationships with our allies and stop craving the approval of the dictators of our enemies. I pray that in 2021 we inaugurate a President who respects his office and doesn’t believe his power is absolute. I pray that in 2021 that our President doesn’t see journalists as Enemies of the People.

I hope to still be blogging on December 31, 2021. And I hope I’ll have more to celebrate.

The Election 2020 Chronicles, Volume 16. The Trump Chronicles, Volume 150: Reflections on 2020

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As 2020 comes to a close I have to make a confession: I had hoped to blog more this year on issues I care about. But after three years of the Presidency of Donald Trump I found it harder and harder. Not only was it difficult to blog, but frankly it was difficult to follow the news.

I don’t say that lightly. I grew up reading The Washington Post and occupied a front row seat into the Watergate scandal. Nobody argues the damage President Nixon caused but in the end democracy won.

But President Trump was different. His contempt for people of color, for immigrants, for those who disagreed with him stunned me to the core. I never felt he wanted to do the hard work of being President but enjoyed the perks (e.g. Air Force One). I also felt he ran for reelection only because he didn’t want to be seen as a looser or a quitter.

As with the majority of Americans I looked forward to the 2020 election as a way to defeat his attempt for a second term. But I also feared his lack of respect for his office or the democratic process would endanger a transition. I wrote about this here last April.

It’s been a little over 8 weeks since his defeat and he has refused to concede. I always knew acknowledging his defeat was a bridge too far for him and I was hardly surprised with his attempt to sabotage President elect Joe Biden’s transition.

But I’m still troubled. It’s bad for our nation if the Biden administration needs to catch up on issues they should have known about in November. It also shows President Trump’s contempt for our nation. Losing another four years as President stings but our nation has previously shown incredible graciousness.

In 1992 Governor Bill Clinton defeated President George H.W. Bush for a second term. President Bush, as was the custom, wrote a letter to his successor and left it on the desk in the Oval Office. The letter teaches us a great deal about the respect for the office. You can read it here. I don’t believe President Trump will do this, even with a box of 64 crayons.

I previously worried that President Trump would refuse to leave the White House but I’ve been reading that this is unlikely. I hope so.

In 2021 I’m going to stop writing on the 2020 Election Chronicles. I hope to stop writing on the Trump Chronicles but given his craving for attention I can’t make this promise.