Multitudes of iconic celebrities passed away. Emotions
got slammed twenty-four hours a day on social media. Somehow, we survived the, arguably, biggest circus of an election cycle in our history. America discovered
we were no longer close-knit communities. Once again, we have a black eye; but only
because we keep punching ourselves.
2016 was a hard year. Honestly, I’m happy for
it. America’s been running on a lot of luck for a long time. We’re spoiled. We’re
one of the youngest countries in the world…and we act like it. The time to
mature is here if not overdue.
Unfortunately, the only way to get our attention
anymore is to be heavy-handed. The past year got heavy fast. Not only did the
year start with celebrity deaths, they kept coming through December with the
loss of Carrie Fisher and her mother. This alone led many people to call 2016
the worst year ever. Maybe, but death happens. Our icons die. They aren’t
literally immortal and many of them died from abusing alcohol or drugs for
years. Others died from diseases for which we don’t yet have cures. 2016 said
hey, the party ends for everyone sooner or later.
2016 wasn’t done yet. The Presidential election
cycle was in full swing with Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump grandstanding
over all of us like titans…often acting like children on the stage. Their
antics led their follower’s choices of antics (and etiquette, or lack thereof),
which led to a social media frenzy that drove many people to depression and
others to blacklist family because of disagreements over politics.
The only reason this matters to the year as a
whole is that we had yet another opportunity to realize we won’t always agree
on how things should work. Unfortunately, so far, it does not appear we quite
caught on to that lesson. The wounds are all too fresh. We are still lashing
out, or staying in our respective echo chambers where we can’t be wrong.
2017 is an opportunity to learn from this year’s
many harsh lessons. Will we? Leave your thoughts below.
James Neal is the author of the fantasy stories listed below, click the link to learn more and possibly purchase:
$3.99
$1.75
Free
Free
