Opinion: 2020 has been year of terrible losses

This is a terrible year for deaths. We might just hit a quarter million American losses to COVID-19 by the end of the year and, somewhere, someone is mourning every one of those losses.

My family has been fortunate not to have suffered a COVID-related death. Thousands of others haven’t been so lucky.

I suppose the COVID-related death that hit closest to home for me personally was John Prine, who died in April. I felt a kinship to him and his music, with its mixture of humor, sentiment and cultural commentary, which is why I felt his death at a personal level.

Some of the most notable deaths this year, however, haven’t been from the coronavirus. The late, great Rudolfo Anaya was one of those losses this year.

In late June, we lost this great writer and good man, a New Mexico native son who reshaped Chicano literature with his classic first novel, “Bless Me, Ultima.” Then, as his writing career spanned the decades, he lifted up literacy and children for the good of us all.

With the passing of U.S. Rep. John Lewis and the Rev. C.T. Vivian on the same day in July, it felt as if a glorious piece of history was passing as well. These were two of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s lieutenants in the great Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and ‘60s — true heroes who now rest in peace, having fought the good fight, also for the good of us all.

But, more than any other death during this tumultuous year, two in particular will stand out in the history books, for the political and cultural firestorms they created.

One was the killing of George Floyd in May. His brutal death ignited a racial reckoning that feels as if it will not stop until systemic reforms are made and we’ve come all the closer to “a more perfect union.”

The other is last week’s death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, which is adding fuel to the political fires already burning.

For more than a quarter century, “the Notorious R.B.G.” served on the U.S. Supreme Court as a left-leaning champion of women’s rights, including her pro-choice position on abortion.

Contrast her with Antonin Scalia, a conservative intellectual and larger-than-life Supreme Court justice who died in 2016. He repeatedly advocated for a repeal of Roe v. Wade, and he and Ginsburg staunchly opposed each other on a number of fronts — and yet, as a testament to more a civil time in our American culture, they were best of friends.

There are still those kinds of relationships, political opponents who forge true friendships from their common humanity, but they’re becoming harder to find. Ginsburg’s life should be celebrated by all Americans, but it won’t be, for there are many who quietly condemn her because of her position on abortion.

Nevertheless, this is a woman worthy of great respect, someone who served the cause of justice and equality and made us a better country as a result.

Tom McDonald is editor of the New Mexico Community News Exchange. Contact him at:

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