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Decade in Review

by Bailee McCarthy

With 2019 at an end and 2020 just beginning, it was quite a decade. The 2010s was one that will most definitely be put into the history books. But what all happened in this past decade that was so memorable?

The presidential election of 2016 was iconic. The two candidates were Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton. Of course there were scandals that happened. Clinton deleted a bunch of emails from the government, and Trump paid off a porn star, Stormy Daniels, to not talk about their affair. Although Clinton won the majority vote, the electoral college voted in Donald Trump as the 45th president. In 2019, he was impeached for withholding money from Ukraine in order to get them to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son. He is still in the process of going through trial.

More notable events from the past decade were the revolts and protests all over the world. In 2011, there was an Occupy Wall Street protest in New York about inequality of income. “Black Lives Matter” began in 2013 after the police brutality against Trayvon Martin. Pride parades were a common thing across America, as well as across the world. The #MeToo movement exploded in 2017. 

Disasters and violence were also substantial in the past decade. In 2010, Haiti was struck with a 7.0 magnitude earthquake, and it was detrimental to the most poverty stricken country in the western hemisphere. The decade was also a time of hurricanes. In 2012, Hurricane Sandy struck along the northeast. In 2017, three hurricanes (Harvey, Irma and Maria) all hit Texas, Florida, and Puerto Rico within a five week span. In 2018, Hurricane Michael hit Florida and reached a level 5, the first to hit the adjoining United States since 1992. 

Terrorism was also a resurfacing problem in the past decade. With attacks during the Boston Marathon; Paris, France; Orlando, Fla. and a Walmart in El Paso, Texas. Mass shootings, especially in schools, have been the highest they have ever been according to history.com. With gun violence at Sandy Hook Elementary, Marjory Stoneman Douglass in Parkland, Fla., a movie theater in Aurora, Colo., a church in Charleston, N.C. and a country music festival in Las Vegas, gun laws have also escalated to be a recurring major controversy among America.

In the sports world, there were some big celebrations. In 2016, the Chicago Cubs went to the World Series for the first time in 108 years. They took the win with the longest drought in Major League Baseball history. In the world of gymnastics, Simone Biles became the most decorated gymnast of all time. As of October 2019, she had a total of 25 world medals and 19 gold medals. After she appears in the upcoming 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Biles plans on retiring from gymnastics. 

So all in all, the 2010s decade was a crazy, unpredictable mess of joy and sadness. Hopefully, as a country and as a world, we are able to come together and learn from history. Afterall, we are all seeing in 20/20 vision now.

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