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How to Turn 2020 Hardships Into a Teaching Moment
Townhall.com ^ | December 30, 2020 | Mark Davis

Posted on 12/30/2020 4:22:10 AM PST by Kaslin

As the fouled days of 2020 wane into history, the air is filled with relief and anticipation for a better 2021. In some ways, the new year is guaranteed to be better by default, in that it should feature a pathway out of the current COVID nightmare. But from the virus to the election to the culture, 2020 has been a harsh teacher, showing us things that have long needed fixing. We can make 2021 and the ensuing years decidedly better if we grasp some hard-learned lessons and demand better of our leaders, our media and ourselves.

We learned in 2020 that we were willing to destroy the lives and livelihoods of millions of Americans in order to fight a virus. We sacrificed countless households and businesses on the altar of mitigating COVID spread. America and the world are as mask- and distancing-obedient as we have ever been, yet spikes continue unabated. This creates valid skepticism as to how necessary the edicts have been.

It makes sense that masks impede a respiratory virus, but perhaps we did not have to bludgeon the economy, our schools and our overall way of life with draconian restrictions. COVID will not be our last virus. “Experts” well-versed on epidemiology but blind to real-world plights of citizens will be ready once again to lead us down the myopic road to shutdowns. Their voices belong in any policy debate, but they are not the only voices.

Our daily lives were skewered not just by weaponized “science” but by the willing partnership of authoritarian leaders. From blue-state governors to local overlords drunk on the addicting elixir of power, money and attention, elected officials made not just recommendations but sweeping pronouncements declaring what we were and were not permitted to do. Resisting these incursions risked rebukes from on high, or worse, punishment under law. We would be wise to navigate the remaining COVID drama and future virus responses with heightened awareness of the human cost of focusing on only one type of health.

We learned in 2020 that much of the regulatory bog that has kept vital medicines off the market may have been unnecessary. We have listened for years as bureaucrats have told us how they simply cannot clear the way for patients to benefit from the wonders of pharmaceutical science without years of delays and reams of redundant studies.

Some layers of caution are required; we cannot allow every mixture crafted in every lab to be introduced into every ailing person without testing. But Operation Warp Speed showed us that urgency plus determination can yield remarkable results. Overcautiousness may be preferable to the hazards of insufficient oversight, but if the current COVID vaccines end up as a success story for the ages, that can inspire a similar faster-track approach to countless future remedies.

We learned in 2020 that the media bias we have stomached for decades can rise to a level of malice and corruption unforeseen by even the harshest of critics. No one expected a liberal news culture to embrace a conservative agenda, but the viciousness aimed at Donald Trump makes its treatment of Ronald Reagan look like a back rub. In the eyes of people who consider themselves actual reporters, Trump was a dictator, a white supremacist, a ruinous scourge that imperiled democracy itself.

No one should pretend that the media will regard current and future Biden administration concerns with anything resembling years of Russia collusion obsessions, but the widening media marketplace and the sizeable community of observers should ensure that the certainty of double standards and hypocrisy will be met with a bright light of clarifying attention.

We have learned that many who offer themselves as voices for racial healing and justice have little interest in either. A nation properly repelled by the death of George Floyd was maligned as a racist hellhole by pundits, actors, athletes and other denizens of the high perches of fame. Millions who are willing to address issues of policing and other areas of racial discord have no interest in a dialogue that begins with slander, anti-patriotic displays and the soundtrack of eternal racial grievance. Social-justice rhetorical excess has driven away a public that once embraced sports as a respite from the political gripes of the day, and further repelled consumers of a popular culture more interested in scolding us than entertaining us.

This litany of 2020 eye-openers may seem honed toward a conservative point of view, but even Democrat-run states are seeing bipartisan pushback against virus-driven tyranny. And dishonest media, endless race-baiting and regulatory excess are bad for everyone. So to conclude, maybe there are a few categories of our harsh education that have the power to unify and leave us genuinely grateful. They range from small to sweeping. I long for restaurant normalcy, but the carry-out margarita looks like it’s here to stay.

I hope we can gather in normal workplaces again soon, but maybe we have discovered some mind-numbing meetings that we can cast aside for efficiency’s sake. I can’t wait for a return to church services packed to the rafters, but I know a lot of people who were not regular churchgoers who plugged into the comfort and inspiration of online services back in the spring. We can hope for their new church homes to bless them long after the virus has loosened its grip.

And finally, we can hope that as we reclaim our lives in 2021, we learn that we should take nothing for granted, from loved ones to a restaurant meal, from a weekend road trip to a full shelf of toilet paper. When we can shake hands and hug again, let’s cherish the human connections that we have been denied.

One way to ensure a better 2021 is to strive for improvement in the things that need it. Those efforts will succeed if we collectively persist. But the one thing we all have control over is how we conduct ourselves. We will have plenty of time to address our quests for better leadership, better media or better behavior from others. As we seek those things, the new year will be instantly better if we face its challenges with resilience, optimism and goodwill.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: coronavirus; covidlockdown; trumpadministration

1 posted on 12/30/2020 4:22:10 AM PST by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin
We learned in 2020 that we were willing to destroy the lives and livelihoods of millions of Americans in order to fight a virus. We sacrificed countless households and businesses on the altar of mitigating COVID spread. America and the world are as mask- and distancing-obedient as we have ever been, yet spikes continue unabated.

Last March through May, I waited and waited for President Trump to do something about the mandatory mask edicts, the lock downs, and the tyranny of the governors who were ripping the Constitution into shreds.

I watched the daily press briefing, and all I saw was him nod his head as Fauci and Brix spread fear and panic.

I never did figure out why.

2 posted on 12/30/2020 4:27:22 AM PST by SkyPilot ("I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." John 14:6)
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To: SkyPilot

Because he was led to believe that millions would die if we didn’t.


3 posted on 12/30/2020 4:36:50 AM PST by nfldgirl
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To: Kaslin

“We can make 2021 and the ensuing years decidedly better if we grasp some hard-learned lessons and demand better of our leaders, our media and ourselves.”

I think the American people are going to have to grow some better brains a lot faster than ever before...Like never before!


4 posted on 12/30/2020 5:34:28 AM PST by equaviator (If it seems like it's too bad to be true then maybe it isn't.)
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To: SkyPilot

President Trump has had to contend with so much in his journey as our duly-elected President; all the attacks against him to remove him from Office even before his landslide win in 2016, brought by the wickedness of evil men and women bent only on power and money from the lowest position / office to those who hold the greatest economical wealth on earth and that seeming power they see it gives them (direct hallmark of Satan’s plans as laid out in Scripture, using those who either directly worship him or are simply displaying the pervasive wickedness present in the normal state of sin in rejecting The Lord’s will-—present since Adam and Eve’s decision to rebel against God and seek to be ‘gods’ of themselves).

We know of all these people that they wish to not lead our nation but to rule us under the evil tyranny and hatred of Communism, where they think to control everything we do, say and think. For decades the youth of the United States have been indoctrinated, slowly, into the group-think of the Deep State via our schools and universities, chock-full of Communist plants who play to be ‘students’ but are actually present to infiltrate, indoctrinate, and conquer, and now we see the fruits thereof. With the heavy use of violent video games—which from inception were first produced by our own military structure to train for war (and then released into the open market), for searing the minds of those who ‘play’ them to the point where no amount of gore, bloodshed or tactic phases them. Generations of people who are now trained for war, against their own country. God forgive us, and protect us.

So, what should be our own Constitutional Republic is slated to be removed by those who hold their office under the infusion of wealth and power by the Deep State, and be changed into either an Islamo-facist or Communist dictatorship (for those actors are present). The Lord Himself has placed President Trump as our President for “such a time as this”, in this present age, to enact things in the Middle East—agreements brokered with Muslim countries to make peace with Israel, with more on the way, likely Saudi Arabia coming next. Yes, it is because of economical influx to these countries and the selling of weaponry / technology to them, and these peoples may very well use them against Israel in the War of Ezekiel 38-39. It was a bought peace, and how would true peace remain if their heart is not truly in it? But this is all in God’s plan, as you read about what will happen to every nation that comes against Israel. The Lord God will place a hedge around His People, the Nation-State of Israel, and destroy the armies of those nations. A great earthquake, torrential flood, hailstones, and fire and brimstone! They will turn on each other in terror and slay one another as well.

Understand, I am not saying that our President is the anti-Christ; but that “man of perdition” exists, and is at the ready to deceive all of mankind who are left on the Earth and do not hold to the testimony of Jesus, when He Returns. “Behold, He comes quickly!” the Bible tells us.

On October 26, 2020, President Trump announced, “I now consider myself to be a non-denominational Christian.” What does that mean? It means that he is declaring himself to be wholly subject to the Lord Jesus Christ, mind, soul, body and spirit, and no longer subjecting himself to what man has made in the bondage of the divisiveness of religious ‘borders’ or ‘walls’ that denominationalism brings. It is not unlike at all to the High Priests, chief scribes, Pharisees and Sadducees and other high rulers of Jesus’ time—and still exists even now in Israel. They are saying, ‘If you go after and convert (accept Jesus), you cannot be a Jew and be a Christian’—the two are incompatible (though our Master Himself was a Jew and kept the Holy Days and the Feasts with his disciples). But when our Savior and Lord came, He fulfilled the Law and the prophets, and set all mankind free from the law of sin and death—those who will receive Him and believe on Him. In Israel now, special detachments are sent out even to prevent Jews from being baptized, and to stop Christians from witnessing Christ. God created Israel and the Jewish Nation of People—would mere men bent on positions of money and power dare to get in the Almighty’s way and prevent Him from protecting them and in the end, saving that Remnant of them?

Our President, while nodding his head, may have been saying within himself, who are these people that are surrounding me in positions of power, who constantly contradict themselves and in addition are pushing away and subverting actual, timely profound scientific evidence that this virus can be not only cured but destroyed? Now you see, he is cutting those people off from himself, others in positions of political power are either resigning, being fired, or retiring. And more is on the way, and it has to be; his Second Administration absolutely cannot be infiltrated or set upon by such vile, wicked vermin again. Their day is coming, and it is like a rat-infested ship that is engulfed in flames...the flames of truth and justice and freedom. And where will these things swim to? Will those who have promised them positions of power and money invite them to live within their borders? No, for they are the “useless idiots” who will be tossed away.

In all, this is why we who hold to the testimony of Jesus need to be in continuous, fervent prayer for President Trump, his family, those who stand with him in his Administration, and their families. For protection, for peace, and to thank our Lord and Savior, for He is Sovereign and in control, always.


5 posted on 12/30/2020 6:31:53 AM PST by Patriot777 ("When you see these things begin to happen, look up, for your redemption draweth nigh.")
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To: Patriot777
Thanks for you post. I pray we have a second Trump term, but right now it looks almost hopeless. We are between the Red Sea and Pharaoh's army.

Also, I said a prayer for you and your family.

God bless you.

6 posted on 12/30/2020 8:56:44 AM PST by SkyPilot ("I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." John 14:6)
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To: Kaslin

We’ve been using this time to essentially evangelize Dave Ramsey.


7 posted on 12/30/2020 12:40:38 PM PST by tbw2
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