*Top 10 Stories of the Decade*
It’s that time of year. No, not when the world falls in love (though do that, too, if you'd like!) but rather the time to reflect on the best stories. Given that we’re entering a new decade, I’m looking back at ten years, not just one. (And yes, I’m one of those people who starts counting at 0 because grouping 1990-1999 and 2010-2019 just looks better than 1991-2000 or 2011-2020, am I right?)
As usual, I’ve gathered a mix of actual news, fictional movies, and factual documentaries that exemplify important themes and capture cultural shifts. Some were tipping points of sorts; stories of problems many communities have painfully faced for generations but were bubbling just under our collective consciousness. Some were major events that captured public attention and seemed to demand action, but have not resulted in any tangible change – yet. And others were uplifting tales that remind us of the creativity and kindness of which humans are capable when we aren't busy making a mess of things.
While largely U.S.-focused, I’ve included a few stories from around the world that permeated global consciousness. The list is a varied mix of themes, sources, and levels of optimism - and it's my mix. If you feel I missed the boat somewhere, as always, I enthusiastically invite your insight in the comments below.
2010
This year saw the rescue of 33 miners trapped underground for 69 days in Chile. As someone living in Texas when the world held its collective breath (and gave CNN the 24-hour global interest it had been craving) during the 58-hour rescue of Baby Jessica from a well in Midland, I remember vividly how intensely people wanted a child they'd never seen to survive her ordeal. As TIME reflected on an era with only three news networks:
"Friday was a day that brought a bumper crop of trouble. The nation awoke to discover that a U.S.-flagged tanker, Sea Isle City, had been hit by a missile, [at noon heard of] Nancy Reagan’s upcoming hospitalization, and once again the word cancer threw a pall over the White House, [and after] a day in which the Dow Jones industrial average plummeted by a record 100-plus points, the stock market’s 4 p.m. closing bell was like a dirge...
"The evening news featured pictures of harried men peering into a silent hole. Below the surface, rescuers used a high-pressure water drill to cut through the last barrier of rock. Then, at nearly 8 p.m. Central Time, all three networks switched to Midland. The image endures: a grimy paramedic emerging from the rescue shaft cradling a bundle in his arms — Jessica alive, swaddling bandages hiding all but her nose, her pitifully battered arms, her frightened eyes and wisps of blond hair.
"...Withal, it was a story with that rarest of endings: a happy one. Through Jessica, the nation had briefly been transported back to a time when anything seemed possible with enough prayer and hard, selfless, backbreaking work. In a messy and maddening world, savor the memory."
In 2010, the world held out hope again. "Neither the miners buried under half a mile of rock nor their families above ground in a makeshift tent city called Campo Esperanza — 'Camp Hope' — ever completely succumbed to despair, despite the fact that for 17 days, before a drill finally broke through to 'The Refuge,' the room where the men were gathered, no one knew whether they were alive."
There's something about the cooperation, determination, and profound depth of our will to survive that brings people together across language, geography, and culture - no matter how many news networks we have.
2011
As we moved into a world of smarter phones and increasing connectivity, it was unsettling to learn that the News Corporation, chaired by Rupert Murdoch, had been hacking the cellphones of celebrities, royals, and the subjects of breaking news stories. Particularly hideous and heartbreaking was the hacking that gave a family hope that their kidnapped daughter might still be alive.
This scandal led to the shutdown of the News of the World on July 10 after 168 years of publication – 168 years! With the exponential increase in mobile phone usage in the less than one decade since, I’d be curious how many of us give our terms and conditions a glance before updating. (Personally, I may have signed away my first-born child dozens of times now for all I know.) Now they don’t need our phones to spy, of course; we just put Alexa in our living spaces.
2012
Just over ten years after Columbine, the name of a high school now synonymous with deadly gun violence committed by teens, the name of an elementary school became synonymous with deadly gun violence as well: Sandy Hook. On December 14, a 20-year-old man armed with a high-powered rifle entered the Newtown, Connecticut elementary school and murdered 20 children — all ages 6 and 7 — and 6 staff members. This was the second-worst school massacre in U.S. history and occurred the same year as numerous mass shootings, making other cities and towns notorious for the mass killing that occurred there – e.g., Aurora, Colorado : movie theater :: Oak Creek : Sikh temple, and so on.
After the Newtown tragedy, President Barack Obama and many others, including some staunch gun-rights supporters, said it was time to find ways to rein in gun violence.
In 2019, we don't know exactly how many people have been killed by gun violence - perhaps we'll know more if the CDC uses its research authority - but we do know we've had at least had at least 41 mass shootings in this year alone, which USA Today notes is a "record high."
2013
Ready for something more uplifting? Me, too. Let’s talk about major shifts in understanding across America and the major steps forward in treating all people as equals that resulted: marriage equality.
Brought to you by the robed residents of 1 First Street NE in Washington, D.C. (well, five of them anyway), the June 26 decision struck down the Defense of Marriage Act (“DOMA”), a federal law limiting marriage as between a man and a woman. Considered possibly “the fastest shift on a civil rights issue in the nation’s history,” the landmark decision in United States v. Windsor, cleared the way for people to marry the person they love regardless of what each of them has going on below the belt.
Written by Justice Anthony Kennedy (we miss you, good sir), the decision recognized this issue as one of basic equality. Seventeen years after President Bill Clinton, under the covers with bipartisan bedfellows, signed DOMA into law, Justice Kennedy explained that it “undermines both the public and private significance of state-sanctioned same-sex marriages; for it tells those couples, and all the world, that their otherwise valid marriages are unworthy of federal recognition.” Nobody should be told they are “unworthy.” (If you don’t believe me, ask Tara Brach.)
Giving a one-two punch to outdated thinking, the Supremes also dismissed an appeal to uphold California’s ban on same-sex marriage, which gave other states the cojones y huevos to bless the marriages of people who have any combination thereof.
2014
There are, of course, major stories on both the domestic and international fronts every year but, in 2014, I can’t choose between them so - my list and my rules (and my fondness for Liberia) - I’m going with both.
This was the year Ebola moved perniciously across West Africa – and beyond. Fear spread as fast as the images of people being left to die in the streets of Monrovia and Freetown and criticism devoid of compassion was even faster to follow as conversations about burial practices and deep mistrust of government sprung up among many who previously wouldn’t have been able to find Liberia on a map.
If you’ve not heard this story from Hidden Brain about public health officials who went "to extraordinary lengths to keep the disease from spreading further — from halting a police investigation, to suggesting officials allow illicit drugs into a medical facility, to tracking down the elusive 'Time Bomb,'" you simply must. Must must must. Make it a new year’s resolution to take around 20 minutes to hear this inspiring story.
On U.S. soil, protests erupted across the country late in 2014 when a grand jury decided not to indict the white police officer who shot Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager, in Ferguson, Missouri. When a second grand jury half a country away in NYC reached the same decision weeks later following a white policy officer in the chokehold death of Eric Garner, an unarmed black man, conversations that had been happening for decades finally reached a national scale – and continue to this day.
2015
Animated films have always had a special place in my heart, but Inside Out wins my story of the year for 2015 for the impressive amount of research its creators dedicated to the project. In the words of Dacher Keltner, who advised the director, Pete Docter, during the making of the film:
"Well, I think that the film really got a couple of big ideas about emotions right. One, [emotions] are really critical to how we look at the world—our perception and our attention and our memories and our judgment. They guide us in our handling of really important life circumstances, like moves and developmental changes.”
Need a feel-good real-world example of the movie making an impact? Here and here.
2016
Sigh. Not to bring the mood back down, but the fact that “post-truth” was the word of the year tells you a lot about the direction of 2016 as a whole.
That was also the year of what some erroneously call "The Brock Turner story," but is actually the Chanel Miller story - a story of bravery, perseverance, and the first recall of a judge in California in eight decades, especially leading into 2017...
2017
The International Women's March. Considered the largest single-day march in U.S. history, this event is said to have reached at least 81 other countries.
2018
I stand by my fictional film and documentary film selections from last year as the top stories of 2018 because both are truly amazing in their own right: Black Panther and Won't You Be My Neighbor.
The clock is ticking and cocktails will be waiting, so I'm going to say "ditto" from last year on why.
2019
Hands down, the top story of 2019 is When They See Us.
Based on a true story, I wish the four-part series directed by Ava DuVernay would be required viewing for all Americans, even though watching it is like having your heart ripped out and shredded into tiny pieces, never to be the same again. This summary by The Innocence Project is a good place to start understanding the importance of the wrongful convictions, the brokenness of our criminal justice system, and the inspiring lives that the Exonerated Five have gone on to lead. If you've not yet seen this series, resolve to do so in 2020.
Happy 2020, all! I hope the new decade ahead brings you much love, kindness, and hope - both in the stories around you and in your own.