2020 Won’t be the Last Time

There is no easy way to capture everything that 2020 meant to us as a society and no way to describe what it meant to us as individuals.

In late 2019 — and even very early in 2020 — the vast majority of us had no notion that a world-altering pandemic was just around the corner — though in hindsight there were warnings and voices calling for us to pay attention that were largely ignored. The five-year anniversary of the first case of COVID-19 in the U.S. offered us an opportunity to reflect on what exactly happened, and what has happened since then. For movement leaders and organizations, that reflection led us to consider the big-picture issues, communities and constituencies we represent, and our own organizations and personal experiences. We encourage this hindsight as a kind of shared foresight, and part of a larger effort to prepare.

Our goal is not to get caught up in navel-gazing or exhaustively review every aspect of the year, but to provoke real grappling with all that happened so we can better prepare ourselves, our organizations, and our communities for future world-changing events.