Alas, the time has come once again to bid adieu to yet another year.  When you look back on 2015, what do you see?  Was it a good year or a year of sorrow?

When I look back at my year, I find nothing to complain about and much for which to be thankful.  I am thankful for a loving family who put up with my many idiosyncrasies, for enough income to keep a roof over our heads and food on the table, to pay the bills, and have enough left over to support my book, caffeine and tobacco addictions.  We have good friends and have added a number of new, very special friends this year.  We are all reasonably healthy, and this is the first year of many that I have not lost a close friend to death, so I have to say that overall it was indeed a good year for me and my family.

But, of course, we do not live in an insular world, we do not live in a plastic bubble, and we cannot simply bury our heads in the sand and ignore the world around us. Though our own situation may be stable, the global, larger community of which we are a part is a different story.  In my book at least, 2015 globally has been a year of turmoil, of trauma and stress, of ignorance and cruelty beyond belief.  Of course here in the U.S., the headlines throughout the year typically featured next year’s news … the 2016 presidential elections, specifically the large selection of controversial and incompetent candidates vying for the republican nomination.  However, there was more news both here at home and across the globe that bears remembering and will have longer ranging effects than the bickering and inanities, so let us think back and reflect briefly on the major news stories from the year:

• January –  Charlie Hebdo Attack in Paris

Terror struck in Paris one week into the New Year when a group of men with extensive ties to terrorist organizations targeted the offices of the famed satirical newspaper. Two men shot their way into the offices of Charlie Hebdo while a third waited near the getaway car. The shooters forced their way into the publication’s offices, killing a maintenance man and police bodyguard assigned to protect the editor after he received death threats. Once arriving at the office, they proceeded to kill nine others, injuring an additional 11. A faction of al Qaeda claimed responsibility. The attacks continued in France for two more days, taking the lives of six others, including two police officers and four people held hostage at a kosher grocery store in Paris.

• March –  Germanwings Plane Crash

A major aviation mystery in 2015 differed from the series of crashes the previous year in that the plane’s recording device led investigators to a suspect shortly after the deadly crash: the co-pilot. The recording from inside the cockpit of Germanwings Flight 9525 during the March 24 flight from Barcelona to Dusseldorf indicated that co-pilot Andreas Lubitz locked the lead pilot out of the cockpit during a break and proceeded to direct the plane toward the mountains of the French Alps, killing all 150 passengers and crew on board.

• May – Amtrak Train Crash

A train derailment in Philadelphia killed eight and injured more than 200 Amtrak passengers in May after the Northeast Regional train sped around a curve and went off the track. The train’s engineer. who survived, could not explain what caused the deadly crash. The National Transportation Safety Board led the investigation into the accident and determined that the train accelerated before the crash and had been traveling in excess of 100 mph, which was more than twice the speed limit for that area of the track.

• June – Prison Escape in New York

One of the biggest stories of the summer seemed like something straight out of a Hollywood movie. It involved two prisoners, a sexual liaison with a prison worker who smuggled tools hidden in frozen meat and a midnight escape with a smiley-faced getaway note. David Sweat and Richard Matt, both convicted murderers, escaped from the maximum security Clinton Correctional Facility in upstate New York on June 6, crawling out of sewage pipes and digging through cell walls A huge manhunt took place over much of northern New York for the next three weeks. Law enforcement officers shot and killed Matt on June 26. They found Sweat two days later; in November, he pleaded guilty to all charges related to his escape. The prison seamstress, Joyce Mitchell, was arrested and admitted to having had a sexual relationship with Matt, along with providing the tools. She was sentenced to up to 7 years in prison. Corrections officer Gene Palmer was charged with assisting the pair of inmates to escape. He has pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial.

• June – Charleston Church Shooting

One of this year’s deadliest mass shootings struck a particularly heartbreaking chord. The shooting at Charleston’s historic Emanuel AME Church in June caused national mourning and outrage, after a 21-year-old, reportedly with white supremacist beliefs, attended a Bible study session at the famed predominantly African-American church before allegedly opening fire on the group. The accused shooter, Dylann Roof, was apprehended the morning after the June 17 attack and is awaiting trial on 33 counts, including murder and firearms charges, as well as federal hate crime charges. The judge entered a not guilty plea on his behalf. The shooting and Roof’s purported racist beliefs prompted a debate over the state’s continued use of the Confederate Battle Flag at South Carolina’s Capitol. After heated debate, the state legislature voted to have the flag taken down. It will be exhibited at a nearby museum.

• June – Same-Sex Marriage Debate

The Supreme Court made a landmark decision in June, voting to allow same-sex couples to marry nationwide. The 5-4 decision was praised by many, including President Obama, who called it a “victory for America.” But not everyone was pleased with the decision. A county clerk in Kentucky became a touchstone for the national debate after she claimed it was against her religious beliefs to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Kim Davis was jailed for nearly a week for defying a judge’s order to issue any marriage licenses in Rowan County.

• August – On-Air Shooting in Virginia

The gunman in another tragic shooting claimed it was the racism of the Charleston church shooting that prompted him to create a scene of carnage in the late summer. Vester Lee Flanagan, a disgruntled former news anchor, shot two of his former colleagues while they were on the air on location for a Roanoke, Virginia, TV station. The Aug. 26 shooting left reporter Alison Parker and cameraman Adam Ward dead. Flanagan later posted a video on social media of the shooting that he appeared to have filmed during the attack using a portable camera. He also sent a manifesto and called ABC News after the shooting. He shot himself to death during a car chase with police later that day.

• November – Another Terror Attack in Paris

A series of coordinated terror attacks struck fear through the heart of the French capital on Friday Nov. 13. A combination of shooters and men wearing explosive vests targeted a football stadium, restaurants and a concert venue that evening, leaving 130 people dead. French officials determined that the attackers had ties to daesh (aka ISIS), which has claimed responsibility. The alleged ringleader of the attacks was killed five days later when authorities raided his apartment in a northern Paris suburb. An international manhunt is still underway at this time for at least one other suspect.

• Throughout the Year – Mass shootings (Roseburg, Lafayette, Chattanooga, Planned Parenthood, San Bernardino)

From a college campus in Roseburg, Oregon, where 10 people were killed, or a military recruiting office in Chattanooga, Tennessee, where five people died, to a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs, Colorado, that left three dead, shootings were an all-too-familiar occurrence in this calendar year. The deadliest came on Dec. 2 in San Bernardino, California, where it’s alleged that a married couple opened fire at the Inland Regional Center during a Department of Public Health conference and holiday luncheon. The San Bernardino shooting marked at least the 57th mass shooting this year where three or more people were killed.

• Throughout the year – Deaths by Police Officers

The acquittal of George Zimmerman in the shooting death of teenager Trayvon Martin led to the creation of #BlackLivesMatter in 2013, and the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner among others by police officers in Missouri and New York, respectively, carried the outrage through 2014. It was the deaths of Walter Scott and Freddie Gray, both at the hands of police officers, that fueled the outcry in 2015. Scott was fatally shot by a police officer following a traffic stop in South Carolina on April 4. Footage of the incident was recorded by a bystander that appeared to show Scott, who was unarmed, running away from the officer, identified later as Michael Slager. Just over a week later, in Baltimore, a man named Freddie Gray was picked up by police and put in a police transport vehicle without being properly strapped in. He suffered spinal injuries during the ride, which led to his death. Protests, some of them violent, erupted across Baltimore. After Gray’s death was ruled a homicide on May 1, six police officers were charged in connection to his death. All have pleaded not guilty. The first officer’s trial just concluded with a hung jury. A retrial is set for next June, after the other five officers are tried.

Chicago police also came under scrutiny for alleged misuse of force this year after footage of an October 2014 fatal shooting by police was released in November of this year following a court order. The video showed 17-year-old Laquan McDonald being hit 16 times. The officer involved in that shooting, Jason Van Dyke, was charged with his murder and has pleaded not guilty. Public criticism of the way authorities handled this case resulted in the firing of Chicago’s police superintendent, and a public apology from Mayor Rahm Emanuel.  In total, across the U.S., 1,125 people were killed by police officers in 2015.

• Throughout the Year – European Refugee Crisis

Tens of thousands of people fleeing war-torn Syria and other areas in the Middle East and Africa spent much of this summer making the laborious, and dangerous, trek through Europe toward countries including Germany and Sweden in hopes of finding asylum. The influx of refugee families prompted international disputes and policy shifts as countries such as Hungary started to close some of their borders and put up fences with razor wire to prevent people from entering. President Obama’s plan to allow 10,000 Syrian refugees into the United States met with stiff resistance from some House Republicans who have called for stricter certifications that none of the immigrants poses a security risk.

And that wraps up my summary, though of course there was much, much more I could have written about. You will notice, as you breathe a sigh of relief,  that this post does not focus on the U.S. political scene, as I have said much (and will no doubt have more to say in the coming year) about that.  I did not touch on the wars and conflicts raging in the Middle East, nor on the tensions that are mounting between Russia and other surrounding nations such as Turkey and Greece. I also do not focus on a number of my pet peeves:  bigotry, racism, Islamophobia, fear-mongering, the media, climate change and many more.  I am simply looking back at the most relevant news stories in my opinion while attempting to keep this post under 2,000 words. On January 1^st I will write a post about welcoming in the year 2016, my hopes and expectations, so I hope you, gracious readers, will stick with me for that one!  Meanwhile, please have a safe and HAPPY NEW YEAR!