How Will 2016 Be Remembered?

Wow. That was quite a year.

I've heard a lot of people talking about how horrible 2016 was - the rise (return) of all sorts of terrible behaviours and beliefs around the world and too close to home, the painful US Election, the set-backs on important social gains for vulnerable groups, uncountable human tragedies resulting from natural and/or man-made disasters and wars and terrorism, the deaths of beloved figures from just about every Trivial Pursuit category, ...

Sad. Depressing. And nearly over.

I'm not sure that 2016 really stands out in these respects compared to other years, but it is recent and therefore most-easily remembered. Certainly, we haven't lost so many icons in any year that I remember.

However...maybe we made a few gains? Maybe we learned a few things from 2016 and get better as a result?

Maybe 2016 will be remembered as the year that the under-30's genuinely woke up to the fact that they need to step up and rescue the world from their parents. The grown-ups really dropped the ball this year on all sorts of fronts and it feels like the under-30's watched in horror but didn't realize they could have made an enormous difference. Maybe they know that now and stop assuming we know what we're doing?

Maybe 2016 will be remembered as the year that we all woke up to what we've been hearing for decades - that if we don't remember the past we are doomed to repeat it. At the same time that we're losing the last few people on the planet with first-hand experience of the horrors of WWI and WWII, maybe we're getting the kick in the pants we need to finally believe them and do something about it?

Maybe 2016 will be remembered as the year that we became mobilized around the death of the truth, the importance of honest journalism, and the degree to which we have become vulnerable to lies.

Maybe 2016 will be remembered as the year when the voice of the people being left behind with respect to employment, health, education, and "the American Dream" overall, was finally heard.

Maybe 2016 will be remembered as a breakthrough year for mental health, when we finally started to talk about it openly, when it became as real for us as physical health. When gender issues finally started mattering to everyone. When the rest of us realized that women still aren't safe. When we finally started dealing with simmering (but carefully hidden and anonymous) xenophobic hate.

Maybe 2016 will be remembered as the year that we finally began to deal with bullying and started to address the harm that people do to each other and society when the Internet gives absolute freedom to absolutely everybody to do absolutely anything they want.

Or maybe 2017 will be even worse?

I can't shake the feeling that that depends a lot on the under-30's. Not shirking. But I think I'll remember 2016 as the year when I personally realized how much better our kids can be at fixing the world than we have proven to be. They care. They are connected. They have reach. They are frighteningly smart.  And maybe now, they've been activated by all they witnessed in 2016.

I hope so.