By: Pari Esfandiari & Gregory Treverton
The year 2020 seems like a dark time when a devastating pandemic made death, poverty, and isolation the order of the day. It was also the year when American democracy was attacked and wounded from within. A falsely disputed election and threat of civil war that was encouraged from above seemed surreal, beyond our darkest predictions and even our imaginations. Indeed 2020 was all that, but the optimist in us wants to remember the shining moments of this long dark night, those bright stars that are hardly acknowledged and too easily forgotten in the darkness and pessimism that is taking over our lives. But in the spirit of New Year, we want to celebrate those shining moments.
