Iraq and the weather dominated the headlines for most of the year, so it’s no surprise that my list of the Top 10 Biggest Stories in 2005 has plenty of both:
- The Great Democratic Revolt — Austin Bay has nominated the historic democratic movements in the Middle East as not only the biggest story of the year, but…These slow revolts against tyranny and terror continue, and are the “big story” of 2005 and the truly “big history” of our time.” Democrats said that elections in Iraq couldn’t happen; that the price was too high; that it wasn’t worth it; and repeatedly asked, “what noble cause”. The Democrats were wrong.
- The Asian Tsunami — even though the waves struck on Dec. 26 of 2004, the massive amounts of deaths and destruction that were not fully realized until 2005. An estimated 216,000 people died in this disaster. 216,000.
- Hurricane Katrina and the complete destruction of an entire major US city
- The death of Pope John Paul II
- The terrorist attacks in London on 7/7
- The restructuring of the Supreme Court — starting with the death of Supreme Court Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, to John Roberts being named as the next Chief Justice, and the announced retirment of Justice Sandra Day O’Connor.
- Terri Schiavo starved to death by husband
- The generosity of the American people — TIME magazine, in naming Bono and the Gates “Person of the Year“, missed the real story: celebrity billionaires giving money was not nearly as important or prevalant as average Americans giving their time, money, and home towns to help those in need in 2005. After the Asian tsunami, we gave hudreds of millions of dollars. When Katrina destroyed New Orleans, cities like Houston and Austin took in 10s of thousands of homless victims. When Hurricane Rita followed and resources were already stretched thin, Americans dug even deeper and continued to give.
- Earthquake kills over 80000 people in Pakistan
- Cindy Sheehan defiles the memory of her dead son to persue her own selfish agenda.
