New Year, New Decade
Written on January 1, 2010 by moe2love
Category: General Talk
The past decade has marked a period of change for many Americans, and for many around the world as well. According to Time, these changes have resulted in probably the worst decade since World War II; in fact, the magazine pessimistically calls it “The Decade From Hell”, and says it points the way to an even worse decade in the future. In the past 10 years, we have had wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, natural disasters such as Hurricane Katrina, the disintegration of the American auto industry, and a rejection of human rights in Guantanamo Bay. TIME seems to have it right when it calls the past decade “The Decade from Hell”, but what do you really think? Has the past decade really been that bad, especially considering some of the worst times we’ve had since World War II?
Here’s how I’m looking at this situation: this decade has not even been close to being one of the worst decades of all time. Take a look at the 60’s. The 60’s had the assassination of some of our greatest American leaders, such as John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., and Malcolm X. The Vietnam War also had a much greater body count than the Iraq War and the War in Afghanistan combined. If you want to talk about civil rights issues, in the 1960’s African Americans went to Vietnam to defend democracy, only to be denied it back at home. The 00’s: worst decade since World War II? I think not.
This negative claim from the Time Magazine is ludicrous and needs to stop before the pessimism spreads. How about some hopeful views? This past decade hasn’t been bad, and there are many signs that point to an even better decade coming our way. For example, we’ve averted a depression, our GDP’s on the increase (although we’re still in danger of staying in the recession state), Gitmo’s officially closed, we have a new Pope, and Kanye West has become a social icon we can all make fun of.
Interestingly, this decade has had a large number of historic events. We’re experiencing things that will be written down in history books and studied by future generations to come.
I’d say that we can look forward to an interesting decade, and especially a new year.
Now that we’ve gotten past all that serious talk, I have only one thing left to say…
