Billy Joel could remake We Didn't Start the Fire JUST using events from 2016.
Ziggy Stardust, Patty Duke, Grizzly Adams, Morely Safer;
Willy Wonka,
Shandling,
Frey,
And that White Shadow Guy ...
Prince and the purple Rayne,
Mr. Spock beamed up again,
R2-D2,
Princess Leia,
Carol Brady,
Castro...
For children who graduated high school in the 80's like me, this year has been especially rough.
So many of the actors and musicians from our childhood are leaving. Perhaps the gift of maturity has
given us sympathy and respect for even those from shows or bands we didn't particularly care for —
for example, I wasn't particularly into Prince in his heydey, but I can recognize what an amazing
artist he was. George Michael is another fine example; I saw on the news this morning several tweets
that were reported instances of selfless and anonymous acts of donation and volunteerism.
Apart from the celebrity deaths, 2016 was also quite a year of political turmoil. Across the pond,
many were stunned by the results of the UK referendum to leave the European Union by a margin of 52% to
48%. The result meant the EU would lose its second
largest economic contributor, and England loses priveleged access to continental trade. The Prime
Minister resigned his position in the wake of the vote. Here at home, we saw news of
the Democratic National Committee covertly favored former
Sen. Clinton, who ultimately lost a nationally divisive contest against the outspoken outsider
Donald Trump. Among the fallout of the Trump victory: revelations that
Russia created fake news stories over social media,
and that the FBI had purposefully re-opened its case against Clinton
in the latest days of the race, both intended to influence the outcome of the election.
New articles seem
to surface daily about threats from white supremacy groups (under the
more PC moniker of "the alt-right") for waffling on
his infamous, isolationist campaign promises to build a wall at the U.S.-Mexico border, to
deport some 3MM illegal aliens, and, in a recurring theme,
to leave NAFTA.
Brussels bombings,
Zika,
and Mossack Fonseca;
BREXIT,
Bernie, DNC,
Malaysia Airlines 17,
E-mail servers, FBI,
ISIS bomber suicides...