“It’s 2020”: Reflections on a Time of Crisis
Cover image taken during the day on September 9th, 2020 in Half Moon Bay, CA. [1]
As tragedy after tragedy flash across the headlines of the news, I find myself stuck in a paralysis. The statement “it is 2020″ and its variants “this is 2020″ and “it’s 2020 after all” all come to mind. For many of us, 2020 has become synonymous with the word crisis taken to an absurdist extreme. It feels like an absurd amount of time has passed since January 1st, or rather that an absurd amount of absurd things have happened. The COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdown and restrictions. The Australian Wildfires, the Impeachment and resultant Acquittal of President Donald Trump, the tragic passing of Kobe Bryant, the conviction of Harvey Weinstein, the murder of George Floyd by police officer Derek Chauvin and subsequent worldwide protests against police brutality and systemic racism, multiple hurricanes striking the Southern US at the same time (Marco and Laura), and now the most destructive fire season in CA in modern history combined with record-breaking heat waves.
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