For many, 2016 was not the best of times, one fire after another repeatedly doused with gasoline. We watched America tear itself apart from the inside in one of the most contentious elections in our history, all the while witnessing far greater destruction in other parts of the world. Syria comes to mind.
We didn’t solve racism or sexism or gun violence or police brutality or free speech or safe space or political correctness. World peace is still a remote concept. The successes don’t make up for the losses, but it’s worth remembering there was some good in a year full of the bad and the ugly. I will have more to say about whether 2017 is likely to be any better in the coming days and weeks, but let’s at least take a moment to consider some of the good things we experienced in 2016.
Advances against Ebola
Liberia is finally clear of the deadly virus, marking its end in West Africa. And just last week, an experimental Ebola vaccine was proved highly effective — a milestone that could prevent the spread of another outbreak.
No longer endangered
Pandas have been downgraded from “endangered” to “vulnerable”; manatees have been reclassified as “threatened”; and nine of the 14 humpback whale populations have increased since they were classified as endangered in 1970.
Breakthrough on ALS
You did it. All the cold water you dumped on yourselves and donations you made to ALS research through the 2014 Ice Bucket Challenge paid off. About $115 million was raised, leading to the discovery of an ALS-related gene.
Library of Congress first
Carla Hayden, the library’s first African American and female Congressional librarian, was behind the decision to keep West Baltimore’s library open in the midst of protests surrounding the death of Freddie Gray in 2015.
Homeless man foils attack
When Lee Tyrone Parker, a 50-year-old homeless man, and his friend Ivan White stumbled upon a backpack in Elizabeth, N.J., they unknowingly helped foil a bombing. After emptying the backpack and finding what turned out to be five pipe bombs, Parker and White took the items to the police station and were questioned by the FBI. The bombs were allegedly assembled by Ahmad Khan Rahami, the suspect in the New York and New Jersey bombings that injured 30 people.
NASA gets to Jupiter
Five years and 1.8 billion miles later, the spacecraft Juno reached the largest planet in our solar system. It’s already sent back flyby images of Jupiter’s north pole that have given us never-before-seen views.
Brock Turner backlash
Former Stanford University swimmer Brock Turner was convicted this year of sexually assaulting an unconscious woman, identified as Jane Doe. When he was released from jail after just three months, critics were outraged. But Doe herself wrote a powerful public letter to Turner that spurred California legislators to expand the definition of rape and increase the minimum sentence for such crimes.
Delayed Parole for Charles Manson followers Leslie Van Houten and Patricia Krenwinkel
On two separate hearings this year, California parole officials rejected possibly setting free Charles Manson followers Leslie Van Houten and Patricia Krenwinkel. They are alive today only after their original death sentences for killing actress Sharon Tate and six others in order to spawn race wars were commuted to life with the possibility of parole when the then death sentence laws of California were found unconstitutional. While California law theoretically provides for parole when these now in their late sixties and early seventies killers no longer pose a “threat” to society, so far these are two cases in which our representatives seem to have heard the political and social mandates of we the people that self-serving good behavior is not enough to eviscerate the original two day life taking rampage of these women and their partners in crime. Lest one argue that these elderly “ladies” can no longer pose a threat, I would answer that release is a threat because it encourages the next generation of misfits to be more brazen.
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