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2014

A poem on the tumult of 2014 and a reflection eight years on.

By Stephen A. RoddewigPublished 2 years ago Updated 2 years ago 2 min read
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Photo by NASA Johnson Space Center on Wikimedia Commons

Author's Note: I wrote this poem at the end of 2014 after reflecting on how the Vietnam War era that I was learning about in a college history class seemed so much more eventful. Then I realized that the past year had just as much tumult; we just don't have the luxury of reading a neat summary of events in a history book. "2014" is an attempt to capture some of the key moments of that year and to offer some perspective on how we tend to tune out bad news in the age of social media.

Eight years later, it's fascinating to see how history has repeated itself in many ways. In 2014, Russia annexed Crimea. In 2022, its army is invading the whole of Ukraine. In 2014, the Ebola outbreak looked like it could become a wider pandemic. Today, we are now entering our third year of the Coronavirus pandemic. Last year, we saw another flare up in the ongoing Israel-Palestine crisis.

In other ways, some events from 2014 never resolved themselves. We still don't know what brought down Malaysian Airlines Flight 370. The civil war in Syria has carried on to this day. Iran appears to be on the path to developing nuclear capabilities again after the U.S. withdrew from the Iran Nuclear Deal. Boko Haram is still active and launching attacks at least as late as last year. Afghanistan is still gripped by violence, but now it is the Taliban regime versus Afghans who oppose their rule and Islamic State insurgents.

I do not mean to suggest I have any of the answers to these and other major issues facing the world. I just think it's important to maintain a historical perspective on the recent past. It may not feel like history because we didn't read about it in a textbook; we lived through it. But in many ways, it has more impact on current events than anything we now consider conventional history.

2014

War in Syria,

Ebola in Liberia,

Russia in Crimea:

the world in hysteria.

.

Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 vanishes,

the whole of the Indian Ocean without a trace.

Flight 17 takes a SAM and crashes.

Our airspace is no longer safe.

.

ISIS on the rise in Iraq.

The U.S. Air Force on the attack.

Nuclear weapons developing in Iran.

38,000 soldiers in Afghanistan.

.

Israel pounds Gaza with armaments.

The world doesn’t even ask why.

Boko Haram kidnaps two hundred students.

Nobody bats an eye.

.

William and Kate have a baby.

The media goes into a frenzy.

A car explodes in Kabul.

Nobody speaks about that in school.

.

2014, one hell of a year,

but you won’t find any talk of it here.

Too much bloodshed to find time for fear.

At this rate, we’re all bound to disappear.

.

But you tell me over and over and over again my friend,

Ah, you don't believe we're on the eve of destruction.

- Barry Maguire, "Eve of Destruction"

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About the Creator

Stephen A. Roddewig

Writing the adventures of Dick Winchester, a modern gangland comedy set just across the river from Washington D.C.

Keep an eye out for A Bloody Business, a Martin Williams novel!

Vocal chapter president for the Horror Writers Association 🐦‍⬛

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