Good riddance 2017. Scram. Beat it. Don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.
So much happened this year, I feel the need to jot it all down. Like so many, I’ve felt a that started with Trump’s bellicose inauguration speech and hasn’t let up since. This year has felt like 10, simply exhausting.
Though so little of it has touched me personally, I know my country will be digging out and rebuilding and repairing for generations.
Let’s recap, just the public stuff.
Trump
- Comey firing and the absurd dishonesty of Jeff Sessions’ congressional testimony
- The travel ban for Muslims (and Venezuela)
- Strategic un- or underfunding of Obamacare to hurt the most vulnerable
- The alienation of allies in Germany, France, China and the U.K.
- ICE raids, deportations, and mass fear in the immigrant community
- Nuclear brinksmanship with North Korea
- The massive tax reform that gives it away to corporations and the wealthy
RIP
- The Paris Climate Accord
- Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA, shmacka. Bye bye, dreamers!)
- Net Neutrality
- Tel Aviv as capital (and any hope of Middle East peace)
- Fetus, vulnerable, entitlement, diversity, transgender, fetus, evidence-based, and science-based (and our faith in government)
- Vital sub-cabinet posts and government advisory staff
- The individual health insurance mandate that supported affordable healthcare for all
- Frederick Douglass (no doubt rolling in his grave)
Mother Nature
- Hurricane Harvey floods in TX
- Hurricanes Irma and then Maria devastation in the Caribbean and Florida
- Puerto Rico, an act of God made 500 times worse by government incompetence and neglect
- The earthquake in Mexico City
- Massive, historic wildfires all over California
Trump Nation
- Charlottesville and neo-Nazi rallies
- White nationalism as a rebrand of white supremacy
- Mass shootings like the Texas church shooting and the one in Las Vegas
- The rise of cyber bullying, personal attacks, and partisan news
- Whataboutism hit its prime
Me Too
- The fall of Al Franken…
- …Kevin Spacey, Charlie Rose, Matt Lauer, Louis C.K., Mario Batali, Garrison Keillor, George HW Bush…
- Half the population over age 20 revisiting some sort of painful memory
- Oh yeah, and Harvey Weinstein
Farewell 2017. You’ve overstayed your welcome and left us with very few bright spots.
Silver Linings
- The firing of Steve Bannon
- Roy Moore’s narrow defeat by Doug Jones
- The Silence Breakers and a brighter day for working women
- The arrest of Paul Manafort and Robert Mueller’s ongoing Russia investigation
- SNL and John Oliver are crushing it
- Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa is here, reminding us to embrace joy and be good to each other (photos to follow)
What did I forget? In a shit storm as epic as 2017 there were bound to be other big things. My next entry will be brighter.
Keep the faith, and cheers to a happy and healthy and sane 2018! It can only get better.
Your list illustrates why we are all so very tired (and tired of it). May Robert Mueller bring us good cheer in 2018!
Amen, sister!