2020 is gone and I speak for everyone when I say good riddance. 2020 gave us a deadly plague, civil unrest, economic misfortune, and climate disasters. 2021 is on the horizon, but it appears that a lot of the same problems will still be with us for the first half of the year at least. This isn't going to be a very deep or thoughtful article, this is just going to be me looking back on this horrible, horrible year and what I hope improves for the future.

The Coronavirus was one of the worst things to happen to everyone this past year. Millions have gotten sick, hundreds of thousands have died from the disease, and millions have been out of work, such as myself. It also feels like the government has abandoned its citizen, leaving us with little aid and support during these hard times. I hope this year people will actually start taking this plague more seriously by wearing masks and performing social distancing to help contain the spread, but they didn't last year so I doubt they will do it this year.

Civil unrest occurred when, once again, the massive inequalities within policing led to an unnecessary death and unpunished police officers. This led to both peaceful protests and riots that led to several others injured or dead. My hope is the law enforcement will actually take this seriously this time and start calling for major vetting and reforms within the police force, but they haven't changed during the other hundreds of incidences just like this so why would they change now.

Along with the virus came millions of people who were forced out of work for our own safety. You would think the government would step in and actually pass a Universal Base Income to keep people clothed and sheltered during these hard times, but all they got was one 1,200 dollar check in April and another 600 dollar check... in December. One 1,200 dollar check was supposed to help pay for food, rent, and other expenses for eight months? As a result millions have slipped into poverty and are now starving due to negligence. I hope that the government will start taking the plight of the people more seriously, and with a new administration coming in taking the situation more seriously it could help improve the lives of its citizens, but for several it's already too late.

This past year also saw massive climate damage with most of Australia and the West Coast of the USA enduring massive forest fires that took several lives and destroyed billions of dollars in property. I really, really hope people actually start taking climate change seriously after the year we just had, but as I've said before why would they change now.

I did not write this to be pessimistic about the coming year, far from it. I state these things in the hope that we will actually take lessons from these events and actually push for the change we want. I'm tired of see things constantly go from bad to worse and I'm going to actually do something about it this year. I hope to learn from the mistakes of last year and I hope all of you do to.