Dystopia in Pursuit of Utopia
By: Veronica Leighton
Awww! 2020, how am I supposed to be describing you to welcome 2021? At first, I thought you were going to be like the other past glorious years that I have celebrated in my life, since as young as I could remember until my present waning and wrinkling years.
The year 2020 was about a surprisingly lonely year for an introduction to an unfamiliar covid virus that has killed many people and still killing more numbers of people, unsatisfactory adaptations from wearing masks, gloves and 6-feet distancing when with a group, when shopping, banking, etc., with hugging and kissing replaced by elbowing, coupled with canceled plans for special holidays like Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year. Zooming and face-timing are now new words when seeing and talking with each other at a distance or “virtually”; in our broadcast and print media situation, Zoom interviews have satisfied and replaced our function for personal interviews.
Our hearts bled to see our new graduates not experiencing the normal joy and happiness of walking to the tune of a “Pomp and Circumstance” processional march in accepting their medals/diplomas on the stage. Yet, their gleeful happiness was irreplaceable when they held their diplomas up high wearing or throwing their caps and gowns in their front lawns as their family and friends drove past, their only way to show how proud they are of their achievements.
George Floyd’s dying plea of “I can’t breathe” has morphed into a political battle cry, that horrifyingly introduced us to the hateful rioting groups named Antifas and Black Lives Matter that destroyed many cities and towns and businesses, resulting to calls of defunding the police all over.
Amidst the flurry of hopelessness, we found our new heroes, in the doctors and nurses who work beyond endurance to save lives, and the essential workers who make everyone’s life bearable in this pandemic.
The political atmosphere and landscape can only be described as chaotic and far from over, and has not ended up to now. Things are getting hotter and leaders and followers are getting bitter each day, with pertinent questions like, what’s going to happen to Trump’s Legacy and what’s the future holds for Biden? Most importantly, what does the future hold for our country. What will happen to us?
We know that there’s always hope, that could be found “somewhere over the rainbow” or “at the end of the tunnel,” or could be brought to us “on a silver platter” and it should be for this year 2021. Who knows? But let’s not lose hope. There will always be hope for the sick, for the teachers, students and parents, for the caregivers, for the businesspeople, for the government officials. Hope for all of us, young and old people alike. Dystofia in Pursuit of Utopia?
Our editorialist Joe Mauricio has also touched on “From Chaos to Hope” in his Editorial on page 4. Let’s look forward to a positive change, and we must not lose hope.
Thank you to Dr. Manny Escalona (and Dr. Remy Escalona) for an endearing gift of a special photo taken years ago with my departed friend Roski Fernandez. So precious!
