2020: Good Riddance

Well, I guess unless you are Jeff Bezos or one of the other billionaires who have made a financial killing off of the pandemic that defined 2020, I’m sure you will agree that it is a blessing to now be looking at the disaster of last year in the rearview mirror.

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But if nothing else, we learned last year just how inept our federal government is at responding to a national crisis. Folks, without putting too fine a point on it, if this were the best we could do in the early 1940s we would all be speaking German or Japanese now. So it goes.

In fact, with nearly 350,000 Americans (and counting) being killed by the Trump Virus, we have already surpassed the number of deaths of American military men and women during WW2. Here’s from Business Insider:

The US saw 291,557 battle deaths during World War II, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs.

I wonder how the Trump-supporting mask-holes are getting along with their claims that this pandemic is a hoax, while clinging to absorb conspiracy theories that Biden and the Dems somehow stole the election.

 

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I digress.

Anyway, I’m reasonably optimistic that 2021 will be better.

It appears that a vaccine for the virus is beginning to make its way into arms of Americans throughout the country.

And we can look forward to the return of some actual Presidential leadership in less than a month — even if the current POTUS has to be carried from the Oval Office in leg irons.

 

 

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So let’s keep our fingers crossed and hope for the best in 2021.

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But in any event, for 2020: good riddance.

Published by

Rob Jewell

I’m Rob Jewell and I live and write in Woodland Park, Colorado, the City Above the Clouds. I've been fortunate. I worked for 29 years at BFGoodrich in Akron, Ohio. I started editing employee publications and ended as vice president of corporate communications. Then I started a public relations consulting company before becoming a full-time faculty member in the School of Journalism at Kent State University. I taught courses in writing, public relations and mass communication ethics. And I supervised a student-run public relations firm, called Flash Communications. During my tenure at Kent State I was honored to receive the university’s Outstanding Teaching Award. During most of this time I've been a dedicated runner. OK, jogger, if you take speed into consideration. But while my times are not much to write about, I was and am committed. For almost 30 years I ran at least 1,000 miles each year. (Except for one year when I tore my calf muscle playing tennis. So much for tennis.) Being on the road most mornings at 5 a.m. gave me some time to think. It also led to some amazing friendships that now span more than three decades. And my longtime love affair with running helped me shape my first novel, Then We Ran, which is available wherever electronic books are sold. And just so you don't think that all I did was work and run, I have other interests as well, many centering on family. My wife, Mary, was a successful and highly regarded career teacher in the Akron public schools. She now devotes her time and energy to a host of social and athletic activities in Woodland Park. My son, Brian, teaches at Cheyenne Mountain High School in Colorado Springs where he is also the head soccer coach. And my daughter, Jessica, has completed her doctorate at Kent State University where she is also an administrator with the Wick Poetry Center. I've done a lot of writing during my career -- but Jessica is the real writer in the family. I'll try not to make too many errors in this blog. I'm sure she'll be watching.

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