A glance back on 2017
5 biggest stories during last year
One of the biggest stories that had an effect on a vast amount of people was the debate over NFL players protesting the national anthem at their games. Here the varsity football players stand for the national anthem before their game against Pflugerville.
January 21, 2018
Donald Trump made remarks in September regarding NFL players protesting the national anthem by kneeling and how they should be fired for their actions. This lead to entire teams taking a knee or not coming out of the locker room before their games for the national anthem. The national debate that followed exposed the differences our country has when concerning race and respecting what the United States stands for. This will likely continue to be an issue throughout the American sports world in 2018.
Sexual assault has always been a problem, but this issue was exemplified by the amount of famous celebrities and entertainment figures who have been accused of sexual misconduct. On October 5, accusations against famous Hollywood film mogul Harvey Weinstein were published by The New York Times. This led to multiple other famous public figures being accused, ranging from from Matt Lauer and more recently actor James Franco. 2017, however, was clearly the revitalization of a mass movement of women fighting against sexual abuse.
On October 1, 2017 the United States witnessed the largest mass shooting in American history when 58 concertgoers were gunned down in Las Vegas. The tragedy reopened calls for more gun control as the shooter was a regular American who legally accessed the guns he used. We aren’t strangers to mass shootings and these will continue to happen as was seen almost a month later on November 5 when 26 people were killed in a church in Sutherland Springs, Texas.
During 2017, there were six major hurricanes which is triple the average two per year. Hundreds were killed and places like Puerto Rico are still heavily affected with some places just now regaining power. Texas suffered one of these major storms when Hurricane Harvey hit in late August.
January 20, 2017 saw the beginning of Trump’s presidency which has been with mixed reactions across the country. He promised to bring an outside point of view to Washington and to put country first by revitalizing the economy and giving people more say in politics. However, his first year in charge has been filled with allegations of cooperation with Russia as well as divisive comments that have led to members of Congress calling for his impeachment. 2018 is sure to continue to be filled with news from the White House.
