Despite everything, many points of light shone in 2020

Let us say a fond farewell  to 2020. It has been, despite a pandemic, protests and politics, a very good year.

It was the year when we saw acts of kindness so numerous that a room packed with math whizzes manning a bank of computers couldn’t count them. The acts came from doctors, nurses, health aides, hospital housekeeping workers, police and fire personnel who kept our country running, and family, friends and strangers who wore masks and hunkered down at home across this broad land.

After the world was beaten and battered, their acts of selflessness illustrate that the spirit of Christmas is still here — year round.

It is the year when we corrected the mistake we made four years ago by electing Donald Trump, a coarse tyrant, to lead us. In 2020, we chose Joe Biden to replace him by a huge margin in the biggest display of voting in America’s history.

It is the year when we developed not one, not two, but likely three or more vaccines for the coronavirus that has attacked hundreds of thousands of Americans, killing many. The global toll is even greater. This was the year we began to see light of the end of the tunnel, and an end to the fear of infection.

Just those two acts alone will make our lives better for years to come.

But 2020 is also the year when we learned that brilliant scientists can do such complex, yet simple things for the common folk, and that we can applaud the scientific world without giving up an ounce of our faith.

It is a year when, politically, we moved back to the center, balancing intelligence with common sense.

It is the year when we saw the first woman elected vice president of the United States, and more women elevated to positions of strength, importance and leadership. Sadly, it took too long, as women have historically been relegated, in various ways and degrees, to a lesser status than men.

We will be better off because we used 2020 to embrace the difference in races, gender identification, sexual practices and lifestyles. We haven’t yet come to respecting one another’s opinion, but we have to leave something for 2021.

It is the year when Tom Brady showed us that old men can still play football — and that women on the college level can score points on the gridiron

And the year when we rediscovered families enjoying the holidays together and, some irony, that office parties aren’t really necessary. .

So we look forward to 2021 and thereafter with some new realities, a better society and renewed belief in the power of the human mind.

Happy New Year, everyone.

It’s going to be a very good year.

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Dan Warner is a veteran newspaper reporter and editor.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/37Rhg4H