In the two weeks leading up to the New Year, the whole world is forced to put up with optimistic news stories, opinion columns, blog posts and TV specials all making predictions for the coming year. Because this year marks a new decade, there is more of this garbage than usual floating around. When else could Bono write a column about his 10 favorite scientific ideas to come? Instead of looking forward, though, why don't we take a look back? Who cares what's going to happen in 2010, can anyone remember what happened in 2009?
Well, let's test it! How many of these names do you recognize? Chesley B. "Sully" Sullenberger, Roman Polanski, Marc Ravalomanana, Joe Wilson, Al Franken, Neda Agha-Soltan, Oscar Grant, Bernie Madoff. Some of these people lost their jobs, freedom and lives, affecting our world at least through the coming year. How about the Air Force One photo op in New York or the important executive order President Obama signed with regard to stem cell research? These were all major events and top news stories in their time, but where are they now?
Furthermore, we seem to forget the good times more readily than the bad. How many proponents of same-sex marriage can remember which states it was legalized in? How many opponents remember the states it wasn't legalized in? In my opinion, 2009 will be most remembered for Michael Jackson, H1N1 and the violent health-care debates. What joyous memories we are leaving for our progeny!
My purpose here is not to berate anyone for a faulty memory (I had to look up two of the names on my list above), but rather to point out that it's frivolous to look to our future if we are forgetting our past, and that our forgetfulness is causing our national dialogue to suffer.
The health-care debate raged on throughout the previous year and continues to do so, in what I would argue are small bursts. On the eve of various votes or congressional vacations such as the August summer recess, people seemed to remember that they loved or hated the idea of national health care, and took to the streets anew. However, as I looked through news stories and blog statements from each of these different phases of protest, I noticed that the complaints were always the same. People continued to ask questions such as "Will illegal immigrants receive this health care? Is it right for them to?"
Maybe, just maybe, every single one of these people didn't watch the news or didn't research their favorite topic of protest and were genuinely ignorant. Yet the politicians themselves who helped craft and approve these changes seemed to be just as much in the dark about even the most recent amendments. They levied the same complaints and asked the same tired questions on talk and news programs. Perhaps this unawareness was by political design, but the number of people on the opposition trying to respond to these questions was surprisingly small. Why should the sponsors of these bills amend them if the opposition is only going to forget the compromises they made last month or even last week?
I sincerely worry that if we continue to care only about who tweeted what in the last hour, this phenomenon of forgetfulness is going to become more widespread. If we cannot even remember what happened, then it will be impossible to learn the lessons that 2009 had to offer, and our discourse on issues like health care will not move forward. The success of our country hinges upon a productive, educated dialogue on the great issues we face today. If we are too lazy to remember or research the issues we purport to care about, then I fear that there are going to be darker times ahead as we make more poor decisions. Get rid of all of those ridiculous New Year's resolutions you made for the future and take a moment to think about how we navigated 2009 to get where we are today.
