No. 3: U.S. and Japan’s Women’s Soccer
Four months after a devastating earthquake that killed more than 18,000 and left millions homeless, Japan’s women’s soccer team produced one of the most dramatic and uplifting triumphs of the year. A message to supporters Before and after each game at the Women’s World Cup in Germany, the Japanese women…
No. 2: Gabrielle Giffords
Arizona Representative Gabrielle Giffords squeaked out a victory in the 2010 midterm elections. For her third race, the Blue Dog Democrat had faced a tea party candidate and veteran who had beaten a Republican state senator and had supported Arizona’s controversial immigration bill. Giffords’s seat had been in the “bull’s-eye,”…
Heroic Acts
In times of upheaval, there are heroes among us. Their presence comforts us, even if we don’t know their names. They inspire us by fighting for their lives or by risking their lives for a greater good. Heroic Acts Gabrielle Giffords Navy SEAL Team Six U.S. and Japan’s Women’s Soccer…
No. 1: Navy SEAL Team Six
Recruited from the elite Navy SEALs, members of Team Six go through even more rigorous training. They’re trained to swim with their hands and feet bound and to jump out of planes, and they go on highly classified missions. We’re not even really supposed to know they exist. But after…
No. 10: Occupy Wall Street
The notion of a privileged 1% has been kicking around for a while. About 1% of the population owns 40% of global wealth. To put it another way, if the 48 poorest nations pooled their resources, they’d still own less than the three richest guys in the world. Those numbers…
No. 9: Libya/Death of Moammar Gadhafi
To those from the outside, revolution seemed to have a domino effect in the Middle East. But while long-suppressed dissatisfaction brought startling turnarounds in Tunisia and Egypt, the uprising in Libya amounted to a bloody civil war. Unlike Hosni Mubarak or Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, Colonel Moammar Gadhafi was…
No. 7: Death of Amy Winehouse
Amy Winehouse hadn’t released a studio album in five years, and no new tracks seemed to be coming any time soon. Her one song on Quincy Jones’s all-star album “Q: Soul Bossa Nostra,” a slurry cover of Lesley Gore’s “It’s My Party,” was a disappointment, and Mitch Winehouse, her jazz-singing…
No. 8: Arab Spring
The Arab revolt began in Tunisia when a young man, educated but jobless, set himself on fire to protest confiscation of fruit and vegetables he sold at a street stand without a permit. Fueled by resentment of a harsh regime and high unemployment, riots in the streets grew. On January…
No. 6: Arizona Shooting
Six people were killed and 14 injured when a gunman opened fire January 8 on a crowd gathered to meet U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords at a Safeway store near Tucson. Among the dead were 9-year-old Christina-Taylor Green, born on September 11, 2001; federal judge John Roll; and Gabriel “Gabe” Zimmerman,…
No. 5: Unemployment
“The unemployed need not apply.” This is the line that greeted some job-hunters as they scanned the want ads this year. And with more than 4 million Americans out of work for a year or more, and an outlook that tells us higher unemployment rates should be the norm for…