By snoadmin
Like all years, this one encompassed tragedies, victories, defeats, disasters, and so on. However, 2011 seemed to be a bit more eventful than other years.
We started off the year with what Yahoo! calls the “Arab Spring,” which refers to the domino effect of collapsing governments in the Middle East. These included Tunisia, Egypt, Bahrain, Syria and Libya. We applauded them. It was about time those citizens put the voice they were given to use. That takes courage. It also takes a lot of self-respect for someone to realize what treatment he or she deserves.
After that came Japan’s earthquake and tsunami. This, by all means, may qualify as the global tragedy of 2011. The latest death toll for Japan’s natural disaster has jumped up to 15840, according to a Tuesday CNN International report.
This opened our eyes to exactly what we may have to watch out for, seeing as the “big one” has yet to hit. Most importantly, though, it helped to unite us as a world, having the common knowledge that natural disasters lay beyond our control. All we can do once one hits is be there for each other.
Later, on May 2, the United States rejoiced over the news of Osama bin Laden’s death. Four months later, we celebrated our 10-year anniversary since the Sept. 11 attack. Now that is a landmark. And if you think that terrorist threats didn’t stop us from celebrating, you’d be correct.
On July 1, the owners in the NBA began the work stoppage, creating a lockout that would last until Nov. 26, when a tentative deal was reached. However, it wasn’t until Dec. 8 that owners and players reached an agreement on collective bargaining.
Luckily for basketball fanatics, there will be now be games to watch over winter break, which commence on Christmas day.
Also in July came the Casey Anthony verdict. And, that’s all we have to say about that.
Then, just after we started the school year, the protests began. On Sept. 17, Occupy Wall Street made its premier. Soon after, Occupy City Hall followed, as did students protesting the nine percent tuition increase, and the California Faculty Association rallying for pay raises. This then led to the UC Davis pepper spraying that occurred just last month, and the breaking of the glass door to the Chancellor’s office.
But it surely didn’t end there. October was a popular month this year.
On Oct. 5, the world mourned the death of the innovator of our century, Steve Jobs. Jobs was suffering from pancreatic cancer for eight years, a battle that began back in 2003. For our generation, he is someone to admire. Despite claims stating he was a “hard ass,” he was continuously pushing forward, looking for a way to break through the norm. The amount of drive and passion Jobs had in him is something to aspire for.
The biggest Long Beach and surrounding areas tragedy would have to be the Seal Beach shooting, which happened on Oct. 12. Eight people died because of shooter Scott Dekraai, including his ex-wife, and even a man sitting in his car in the parking lot outside of the hair salon.
Seal Beach held candlelight vigils in honor of the lives lost and those affected. Just as Japan’s tsunami did, the Seal Beach community was united, offering open-arm support to all.
Many rejoiced the death of Moammar Qaddafi, who was killed on Oct. 20. It was about time desperate actions were taken to oust the overly oppressive leader from Libya, even if that meant taking his life.
And, to end October, our world population hit a record eight billion. Gross. But, as we wrote in our October Our View, all we can do is plan for the future of our inhabitants by asking ourselves: in what way can we meet everyone’s needs comfortably?
Lastly, just last week our campus was hit with the tragedy of Annette Lujan. We just ask the CSULB community to be as supportive as possible. Our thoughts and prayers go out to Lujan’s friends and family.
Now that we’ve recapped, happy studying, students! And cheers to a new year.
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