Let's All Wave Goodbye to the Year 2009

In a perfect world we'd have no unexpected deaths, or deaths that could be prevented... In a perfect world we'd have no financial hardships where we're struggling to pay the heating bill... In a perfect world, we as citizens would all get along with each other, help one another out, etc. Or even better, in a perfect world we wouldn't need to help one another out because nobody would need help... But we don't live in a perfect world, and I think for a lot of people that hit them straight in the noggin this year.

Now to explain...

The year 2009 had a considerable amount of high-profile deaths, which really can't be denied, even by those that feel the Internet played a huge part in why we experienced high-profile death after high-profile death. It does make a lot of sense though as if it weren't for the Internet and what it does for us these days, we'd probably not have noticed half of the deaths that occurred. But whether you play the role of the rocket scientist or not and put the Internet into the equation could be why we all felt this was the year of the death.

"I know year of the death isn't the correct way of saying that, or typing that for that matter, but it sounds so much more interesting that way." I, Jason F. stated.

Okay, so it was quite hard figuring out which one to put first... Okay, maybe not, but hey - this is still a very important story. Regardless of what party you represent, we can't forget the inauguration of our first African-American president Barack Obama. The reason I say regardless... Well, many Republicans weren't too happy and to this day, the majority still aren't happy with the current progress, or lack of from our president with the current status of our economy & overall lifestyle.

The 2009 flu pandemic surely didn't receive a positive response from human beings. The H1N1 influenza virus, recurrently alluded to as "swine flu," as the media calls it was first made public on March 18th, 2009 in Mexico City. Before the official notice, there were hundreds of unreported cases of H1N1 in Mexico, and it was then being declared as a "silent epidemic." Within weeks of the H1N1 cases in Mexico, reports of the beginnings of a pandemic of the influenza A/H1N1 virus began spreading in the US.

The celerity of the H1N1 virus spread like wildfire in the United States alone with a profuse amount of states reporting various hundreds of thousands of confirmed cases of the disease. On November 12th, 2009, the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) reported that an estimated 22 million Americans had been infected with A H1N1, with 4,000 of them dying. On December 10th, 2009, the CDC reported that within a month, the number of infected Americans had more than doubled from their last announcement with a reported estimate of 50 million Americans being diagnosed with A H1N1. 10,000 of them passed away due to the disease.

A vaccine for H1N1 is being widely distributed to the general public by several states. President Barack Obama declared Swine Flu a national emergency in the United States.

Finally, the United States has seen the worst economic situation since the Great Depression, and the recession went to depression in many American's eyes starting in 2009. Whether you follow conservatism, liberalism, or are a nonpartisan group, you can't really steer clear of our current economic status, let alone the past two or three years. You may be able to afford something more than another person from a different party, but you can't steer clear of it. Not too long ago, the United States' economy led the world right in front of Europe. Now, Europe leads the world as measured by assets under management with just over $32.7 trillion.

Will the United States be seen as the best-performing developed country in the world again anytime soon? Well that all depends on how smart our government spending is... It depends on how well the retail environment performs... It depends on business (both minor and major) investments, etc... The snowball effect of "if this company doesn't purchase from that company;" "so that company won't purchase from this company" is a major circumstance within our general economy and until that "snowball effect" makes a positive transition, the current economic situation won't change much, if at all for quite a while.

The National Bureau of Economic Research has stated numerous times that the U.S. has been in a recession since late 2007, although well before that things were going downhill. The housing downturn started in 2006 and to this date it continues to suffer greatly with hardly any, if any growth. With continuous rising costs of living, steady unemployment, home foreclosures (which back in March of 2009, issued by the Congressional Oversight Panel, who monitored the rate of home foreclosure had found that the rate was three times its historic rate), etc.

Health care is a major issue at this point. When 2009 first arrived, Americans stood together in hopes of our new president doing something about the tens of millions without health care. In the midst of a $787 billion dollar stimulus package and loads of jobs being lost, our nation fell apart. Now, a health care reform staring us straight in our eyes is going to "apparently" allow everyone to afford health insurance. What I find misleading though is the fact that there is always something not being explained fully - that being this insurance not covering this... Or this insurance not covering that...

Let's all wave goodbye to a year of losses. Not only the losses of high-profile people that many looked up to, but losses deep within ourselves. Ask yourself this question, and be honest... All of the above is in the back of your mind...

"Would I change anything if I could revert back to the beginning of 2009?"

I know you're probably saying everyone asks that question... But it's so important, that within one year, many people felt our nation falling apart little by little, piece by piece... But if we could change something, or somethings, would the nation be in any better shape than it is now?

What about a year from now as you read this? What about 10+ years from now? How will things overall be? I suppose we'll find out.

God Bless America!