2016 - What the Hell Happened?

In years to come, when they look back at 2016, people will ask “What the hell happened”.

It has been the year that the celebrities died en masse.  David Bowie, Alan Rickman, Leonard Cohen, Gene Wilder, Prince, Muhammed Ali, Terry Wogan to name but a few.  Some of the brightest and well loved lights of the music and film industry who will be missed by so many.

The year that the UK shocked everyone, including themselves, and voted to leave the EU by a tiny margin of just 4% of the vote.  The year that saw hate crimes rise by 300% after the referendum.  A year where half a nation believed lies and one racist, sexist, bigoted man over facts and common sense.

The year that America went mad and voted Donald Trump to be their president.  A man who has the attention span of a two year old and is so easily irked that he tweets insults at three in the morning.  As I am writing this, he has just been made “Person of the Year” by Time Magazine.

It is interesting to note that that same accolade was also given to Hitler in 1938.

The year where woman in the UK campaigned to remove tax from tampons, only to be told that the money would be reallocated so that they could pay for their own domestic violence support.  The year where a woman is being sued by her own embryos.  

The year where some states in the US are forcing women to bury or cremate the remains of an abortion or miscarriage.  A year where just yesterday, Ohio put the abortion limit down to six weeks; when most women do not even know that they are pregnant.

The year where millions of refugees have been forced to leave their homes relocate across the Middle East and Europe.  A year where the far right (and the Daily Fail) have got such a hold in some people's minds that they were wanting to check the teeth of migrant children for their ages.  A year where people like Katie Hopkins said "Rescue boats? I'd use gunships to stop migrants".

The year where mass shootings at schools and colleges seemed to happen every other week.  Yet the shooters were not called terrorists, but simply misunderstood and troubled.

The year when a certain footballer's retrial was successful for him, purely based on other men's testimony who were not there on the night, but merely testified that the girl in question liked sex.  

A well loved and brilliant MP, killed by a terrorist of the far right.

I could go on, but you get the picture.  You know.  You have lived it, as we all have.

Looking back, I cannot see much good in 2016, but there has been.  A little.

The campaign on GoFundMe for the rape victim mentioned above that raised over £26,000 to be shared between Rape Crisis and the victim herself.  The rise of the Black Lives Matter movement that is successfully highlighting the prejudice faced by black people by the police and society in general. 

The safety pin movement, started after the UK referendum and continued after the Trump win.  More people standing up and objecting, speaking out against what is wrong rather than watching from the sidelines.

The 2016 Paralympics, where Paralympians for the first time achieved more medals than the able bodied Olympians.  When the world, finally, started to realise that disability is not something that has to be hidden and felt sorry for.

We are better than the year we have just experienced.  We can behave better, we can learn, we can change, we can stand up for what we believe in.  I still believe in people.  We have to stand up to hate.  We have to stand up for the people that need our help.  We have to show compassion.  

To quote Winston Churchill:

"Never, never, never give up."

Emotionally Correct?

I was watching a video from Huffington Post with Sally Kohn who was talking about emotional correctness and I found what she was saying really interesting.

When it comes to political correctness, many people are now habitually correct in the words that they use, but what I have come across on many occasions it that the meaning behind their words is hollow.  If you don’t actually have any foundation or belief behind your words then it doesn’t matter how politically correct you are.

 

Being politically correct without the emotional attachment to it is pointless.  You shouldn’t have to try to be politically correct; this is something that you should already be.  Saying the right thing because you might get in problem isn’t the same as feeling that way.

 

Being emotionally correct to others can sometimes be hard, or it can be when you are particularly passionate about a subject and someone disagrees.

 

I confess that I am guilty of becoming angry or close minded when someone has the opposing view to mine, particularly for example when it comes to the rights to a woman’s body.  I am very much pro choice in a woman’s right to have an abortion and this is something that I have been fervent about on many occasions. 

I can find it hard to acknowledge the other person’s point of view when it comes to things I care about deeply and this is something that I am most keen to rectify within myself this year.  Everyone has a right to their opinion and should not be shouted down. 

 

Having a calm discussion with someone of opposing views to your own is always the thing to aim for.  Problems are never resolved by who can shout the loudest nor can viewpoints be taken seriously or considered when they are laced with sarcasm and ridicule.

My new resolution for this year (yes, a little late) is to really listen to people when they have a differing stance to myself.  How do you really know how to properly feel about a subject until you have heard all of the contrasting arguments?

 

Just something that is floating around in my head at the moment.