2017 has been an arduous year for everyone. The United States has been plagued with everything from natural disasters to acts of terrorism seemingly every other week. What caused this? Why is this happening? How did we get to this point?

The presidential election of 2016 revealed a startling truth about us as a people; we’ve been fractured. As a result of all the mudslinging, name-calling and general disrespect, many developed an “Us vs. Them” mentality. Everyone, thanks in part to  social media, has the power to voice his or her opinion regardless of it being based on reality or facts. The mentality that “if you don’t agree with me, you’re wrong” was strengthened by the results of the election and the divide amplified.

Another defining trait of 2017, is how bloody it’s been. So far, this year, as of November 26, 2017, there have been 1,895 people wounded and 560 deaths due to shootings. On October 1, 2017, a gunman opened fire at a music festival in Las Vegas killing 58 people and injuring 546 others making it the deadliest mass shooting perpetrated by a lone terrorist on American soil in history and Congress has done nothing to ensure anything this lethal happens on this grand of a scale ever again. Interestingly enough, when it comes to these lone wolf terrorists, many of them have been charged with domestic violence or have displayed misogynistic views, such as Omar Abateen who beat his wife on a regular basis, or Stephen Paddock who was notorious for verbally abusing women and reportedly paid a prostitute, thousands of dollars to be subject to an aggressive rape fantasy. Citizens may do with that information what they will, but perhaps it’s time to stop ignoring this correlation.

If it weren’t enough that we’re turning on each other, nature is also ready to destroy us, and our planet is dying. Hurricane Harvey made landfall August 25, 2017, as a Category 4 hurricane, and it caused massive carnage in the Gulf of Mexico. Around a week later the Caribbean was hit by Hurricane Irma, which was a Category 5 hurricane and is the most powerful hurricane ever recorded in the Atlantic Basin. Two weeks later Hurricane Maria made landfall on Dominica and later in Puerto Rico and is responsible for damages estimated around $103 billion. This is the first year in recorded history that North America has had three hurricanes that powerful within the same hurricane season. The same day Maria hit Mexico, there was an earthquake that registered 7.1 on the Richter scale causing 369 deaths and left a plethora of Mexican citizens homeless.

As well as storms and seismic activity, there have been fires too. Northern California experienced a drought that caused a massive inferno; this fire left 42 people dead and 100,000 displaced. An estimated 8,400 buildings, including homes, and at least 160,000 acres burned. This disaster isn’t over yet because what goes up obviously must come down, and ash that is full of heavy metals and poisons is going to fall which is going to pollute Californian waters.

I’m not saying that climate change is causing these natural disasters, but one can’t deny that the weather is getting considerably worse. Ask an elderly person and he or she will say that the weather isn’t the same as it used to be. If this doesn’t make us  uneasy, it should because the readings have no evidence of slowing and because of the repeal of EPA regulations by the Trump administration, there is a scary belief that the climate can get worse.

It’s not been all bad though! For example, there was a new species of Orangutan discovered in Indonesia, and that was the first great ape discovered in over a century. The Great American Eclipse took place on August 21, which crossed the entire continent and provided a spectacular show to countless people. I’m sure that the good outweighs the bad, but the bad can’t be ignored. I, like many others, will enter 2018 with the belief that tomorrow will be a brighter day.