The first upheaval I experienced was the President Kennedy assassination in 1963. In 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy Sr. were also assassinated in quick succession. There were brutal riots between protestors and police at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago that year, and President Johnson announced his refusal to run for a second term during the ongoing carnage of the Vietnam War. I remember watching that special news broadcast with my father. (Dad's retort to the television screen was along the lines of, "Good! Leave now.")
The USA moved on to Richard Nixon, the Watergate scandal, and a presidential resignation. Jimmy Carter's unsuccessful presidency followed, with the Iran hostage crisis, gas lines and shortages, inflation, and the "malaise" of a discontented populace. Reagan followed and came close to assassination early in his tenure, followed closely by an assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II. The end of the Cold War brought short-lived promise, but an ominous Russia rose again. And the alarming evolution and progression of an aggressive China is a whole other story.
The Clinton presidency brought its own sordid scandal. I've lost count of how many recessions I've cycled through. September 11, 2001, changed the world as well as the country--and not for the better. Technology took over all our lives in recent years, with its own devious pitfalls. In recent days, we've watched worldwide commerce come to a shocking halt when software fails. And that is a frightening place to be.
Last week a former president was almost murdered by gunfire while running for a second term. I think America has grown weary of the stealthy gunman do-loop being replayed so often.
And today, our current president announces--on social media--that he will not run for a second term, throwing his party into an uproar. After all, the election is only three-and-a-half months away. Think fast, Democrats.
This is just a random list of the "interesting" events that have populated my lifetime. I didn't mention the Civil Rights Movement, the NASA tragedies, or the Great Recession, among many other happenings. Yet here we all are, still alive, reasonably comfortable, and able to stand and fight for our own freedoms. Buried in all the societal, political, and economic chaos I find a sliver of hope that somehow, tomorrow may be better than today--if we are determined to make it so. That would certainly make life interesting.
