Looking Back To Third Grade
Wow, third grade - was it really was five decades ago? At the time, I remember a couple events:our country was sending rockets to the Moon
- I distinctly remember the day 6/6/66 as having as special numerological significance
- I think it was the first year that we had Monday holidays (I could be off be a year), because previously Memorial Day was always celebrated on May 30, George Washington's Birthday always on February 22
- and so on.
It would be fourth grade social studies where we had to watch the nightly news and report on current events, which was reporting on the count of soldiers who died that day in Vietnam, typically 100-200 dead each day.
Now, tears usually come to my eyes when I hear the Star Spangled Banner, Stars and Stripes, or God Bless America (which was sung at Sunday's Mass). Why the tears? Third grade you're not an adult; college you're nominally an adult' your 20s, 30, and 40s are building your life, family, etc.; and 50s can start with some looking back on what has been accomplished (or not).
I was towards the end of the Baby Boom, and there was so much to look forward to in third grade. Landing on the Moon? Wow! We all had TV sets on that day in 1969 (and then it rained every day for the month afterwards). But it wasn't until the late 1980s with the collapse of the Soviet Union that we could breath a sigh of relief that we wouldn't be annihilated in a nuclear holocaust.
What If John Lennon's Dream Came True?
Do you remember the John Lennon's song "Imagine" from the 1970s? Here's an excerpt of the lyrics:[...] Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people living life in peace, youThe chorus was the hook: "You may say I'm a dreamer / But I'm not the only one / I hope some day you'll join us / And the world will be as one". Powerful!
You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope some day you'll join us
And the world will be as one [...]
I don't believe John Lennon had actually considered what would happen if his dream came true. What would that be like? Maybe none of really thought about that.
Answer: Monica Lewinski, The Best Year Of Our Lives
I remember 1998-1999 as being the best years for Planet Earth (as from the perspective of a US citizen). The economy was booming with the internet, there was relatively little war/conflict in the world, and all that was left was news focused upon the Whitehouse intern Monica Lewinski, something seeming relatively quaint when compared to the present occupant of the Whitehouse.When John Lennon's dream was granted, we were awash in news coverage of Ms. Lewinski, President Bill Clinton, and the political mess of the 1990s that has just become more polarized in next two decades.
At that time, I told all who would listen: We're at the best times in our lives! If there isn't much war (as Mr. Lennon had desired), that doesn't make news channels go away, so we became even more focused upon the trivial (Ms. Lewinski, et al), which indicated: We Were Living in the Best of Times.
Did You Think the Movie "2001: A Space Odyssey" Would Turn Out the Way 2001 Actually Happened?
I guess I didn't expect a presidential election to go on unsettled in 2000. We learned about Hanging Chads. The Supreme Court decision was, inevitably, political. And our new President Bush was getting started, and Vice President Dick Chaney (who selected himself as the best running mate for Mr. Bush) was having more power than we expected. We thought learning the song/dance "Macarena" was important, a song about a girl (prostitute?) and the pleasures among many suitors:[chorus]
Give happiness to your body Macarena
'cause your body is for giving happiness and nice things to
Give happiness to your body Macarena
Heeey,... Macarena! Aaay!
Macarena has a boyfriened who's called...
who's called the last name Vitorino,
and while he was taking his oath as a conscript
she was giving it to two friends who were so fine!
(Chorus)
Macarena , Macarena , MacarenaWe also worried about the last meal of Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma City bomber who was executed summer of 2001.
you're popular the summers in Marbella
Macarena , Macarena , Macarena
you like the guerilla excesses ...Aaay!
(repeat once)
(Chorus)
Macarena dreams of the English Tailor
and buys the latest models
She would like living in New York
and seduce a new boyfriend... Aaay!
That innocence of the Best Times and focus upon the trivial was interrupted by the attacks of September 11, 2001. I wonder if Arthur C. Clarke had conceived of such a thing back in the 1960s.
We've been on a really strange ride since then. The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the abuse at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo. Who are we as a country? I can't imagine us thinking this was acceptable in the past. Considering the recent 2001 attacks, in 2005 we have the complete lack of preparedness and failure of the Federal Government to respond to the disaster of Hurricane Katrina? Somehow politicians thought this was an acceptable to "starve" the government? What about the housing crisis of 2007, the financial crisis of 2008, and the failure/bailout of the auto industry in 2009? Back then there was a serious consideration that the US Dollar might no longer be a reserve currency and the Euro was a contender (with huge long-term negative implications for the US). About a year later, the Euro had its financial, banking, and housing crises that wrecked the economies of Ireland, Iceland, Portugal, Spain, Italy, and Greece - just to name a few. So scratch that idea of the Euro becoming the primary reserve currency. From the perspective of 2008, the US was at serious risk of serious international decline, and what changed that was some misfortune for others (Europe, China) and some luck with President Obama performing magic tricks on the US economy. I wouldn't say that the US came out of this better by design, I'd attribute more of it to luck, misfortune of other worthy competitors (Europe, China), and good judgment, cool rationality, and calm patience by Mr. Obama.
So What Did I Learn in Third Grade Social Studies?
Well I learned about the three branches of government, which I've had to use that knowledge to advocate for good causes. And I learned much about justice, for my community, for my neighbors, for family/self. Who knew that would be so important to me?Recently, I saw a third grade lesson in action regarding Freedom of Speech and Freedom of the Press. Yeah, it all makes sense when we learn it in social studies. What I discovered firsthand was: how necessary the Press is with corrupt and incompetent government. I'll cover my Invasion-Of-The-Rats story and the local TV news coverage in another article. However, what makes those First Amendment freedoms so important and visible is seeing a corrupt and incompetent government acting against its citizenry, yet regardless of information, complaints, and advocacy, it is only when TV news arrived and debunked the government's story that change occurred. Wow, a lesson I knew rationally, but didn't understand viscerally. I now have that visceral understanding about why these freedoms are important and why they're important to fight for, as I have fought for them on behalf of others.
I remember 1999 very differently: the Y2K hysteria. I was an IT Analyst at META Group (since acquired by Gartner, Inc.). Everyone in IT was speculating on how disruptive the date change to 2000 would be. Lots of older software only used TWO digits for the year, so 00 could mean 1900 or 2000, or any other century for that matter.
ReplyDeleteI'll never forget a visit to South Africa that year because a government IT executive told me that since there was no hope of fixing all their code in time, they were investing in riot suppression options instead!!! Fortunately, I ignored the hysteria and predicted that little would come of the date change.
Just past midnight on January 1, 2000, I fired up my IBM AT clone from 1989 and the dates worked just fine.
I remember watching the clock tick to midnight UTC on my server ("while true; do TZ=UTC0 date; sleep 1; done"). I remember saying "Wow!" at 7 PM Eastern Time.
DeleteI remember sending an invoice in on a government contract, and they told me the Federal Government was paying all its bills within 10 days because it didn't want to calculate pre-payment discounts (sooner than Net 30) with Y2K approaching so they paid everything (no discount) within 10 days. We were sure to complete a lot of work in those weeks of November and early December!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_2038_problem
ReplyDeleteSadly, 1999 was an extremely sad year for me, since it was the year my mom died. I tried very hard to be there for her, but her battle was fought out on Long Island mostly and she insisted that all three of her kids not take time off from work to look after her. Given the precariousness of the economy - even then - her advice probably was correct, although I wonder if things might have turned out differently had one of us stayed with her. We always saw her on weekends, and arranged for an elderly friend of hers to stay with her. Her friend was a black-clad elderly religious Greek woman - the opposite of my mom, who was secular through and through, never took religion too seriously and was primarily interested in the enjoyable side of life. She was a great jokester with a great smile, she liked to crack people up, sing songs, made friends easily, and always thought she would have become an entertainer had she not married. None of her three kids took after her personality. Sometimes, actually, we'd be embarrassed by her friendliness and sunny personality. She was an eternal optimist.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, she died in August 1999 and her death essentially removed the last link keeping the family together, as the kids then went their separate ways. I suppose this is what happens in every family, the expectation being that each kid then goes on to become the head of their own household or family or perhaps group of friends, and occasionally reunites with the other siblings for reunions, but that the original configuration of the original family more or less dies out when the parents die.
So 1998 and until 1999, was for me a time that I had to come to grips with the reality that time for her was running out. She had stayed a free spirit into her 80s - still making friends with new people until the end, still entertaining.
Part II
ReplyDeleteAs far as current events from 1998-1999, I remember the frenzy surrounding the Y2K, but I didn't think everything would go kerflooie. I thought it was hype. The 90s in general were pretty good years for me, as my employer during those years was quite generous with raises and I did a bit of travel, more or less could purchase things at will. I thought the 2000 election was extremely strange and disagreed with the SCOTUS decision re the FL election recount, but their decision was the law of the land and no-one could challenge it. The next few months were also strange, with Bush enjoying little support. The horrific 9/11 attack changed all that as everyone rallied around Bush and patriotism transformed practically everyone into Bush supporters and pro Afghanistan war supporters. I remember reading as much as I could in the Times on a daily basis about the attacks, and the legislation afterwards. I didn't miss a day of work - I stayed at work that day although many left in shock, I remember seeing the crowds walking uptown on First Avenue on my lunch break, and the heavily armed cop/?army guy at the eerily deserted train station (by the time I left work the trains had started running again) when I went home that night. The images of that day were indelibly seared into my consciousness including watching live news coverage of people jumping - news was being projected in the auditorium and employees were given breaks to go downstairs and see some of the coverage. Maybe I shouldn't have gone but I did. We were in a state of shock - the phones didn't work, and no work was done that day, as we wondered what would be hit next. Many left - I stuck around until the end of the day.
Part III
ReplyDeleteI thought two things had gone very wrong with our country: The disputed election of 2000 and the AQ attack of 2001. I also thought the Iraq war was wrong once it was clear there were no WMDs there - but by the time the truth emerged, it was too late. Last November, that is, November 2016, a man was elected POTUS that most people didn't favor. The two political parties are filled with hacks, and almost no-one stood up to the crude bigot at the RNC or the Electoral College. It is true that he won many primaries and many States in the General Election, but the Electoral College wasn't meant to be a rubber stamp, it was supposed to be the last-ditch resort of common sense in case a demagogue or a criminal happened to rise to power, then the presumably detached and Constitution-minded electors could pronounce their judgment on the election if need be, even reversing the will of the people if they felt the winner was unworthy. The RNC delegates and the Electoral College electors could have voted their conscience, but they didn't. I don't think Hillary made it easy for anyone to disown Trump (I didn't vote for either of them) but aside from the specific personalities of Trump and Hillary, it was the clear bankruptcy of the parties that led to disgust, with a huge abstention rate, and an election result that basically thumbed its nose at the parties. Unfortunately, the Democratic Party still has serious ideological "messaging" problems so I am skeptical that it will be able to stage a comeback anytime soon (unless Trump is ousted due to a scandal or impeachment, but impeachment will likely never happen as long as Congress is in Republican hands).
I had a sense that political scandals came and went, just like booms and busts, even the Monica Lewinsky scandal was just another Washington or political scandal, but the 2000 election was in another league of strangeness altogether. It was the turning point for me since I thought the recount would proceed after the ruling of the FL SC and the election result would be settled once the recount was complete. If Bush was ahead, then Gore would conceded. The individual States control elections, which is why the SC really had no business directing the State of FL on the recount. This was a bad deal but there was nothing that could be done, Gore conceded, and Bush was sworn in.