We’ve arrived at the last day of this eventful and historical year.  In hindsight, we realize we’ve witnessed much history and have seen things we never dreamed possible.  The country’s largest companies have found themselves struggling just to keep their doors open, political leaders in new scandals from everything from marital affairs to placing price tags on political vacancies and the unbelievable audacity of one businessman’s belief he could get away with the theft of fifty billion dollars.  Below you’ll find a few more newsworthy events from the last half of 2008. The first half can be found here and here.

July 15 - A woman calls 911 to report her granddaughter has been missing for thirty one days. Caylee Anthony, who was two years old when she disappeared, has since been found murdered less than one half mile from her home.  Her own mother, Casey Anthony, was indicted on October 14 for the murder.  Her trial is set to begin in early 2009.

July 23 - Hurricane Dolly makes landfall as a Category 2 hurricane on the U.S.-Mexico border.

August 29 - Republican presidential candidate John McCain announces his running mate.  AK Governor Sarah Palin comes in with a bang and shakes up the entire election.  She’s well-received and

Anne Pressly

quickly gains a solid following from those not only from her home state, but from the country as a whole.

September 13 -  This is the day most analysts agree was day the chains come unhinged as Lehman Brothers announced it was near bankruptcy, AIG announced it was in hot water because of its underwriting practices and the mortgage crisis finally comes into full light and Americans realized just how bad things were on the economic front.

October 2008 - OJ Simpson is finally found guilty of one of his crimes.  A jury determined he was guilty of several felonies committed during a Las Vegas hotel room break-in.  He’s accused of stealing, at gunpoint, sports memorabilia and other momentos.  He’s facing thirty-three years in prison as a result of this guilty verdict.

October 20 - Anne Pressly, an admired Arkansas news anchor, was found murdered in her home.  A suspect has since been arrested and is awaiting trial.

October 24 - Jennifer Hudson’s family, including her mother and brother, are found murdered in their Chicago home.  A few days later, her nephew is found murdered in an abandoned vehicle.  An ex-husband of her sister is now charged with these murders. 

October 2008 - New legal provisions are passed that require insurance companies to provide the same coverage for mental health as they do physical health.  For twelve years, advocates have worked to ensure this law is passed.

November 4 - National history is made as Barack Obama becomes the first black president ever elected and will be the first U.S. president to enter office during wartime. 

Jennifer Hudson

November 2008 - The pregnant man (who is biologically a woman) announces a second pregnancy.  Thomas Beatie, a transgender who has undergone testosterone therapy but still has the reproductive organs of a woman, gave birth for the first time in March of this year.

December 9 - IL Governor Rod Blagojevich was arrested for attempting to sell the vacancy left by President-elect Barack Obama in the Illinois Senate.  He’s also been accused of a number of other illegal and unethical activities.  Attempts are now being made to have him impeached from office.

As we head into a new year, we do so in a recession but also with hopes of effective solutions to these problems and with sincere attempts to leave the “one step forward and two steps back” way of doing things behind.

As usual this time of day, I start searching for my next post. Usually, something jumps out at me within a few minutes and I’m suddenly presented with my next subject. Tonight, however, there were more than a couple references to what’s now just become this post. This is one of those posts that leave me staring at the blank Word document wondering how I can pull this off without going off on some tangent filled with pure anger and a degree of hatred. Here are the three headlines:

WOMAN GETS LIFE SENTENCE FOR SEX WITH 5-YEAR-OLD

Woman Gets Prison for Secondhand Crack Smoke That Sickens Two Year Old

North Carolina Police Find 3-Week-Old Baby Living in Active Meth Lab

I can remember thinking when my son was born of how incredible his life would be and how he could affect every person he ever met. My goal, I decided, was to ensure his presence in someone’s life would be better because of him. It never once occurred to me that there would be so much misery and disbelief that exists in today’s society. I look at him and am just amazed at the incredible human he’s become. He’s chasing his dreams, he’s pursuing his education and he has a family that would kill over him…and we’d probably hurt one another trying to be the first to get to source who has jeopardized him in any way.

What adult could allow such evil to happen? At what point does someone decide that it’s OK to rape a 5 year old because her husband made her do it? And with all of the horror stories associated with meth labs and the destruction left behind, including risking entire neighborhoods, innocent people who might be walking past a meth lab disguised as a home and the kids who have no choice but to breathe it in, is an addiction so powerful that the human spirit can justify the repercussions? What stories were told when these people were caught and arrested? What stories did they tell their lawyers? Were they so far gone that they had no interest in even assisting their lawyers? In a world where criminal attorneys have learned to expect anything and to prepare themselves for the dark sides of human nature, along with the psychologists who are asked to provide a disturbing snapshot of their mental health and the teams who must go in and detox entire buildings, you’re left feeling defeated and with no confidence in people in general. And then you realize that this one perfection you’ve managed in this life is finding his own way and it’s then you realize you wish he’d never had to grow up. As a little one, you can protect him and he’s actually SUPPOSED to have his family running interference for him and fighting his battles, but once he’s grown and pursuing his own passions and dreams, the best we can hope for is he’s not ever one of those innocent people taking a walk in front of a cleverly disguised meth lab as it explodes.

Life in prison for these folks? The imperfect human in me hopes that it’s a miserable existence.

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