Like every year that has come before it, 2012 has brought the good, the bad, the tragic, the controversial, the funny and the “seriously?”
Now that Christmas has passed, the week will be filled with year-in-review specials that every media outlet will publish or air before 2013 rolls up. So, I thought I’d do my own little year in review and see what exactly 2012 has taught us:
It was the grisly story that wouldn’t end, as much as we wanted it to. Luka Rocco Magnotta sent the stomachs of Canadians churning when he murdered and dismembered Concordia University student Jun Lin and proceeded to scatter Lin’s body parts across the country. The story stretched over a month and grew more horrific with every weekly update.
There’s a story every year that reignites the gun control debate in North America and 2012, unfortunately, had two examples that made international headlines. Twelve people were killed in July during a shooting at a movie theatre in Aurora, Colo. and 20 children and seven adults died during the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting Dec. 14 in Newtown, Conn.
The Magnotta case taught us that just when you think a story can’t get any worse, it does and the Aurora and Sandy Hook shootings further highlighted the problematic gun culture in North America, but Amanda Todd’s story taught us that the Internet can be a cruel, unforgiving and deadly place.
The B.C. teenager made headlines in September when she posted a video on YouTube illustrating her struggles with bullying, depression and self-harm. A month later, Todd committed suicide. There was a time when schoolyard bullying was confined to just that – the school yard. Now, the faceless and the nameless can belittle, tease and threaten from the comfort of their own home and with a simple click of a button.
Cyberbullying and the alarming, growing amount of teenage suicides has pushed its way up as one of North America’s social issues. In the wake of Todd’s death and similar cases, there has been a push for more funding and awareness for anti-bullying organizations, as well as a call for increased cyberbullying laws in Canada.
One of the upsides of 2012 is that we are still here. Dec. 21 has come and gone and either the end of the Mayan calendar apocalypse didn’t happen or the afterlife is freezing. I’m guessing the latter because I still had to come into work today. Doomsday predictions went 0-for-2 in 2012, so is the third time the charm?
The end of 2012 has brought about an honest-to-goodness Christmas miracle – the end of “Jersey Shore.” Let’s see one final fist pump for those that lost brain cells watching that show. May you find peace and support during this difficult time and may MTV clue in that their station is called “MUSIC television.”
While we say goodbye to Snooki, the Situation, Pauly D and J-Woww, who squeaked six seasons out of their 15 minutes of fame, the entertainment world has already found its replacement. I watched my first episode of “Duck Dynasty” over the Christmas break. I haven’t laughed that hard in a really long time, but I only lasted one episode, which is about the amount of “Honey Boo Boo” I could stomach. We are now in what I am calling the redneck reality era. So. Much. Camo.
Thanks to 2012 entertainment, most of the world now claims to know Korean. “Gangnam Style” is this generation’s “Hamster Dance,” except we could escape that annoying little fur ball by turning off our walkmans and walking away from the kid who insisted on singing it every recess. No such luck with Psy.
In sports, 2012 taught us that money means everything and the fans mean nothing, if you cheat, you’ll get caught no matter how good you are and the Jamaicans are fast.
As I write this, we’ve passed the 100-day mark of the NHL lockout with time and hope for a season seeping away. It’s likely the season will be cancelled, barring some last-minute miracle.
For years, Lance Armstrong was the face of international cycling, but how the mighty have fallen. In October, Armstrong was stripped of his seven titles and banned from competitive cycling for life after it was revealed that he used performance enhancing drugs. He went from being one of the most celebrated athletes in the world to one of the most disgraced.
Controversy, heartbreak, elation, pride were all put on display in London as it hosted the 2012 Summer Olympics in August. Christine Sinclair became Canada’s darling after leading the women’s soccer team through a heated semi-final against the U.S. and to a bronze-medal finish. Michael Phelps made the entire world a fan of water sports. Ryan Lochte reminded us why it’s important to stay in school and Usain Bolt made the medal we won at the elementary school track meet look like a rock we found in grandma’s garden.
Farewell, 2012. Here’s hoping for peace, healing, happiness and harmony in 2013.
