The unfolding news that Yevgeny Prighozin, the Russian commander of the mercenary Wagner Group, has taken control of the Russian base in Rostov-on-Don and his military forces are heading toward Moscow—in what Vladimir Putin has called “an armed rebellion” and “treason”—is a stunning reminder that what we take as given in the world can change swiftly. Is this the beginning of Putin’s demise? Could the growing chaos lead to a change in government, indeed the kind of government that a pro-democracy advocate like chess grandmaster Gary Kasparov dreams for? Might it hasten the end of the Ukraine war? Questions that seemed more theoretical just days ago have now become more real.
This still-uncertain event, which the Biden administration is carefully avoiding weighing in on—"We are monitoring the situation…consulting with allies…”—has got me thinking about other stunning moments that changed our world. For the Russians, of course, that includes waking up on Dec. 25, 1991, and learning that their country, the Soviet Union, no longer existed. Or, for older Soviets, one can only imagine how shocked they were in 1953 to discover their forever leader, Joseph Stalin, was dead.
On this side of the ocean, one day in 1963, President John F. Kennedy is smiling and waving with his First Lady in a Dallas motorcade, a vision of glamour and vigor, the next day he’s gone, his alleged assassin has been taken into custody. One night in 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. is speaking about having been to the mountaintop (“I’m not worried about anything; I’m not fearing any man.”), the next day the nation is grieving his death from an unknown assassin’s bullet.
One day in 1969, a human stepped out of a lunar module and onto the surface of the moon. One early morning in 2001, the World Trade Center Towers are standing, the next day they’re not—and America and the world is in a state of shock and possibly in a state of war. One day in 2008, the first African American was elected president. Really.
From the loss of President Abraham Lincoln in Ford’s Theater in 1865 to the death of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1945, to the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the election of Donald Trump in 2016 (and the related Jan. 6 Capitol attack in 2021), we can see how the world that we once knew can suddenly look different, no matter how much forewarning we might have had.
There are so many other events I could flag here, but I want to hear from you: What news event has stunned you most? You may also want to discuss an event that is historical in nature, that precedes your time. Or perhaps you’d even like to consider an event that hasn’t happened but that could radically change the trajectory of America and the world.
As always, I look forward to reading your observations and for this community to hear from each other. Please do be respectful in your responses.
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*Photo credits: Lead photo of JFK Dallas motorcade via Bettman and Getty Images. Gallery: Obamas on election night by Stan Honda/AFP, moon landing by HUM Images, Brandenburg Gate after the Berlin Wall fell by Thierry Monasse—all via Getty Images.
I was stunned when the US Supreme Court granted certiorari in Bush v. Gore. I remember exactly where I was when I heard the news. I felt a shift in the politicization of the courts that has continued to today
This will seem odd, but Bill Barr with Rod Rosenstein coming out ahead of the Mueller Report release falsely telling America the report vindicated trump and found no trump Russia collusion was the most stunning event for me because it eviscerated the rule of law in America. It signaled for me that our Democracy could be destroyed by just a few vile individuals like Bill Barr. It still stuns me that Bill Barr faced zero consequences for his treasonous attack on our democracy and the rule of law. Barr remains “at-large” no pun intended.
J6, I couldn't eat for 9 days after, I wasn't there but was watching live streaming via YouTube feeds and saw things that were not shown in any court or hearings that I've watched since. Hoping Jack Smith has seen them too.
For me, it’s a tie between the JFK assassination (I was only 9, and saw Oswald get shot on live TV), and 9/11 (watched 2nd tower attack also on live TV)
But then there was Jan. 6. Even at my “advanced age” I found it utterly shocking. My 95 yr old father kept asking me if it was real. (He has all his marbles plus a few that others have lost)
The assassinations of the 60’s probably are the news stories for me that really changed our lives then. The trajectory before 11/22/63 was one of optimism and happiness with our young president - of course he wasn’t perfect- but it represented an upward swing from the first half of the 20th century. The loss of JFK was monumental to those who were alive then; the loss of his brother AND Martin Luther King Jr. In 1968 was the worst part of that awful election year. The 68 Democratic convention in Chicago was a mess - I was about 15 then - we could barely believe this was going on 15 miles away. As far as happier things, the moon landing that you mention in 1969 was just amazing. It was really inconceivable that people could go to the moon and walk on it and return to earth unscathed. For me, the resignation of Richard Nixon was a good day too.
1970, the Kent State massacre. I was 13 years old. It seemed surreal. Sure, political figures had been assassinated, but not students at college. The music of those times made an indelible mark on my life, that resonates today.
I was in the 5th grade in 1968 and my teacher gave us an assignment that we, as students, needed to get involved in some way with a political campaign. Local, statewide, proposition or national...it was up to us to choose. I volunteered to work at Bobby Kennedy’s local headquarters near us in Northern California. Stuffing envelopes and general office work. I went to bed late on June 4th thinking that he had won the California primary and that he’d get the nomination in Chicago.
I awoke the next morning to hear what had happened at the Ambassador Hotel. I was absolutely stunned. I couldn’t believe that could happen again to our country. After JFK (I remember it but was only 6) and MLK, it just really shook me.
The assassination of President John F. Kennedy. 3rd grade. 3 days before, I recited Lincoln's Gettysburg Address from memory. On it's 100th anniversary.
I think for anyone who was alive when President Kennedy was assassinated it’s a seminal moment. The world suddenly changed. However 9/11 and 1/6 are so pivotal because both were attacks on our democracy, one from outside and the other inside our borders.
None of that stuns me as much as recent reports of the growing influence in our military of Christofascists and other radical right elements. Coups are ultimately decided by the military. This is no joke. We’re in trouble RIGHT NOW.
I was devastated when Trump was elected (and NOT by a majority of Americans) and thought it would be bad. I had NO idea just how bad it could be. The last two 1/2 years have truly been surreal, starting with the lies of rigged election, then 1/6, then the republicans falling into lockstep behind this atrocious man. The lies, corruption, grift, danger to national security - it is beyond me how anyone can support this guy. We are on a precipice and I pray we don't fall off.
The Dobbs case was no doubt one of the single most devastating assaults on women in my 47 years on this planet. The hard fought rights of my mother and grandmother decimated. No exception for rape, incest or the life of the mother in some states is nothing short of sadism and a war on women.
I remember news of the assassinations in the 60’s, the lunar landing, Nixon’s resignation, the Berlin Wall coming down, being stunned with election results in 2016, still have anger one year after Roe is demolished by SCOTUS. I’m sure there’s more horrifying things I’ve chosen to forget.
The decision by President Truman to use the atom bomb on two Japanese cities.
The alternative of course was the very real loss of thousands of additional American soldiers, sailors and airmen.
There’s no way anyone can presume to know what their decision would have been had their butt been in the same seat. That’s like telling someone “I know how you feel “ when they share a momentous personal loss and that kind of loss fortunately never happened to you.
Had the fortunate of having met Pres Truman in 1959 and had the gumption to ask how he felt history had treated his decision. He answered “let’s wait 20 years and consider that question again.
It’s now 79 years since that event. Care to weigh in now????
It's a hard choice but I think that a woman endorsed by the NYTimes as the person most qualified to be president in our lifetimes, not just of the current candidates, to be beaten by someone like Donald Trump was excruciating. The reality of that was mind numbing. America was no more. And it would take a generation to produce another woman as qualified and capable as Hillary. And as politically well connected, which is important if what you are expected to do is be political.
Everyone I know has a 9/11 story. I was in New Orleans and stayed after with my SIL who worked for a small regional bank. Seemingly remote yet she had a personal link. Her bank had just met with people from Cantor Fitzgerald who were lost in the WTC. The subsequent wars with Afghanistan and--less understandably--Iraq dramatically hurt US standing in the world. And that America accepted what proved to be lies about WMD portended the credulity that has fed the worst US presidency in my lifetime.
Probably not the biggest *shock* per se. But I remember being acutely stunned when Challenger exploded. Something like this was never supposed to happen. It brought into focus all the, dare I say, propaganda I had been fed my whole life about American being the best and the brightest. If that makes any sense.
I remember calling my mother telling her that Bush was bombing Iraq. It was the middle of the night. She said “ Just a minute. I’ll call you back.” Then I thought how callous I’d been to address it as just a ‘news item’ when war to her generation meant something entirely different. As awful as it was to me It didn’t come close to comparing her feelings of dread at another war!
My mother was born in Berlin Germany in 1932, when Hitler came to power. Her grandfather was Jewish and by the end of the war her family spent most of it moving around to stay out of the hands of the Nazis. But they were back in Berlin at the end of the war and luckily lived in the American sector. My great grandfather and a niece were the only survivors of his family line. A decade later she met my Dad and became an American. Why do I mention this? Because her family experienced the sudden building of the Berlin Wall and how it effected so many people they knew. Whole families separated before they could plan how to be on the right side. This was another symbol of the cold war.
Years later I spent one weekend in Berlin and of course went to the Wall and I have read many stories of how people escaped across it. The looming guard towers and armed soldiers were everywhere. It was so intimidating.
Then many decades later I was taking care of my infant daughter and I was floored when the news announced on Nov. 8, 1989 the Wall had come down. The coverage of all those celebrating people so happy and free was deeply emotional. I will always associate my daughters birth with this happy event. This was the news that stunned me most.
The Titan submersible tragedy has overshadowed the sinking of a boat carrying hundreds of impoverished migrants.
Note from Bob Kuttner: While away in Europe, I’ve invited François Furstenberg to write today’s On TAP post.
When the Titan submersible disappeared in the North Atlantic last Sunday, with passengers who paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for the risky voyage, the world took notice—and mobilized.
A multinational force immediately launched into action to search the site, some 900 miles off Cape Cod. The U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Navy, and the Canadian Coast Guard established a unified command the morning after the distress was reported, and French and British ships with deep-sea capabilities soon joined. By Wednesday, they were combing a search zone about twice the size of Connecticut, as deep as 2.5 miles under the surface. Medical personnel equipped with a hyperbaric recompression chamber stood ready to help.
Private actors joined the effort as well. Within 20 hours of being notified, a Cape Cod–based company specializing in sub-sea research expeditions assembled a team; three U.S. Air Force C-17 aircraft transported them to Newfoundland on Tuesday. Within hours, they were sailing on board a Canadian ship.
Later that day, some 60 hours after the Titan was first reported in distress, rescuers discovered a debris field confirming the implosion of the submersible and the death of all five occupants. The tragedy, as The New York Times put it, had "mesmerized people worldwide for days."
The same can’t be said about a tragedy that unfolded just a few days earlier in the Mediterranean. There, up to 750 Pakistani, Syrian, Egyptian, and Palestinian migrants had jammed aboard a rusty fishing trawler to undertake a perilous journey from Libya to Italy. Five days into the voyage, the ship was in severe distress. Food and water had run out. "People were dying. People were fainting," recalled one refugee.
As the boat floated helplessly off the coast of Greece, with at least six dead refugees on board and hundreds more locked in the hold below, passengers sent out calls of distress. Few, however, bothered to respond. On June 13, two merchant vessels approached the ship to offer supplies before sailing off. The Greek Coast Guard arrived that day, but did not intervene. (Indeed, just a few weeks earlier, Greek authorities had been filmed kidnapping recently arrived migrants on the island of Lesbos and towing them back out to a life raft. European officials in Brussels had expressed that they were "concerned" by the images.)
Early on the morning of June 14, as the Greek Coast Guard ship looked on, the rickety fishing trawler lurched and began to sink. With only one ship deployed, the Greek Coast Guard was ill-prepared to help. Only thanks to the arrival of a $175 million superyacht were around 100 survivors saved from drowning. An estimated 650 desperate migrants, many of them women and children, went down to the sea depths.
The divergent responses should trouble anyone who ponders the contrast, even for a moment. They tell us a great deal about the entrenched and interrelated inequalities of the world over the last few decades.
With a U.S., French, or British passport, countries will spare no resource to save you. Hold a Pakistani, Egyptian, or Syrian passport, and those same countries will make every effort—building walls across vast terrestrial borders, flying you to Rwanda, or towing you out to the middle of the sea—to keep you out.
The wealthy victims of the Titan tragedy have well-reported identities. Readers and viewers were invited to empathize. The identity of the migrants, by contrast, remains mostly unknown—even those who survived. As for the ones who perished, we are unlikely to ever know who or even how many disappeared.
Both voyages involved extreme risk. The passengers on the fishing boat undertook their journey out of necessity; for the passengers on the submersible, it was a choice. Space on the rickety trawler cost far less in monetary terms than space on the advanced submersible. But as a share of the passengers’ total wealth, the refugees paid far more.
It’s worth asking about the extent to which the wealth of billionaires who adventure deep underwater—or into space, for that matter—results from the poverty of global billions. Did those Pakistanis on the trawler flee the climate catastrophe in their country, made so much worse by the developed nations that burned up the fossil fuels to enrich a few billionaires? How much has the soaring concentration of wealth in the United States and in other developed countries resulted from the ability to exploit workers in the developing world?
It’s worth asking, too, to what extent the extreme inequalities of wealth within developed nations fuel anti-migrant sentiment and right-wing backlash, which generates perilous obstacles for refugees, forcing them into ever-greater risks in their quest for a better life for themselves and their children.
The spectacle of impoverished migrants sinking with the ship while every resource is mobilized to save the wealthy few certainly recalls a past maritime tragedy—the very one whose wreckage the submersible went to explore. Why did the original Titanic hold such a grip on the popular imagination? Why is it that, more than a century later, people will pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to visit the wreckage? Wasn’t it at least in part because it stood as a parable of the hubris of modernity in our last Gilded Age?
Martin Luther King famously said that the arc of the moral universe bends toward justice. Perhaps he was right, but it can also bend the other way. Maybe the moral of the Titanic tragedy was that, rich or poor, we all sail on the same ship, and we will all sink or survive together. Well, now we have our own parable, updated for the 21st century. It’s up to us to decide what meaning we want to make from it.
François Furstenberg teaches history at Johns Hopkins University.
The invasion of the US Capitol on 1/6/21 was the most shocking story I've seen. Also, GOP's adulation for Putin. I'm old enough to remember "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"
There are so many. Certainly 9/11 stands out. But I lost hope after Sandy Hook. If the shooting of 26 people at the school, 20 of whom were children 6 and 7 years old, couldn’t bring about much needed gun reform, nothing ever would.
The absolute denigration and humiliation for both Anita Hill and Christine Blakey Ford over their bravery for coming forward, for nothing. No validation, while being grilled and tortured over details they experienced, to just be railroaded by the government. So much more needs to be done about this kind of situation for women. While both the judges got confirmed and live high off the hog. Unreal.
During my late teens & early 20’s the Vietnam war was hugely impactful. Seeing boys I knew go off to fight a war, gradually realizing that what we were told by the government was not as trustworthy as I had thought, discovering the power of passionate people marching & demonstrating for peace - & of course later seeing how many lives were forever damaged & altered.
Tied with this though is the election of Trump. I went to bed election night with a sense of dread, woke up to such a feeling of despair & shock. And then over these last years seeing that my sense of dread didn’t even begin to capture how much damage he would do & continues to do to our country.
Before I was alive my country dropped bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. I now have a warm and forgiving Japanese daughter in law. She took me to see Hiroshima and that experience changed me profoundly.
In my lifetime I have to say the shock in 2016 learning that so many of my countrymen could not see the truth about the evil unleashed on us.
My initial choice would be the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building bombing in Oklahoma City. As I thought more on this I realized this tied in with other events.
1. The tragedy at the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, because it happened in my state, Texas.
2. The Oklahoma City bombing. Timothy McVeigh used the Waco incident as the reason he bombed the federal building.
This one struck me so hard because the week before the bombing the Southwestern Association of Law Libraries held our annual meeting in Oklahoma City not far from the Alfred P. Murrah building. We had a great time over those few days. We had walked past that building. We toured the building behind it and knew the law librarian who worked there. My colleagues in the law library where I worked at the time spent that day watching the TV our director had set up in the back of the circulation area. We tried to get away and do some work but always found ourselves back in front of the set. "We were just there last week!" What about our friend who worked in the building behind the bombed one? It would be several days before we finally heard from him with his first-hand account of how they were impacted in that building. (A major concern was debris contaminating stored evidence material and the possible impact of upcoming trials.)
3. January 6, 2021. A friend called me that day. "Do you have the TV on? Have you seen what's happening at the Capitol!" I turned on the TV and couldn't believe my eyes. Surely this couldn't be the United States! I contacted family members and then was surprised again when a sister commented that she had to wait to see the news for herself because it could be Antifa, not the president's supporters.
How they tie together.
In 1995, Attorney General Janet Reno sent Merrick Garland to Oklahoma City and he served as the federal prosecutor for Timothy McVeigh’s initial hearing. "Early in the investigation, Garland served as supervisor and line prosecutor, presenting arguments at an initial hearing on the case even as he coordinated the sprawling, multistate investigation." "But as Merrick Garland huddled with the lead prosecutor on the case, he urged caution in presenting the massive amount of evidence from the wreckage. 'Do not bury the crime in the clutter,' he said." (How the Oklahoma City bombing case prepared Merrick Garland to take on domestic terrorism. https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/merrick-garland-oklahoma-city-bombing/2021/02/19/a9e6adde-67f2-11eb-8468-21bc48f07fe5_story.html)
A surprising side note: The article cited above is dated February 19, 2021. As I read through the two-year-old comments I was stunned when I read this one and a reply to it.
"Like Russian 'collusion', this domestic right wing terror threat will never materialize...'"
Reply: "...Breathtaking would be the slaughter of Ukrainian civilians by goose stepping Russian storm troopers."
Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022, just over a year later.
The memories are flooding back reading comments from others. I was a freshman in high school, in a biology lab, when we heard about the assassination of President Kennedy. Still hard to accept. Other events that are memorable include the moon landing, the Challenger disaster, 9/11.
The most profound event has been the enduring appeal of Donald Trump, despite the lies, the incompetence, the corruption, and the devastating impact on our political system.
On October 22, 1962 I was on my way to work on the flight line at Hamilton AFB, CA where I helped maintain the computers and radar on the F101-B fighter interceptor. I worked the third shift and when I parked my car in the lot by the flight line President Kennedy came on the radio with his address about the Cuban Missile Crisis.
After the speech I went to the radar shop where everyone was stunned as the teletype stated printing out DEFCON alerts (defense condition) all the way up to DEFCON 3. We were put on 12 hour shifts seven days a week and the infrared missile and the atomic rockets were loaded on the planes and about half of them took off.
There are two things that really rocked me and at the time may have seemed small. The first was hearing Bush announce that we would be bombing Iraq. I pictured the future with thousands and thousands dead and a seismic shift in our relationship with the Islamic world that I knew would affect us forever. The second, even smaller one was when I heard that Mitch McConnell had blocked Merrick Garland from even having a hearing. I realized that we were no longer in a Democratic nation if one side refused to play by the rules.
As a child of parents who were caught up in the throes of war and its aftermath as children in Germany, the fall of the Berlin Wall tops my list. As a young man I witnessed their joy and optimism for a free future which honored human rights.
Trump being elected. Every other event in American history has had an ending and none of those events led to the United States becoming a fascist country. Trump killed more Americans than all the wars the U.S. has ever fought with his corruption, incompetence and sadism. The horror continues with his cult and co-conspirators and the billionaire class
The horror and the danger unsurpassed by any other event in American history.
Oh my gosh, where to start, where to end? The tragedies of the 60’s JFK, RFK, MLK and feeling like the bottom dropping out….then, at the same time, as a young high school student, having recently graduated friends deploy to and not return from Vietnam, or come back forever soul-wounded—it was almost too much to take in coming of age then. Widening the lens, paying attention to the terrible and growing impact of humans on our ecosphere AND the stunning advancements (arts/medicine/science/etc) humans have created. Watching the slow hollowing out of the middle class and upward wealth concentration. The alarming rise of the push for a theocratic/autocratic state—NOT in my country if I can help it!—and power hungry win-by-whatever-means strategies taking over democratic ideals. Watching this festering erupt in Jan 6th was horrifying, especially as it was egged on by those who held high offices. I try to stay aware of those changes and upheavals that are surely unfolding day by day. I oft say that the only reason I want to live forever is to know how it all turns out. Maybe if Homo sapiens had more Bonobo DNA there would not be so much strife….maybe… https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2021/03/20/978868116/some-generous-apes-may-help-explain-the-evolution-of-human-kindness
There are two, first and foremost 9/11, second is the the loss of Challenger. But I also have to say that the profound anger I felt on January 6th comes close too.
The variety of events that people have shared here have reminded me and opened my eyes to several events that have shaped our history. As I think back on my 7+ decades as an American, January 20, 2009 stands as a stunning and bright day...we inaugurated Barack Obama tas President of the United States.
And looking forward; my biggest concern for the future of American, is who we inaugurate on January 20, 2025.
The most stunning moment in US history in my life happend the evening Donald Trump was declared victorious over Hillary Clinton, the most accomplished candidate ever to run for the US presidency. The devastation put in motion then continues to this day. In my work, we call this Complex PTSD: ongoing trauma with no agency. The only difference is that we will have agency eventually: we can vote again in 2024.
I was most stunned by the election of Donald Trump in 2016. I was living in Ireland at the time and told my worried Irish friend the day before the vote not to worry because no women, Blacks, Latinos or LGBTQ people would vote for him! Ha. I was so wrong about the women, as more than 50% of women voting choose Trump over a capable and experienced woman candidate. I thought the pussy tape would end any support Trump had among women. Silly me!
To me, it was the unbelievable change from the historic election of Obama to the nightmare of Trump as president. The contrast is still difficult to believe, or stomach.
Of all of the above, I have to say 9/11. The World Trade Center disaster, smoke and flames rising high in the air, could be seen from Route 17 which runs through Ramsey,NJ where I was living. 704 New Jerseyans died that day, 11 from Glen Rock alone. A 4th plane took off, later than the others,from Newark headed for San Francisco. Over Ohio 3 al Qaeda members hijacked United Airlines Flight 93, forcing 33 passengers + crew members, to the back of the plane while the 4th replaced Pilot LeRoy Homer, Jr, an Air Force Captain reservist, winner of many awards,flight teacher at the Academy, who served in the Gulf War. They were 18 flying minutes from the US Capital Bldg, the target. Passengers fought back.13 people called home, & because the plane had taken off late, learned of the other disasters, and knowing what their fate would be, fought back with courage, bravery & sacrifice. #4 knew he would never hit his target, made the decision to crash. The plane flipped over as he was not very experienced and headed nose first into the ground at Shanksville, PA at @600 mph, a short distance from a school. Two unarmed AirForce jets went after it while still airborn with the mission to stop it , one to crash into the front, the other into the back which was of course, a suicide mission for those pilots. 4 men are noted as leaders , Burnett, Glick, Bingham, and the one most remembered, Tod Beamer, 32, who spoke the last words recorded-Let's Roll !
Investigators crawled on hands and knees among the wreckage which had made a 15 foot deep crater. Few human remains were found. It makes one heartsick knowing these heroes said goodbye to wives, parents and faced death head on to save the countless lives of others. Forever remembered.
Since these things remembered are grim and dark, allow me a little fun. I didn't know it, but SIR Mick Jagger and girlfriend only live maybe a mile from me in Lakewood Ranch, FL. The big headline is that they have put their house up for sale at $3,499,000 , over a million more than bought in 2020. He is 79 and still dances around on stage like a 20 year old. Girlfriend-36. Perhaps we could have another Al Pacino happening. ; ) Anyway, it's off to NYC. I wonder if they would take a small deposit and hold it for me, like, I don't know, $100 ?? Oh well, I guess You caint always get what you want. Darn.
There are so many I have witnessed since my first memory of JFK's assassination watching my grandmother weeping all day when I was at home sick with her as a first grader; however, the two that come to mind most recently that have my head spinning are the reversal of Roe v Wade and how many states have passed "no exception" laws, and the Jan. 6th insurrection. If that was a BLM demonstration on the capital grounds, even a peaceful protest, those demonstrators would have been shot for going into the capital building and NEVER would have been allowed to just walk out free and unharmed like the insurgents did. What we watched was inconceivable how anyone could believe the lies the GOP tried to spin when we saw what we saw with our own eyes. I am still so angry IQ 45 was not impeached over that and the loyalty and cowardice of his party is absolutely appalling.
Easily 9/11 was the most shocking event in my lifetime. And, although not as acute a situation, the COVID pandemic was, in a chronic sort of way, the most surreally unexpected event in my lifetime
If I use my ability to remember exactly where I was when I learned of it as a gauge of how stunned I was, it would be the assassination Kennedy, the explosion of the Challenger and the death of Princess Diana.
The news story most captivating to me today is what is happening Russia. As I am hoping for the defeat and removal of Vladimir Putin. However, who and how that comes about is also the most troubling. Yevgeny Progozhin, is the most frightening scenario for the world and Russia to succeed.
Other possible players, Chess master Garry Kasparov, and exiled Russian businessman Mikhail Khodorkovsky engaging with other oligarchy for a assignation would be better for Russia and the world.
World leaders good and terrible have been taken out throughout the 20th and 21st centuries multiple times. Individuals who were lucky to get close enough. Planned coup d'état. to change the government internally. Vladimir Putin recently humiliated some of the top power brokers in Russia, including the Director of Russian intelligence, the Commander of the Russian Armed Forces, General Gerasimov, and even the Commander of Russian Forces in Ukraine. He may have finally overstepped his power and use.
The next few weeks will be very interesting for the world and the Russian people.
Kent State. The fact that the National Guard would shoot and kill peaceful protestors on a college campus was an eye opener for this soon to be 13 year old suburban white kid. That reaction was reinforced by the song Ohio (which I sang incessantly along with most of the other songs on 4 Way Street), my brother getting close to draft age, and my sister being away at college campus. Of all the assassinations, riots, protests, Vietnam on the nightly news and other events of the ‘60s which I remember (all too well), Kent State hit closest to home.
I was stunned when the US Supreme Court granted certiorari in Bush v. Gore. I remember exactly where I was when I heard the news. I felt a shift in the politicization of the courts that has continued to today
This will seem odd, but Bill Barr with Rod Rosenstein coming out ahead of the Mueller Report release falsely telling America the report vindicated trump and found no trump Russia collusion was the most stunning event for me because it eviscerated the rule of law in America. It signaled for me that our Democracy could be destroyed by just a few vile individuals like Bill Barr. It still stuns me that Bill Barr faced zero consequences for his treasonous attack on our democracy and the rule of law. Barr remains “at-large” no pun intended.
J6, I couldn't eat for 9 days after, I wasn't there but was watching live streaming via YouTube feeds and saw things that were not shown in any court or hearings that I've watched since. Hoping Jack Smith has seen them too.
Trump being elected
For me, it’s a tie between the JFK assassination (I was only 9, and saw Oswald get shot on live TV), and 9/11 (watched 2nd tower attack also on live TV)
But then there was Jan. 6. Even at my “advanced age” I found it utterly shocking. My 95 yr old father kept asking me if it was real. (He has all his marbles plus a few that others have lost)
I think I’ll ask him this question tonight.
The assassinations of the 60’s probably are the news stories for me that really changed our lives then. The trajectory before 11/22/63 was one of optimism and happiness with our young president - of course he wasn’t perfect- but it represented an upward swing from the first half of the 20th century. The loss of JFK was monumental to those who were alive then; the loss of his brother AND Martin Luther King Jr. In 1968 was the worst part of that awful election year. The 68 Democratic convention in Chicago was a mess - I was about 15 then - we could barely believe this was going on 15 miles away. As far as happier things, the moon landing that you mention in 1969 was just amazing. It was really inconceivable that people could go to the moon and walk on it and return to earth unscathed. For me, the resignation of Richard Nixon was a good day too.
1970, the Kent State massacre. I was 13 years old. It seemed surreal. Sure, political figures had been assassinated, but not students at college. The music of those times made an indelible mark on my life, that resonates today.
I was in the 5th grade in 1968 and my teacher gave us an assignment that we, as students, needed to get involved in some way with a political campaign. Local, statewide, proposition or national...it was up to us to choose. I volunteered to work at Bobby Kennedy’s local headquarters near us in Northern California. Stuffing envelopes and general office work. I went to bed late on June 4th thinking that he had won the California primary and that he’d get the nomination in Chicago.
I awoke the next morning to hear what had happened at the Ambassador Hotel. I was absolutely stunned. I couldn’t believe that could happen again to our country. After JFK (I remember it but was only 6) and MLK, it just really shook me.
The assassination of President John F. Kennedy. 3rd grade. 3 days before, I recited Lincoln's Gettysburg Address from memory. On it's 100th anniversary.
I think for anyone who was alive when President Kennedy was assassinated it’s a seminal moment. The world suddenly changed. However 9/11 and 1/6 are so pivotal because both were attacks on our democracy, one from outside and the other inside our borders.
None of that stuns me as much as recent reports of the growing influence in our military of Christofascists and other radical right elements. Coups are ultimately decided by the military. This is no joke. We’re in trouble RIGHT NOW.
I was devastated when Trump was elected (and NOT by a majority of Americans) and thought it would be bad. I had NO idea just how bad it could be. The last two 1/2 years have truly been surreal, starting with the lies of rigged election, then 1/6, then the republicans falling into lockstep behind this atrocious man. The lies, corruption, grift, danger to national security - it is beyond me how anyone can support this guy. We are on a precipice and I pray we don't fall off.
The Dobbs case was no doubt one of the single most devastating assaults on women in my 47 years on this planet. The hard fought rights of my mother and grandmother decimated. No exception for rape, incest or the life of the mother in some states is nothing short of sadism and a war on women.
I remember news of the assassinations in the 60’s, the lunar landing, Nixon’s resignation, the Berlin Wall coming down, being stunned with election results in 2016, still have anger one year after Roe is demolished by SCOTUS. I’m sure there’s more horrifying things I’ve chosen to forget.
The decision by President Truman to use the atom bomb on two Japanese cities.
The alternative of course was the very real loss of thousands of additional American soldiers, sailors and airmen.
There’s no way anyone can presume to know what their decision would have been had their butt been in the same seat. That’s like telling someone “I know how you feel “ when they share a momentous personal loss and that kind of loss fortunately never happened to you.
Had the fortunate of having met Pres Truman in 1959 and had the gumption to ask how he felt history had treated his decision. He answered “let’s wait 20 years and consider that question again.
It’s now 79 years since that event. Care to weigh in now????
Less serious, but stunning none the less: Chgo Cubs win the World Series.
It's a hard choice but I think that a woman endorsed by the NYTimes as the person most qualified to be president in our lifetimes, not just of the current candidates, to be beaten by someone like Donald Trump was excruciating. The reality of that was mind numbing. America was no more. And it would take a generation to produce another woman as qualified and capable as Hillary. And as politically well connected, which is important if what you are expected to do is be political.
Everyone I know has a 9/11 story. I was in New Orleans and stayed after with my SIL who worked for a small regional bank. Seemingly remote yet she had a personal link. Her bank had just met with people from Cantor Fitzgerald who were lost in the WTC. The subsequent wars with Afghanistan and--less understandably--Iraq dramatically hurt US standing in the world. And that America accepted what proved to be lies about WMD portended the credulity that has fed the worst US presidency in my lifetime.
Probably not the biggest *shock* per se. But I remember being acutely stunned when Challenger exploded. Something like this was never supposed to happen. It brought into focus all the, dare I say, propaganda I had been fed my whole life about American being the best and the brightest. If that makes any sense.
I remember calling my mother telling her that Bush was bombing Iraq. It was the middle of the night. She said “ Just a minute. I’ll call you back.” Then I thought how callous I’d been to address it as just a ‘news item’ when war to her generation meant something entirely different. As awful as it was to me It didn’t come close to comparing her feelings of dread at another war!
My mother was born in Berlin Germany in 1932, when Hitler came to power. Her grandfather was Jewish and by the end of the war her family spent most of it moving around to stay out of the hands of the Nazis. But they were back in Berlin at the end of the war and luckily lived in the American sector. My great grandfather and a niece were the only survivors of his family line. A decade later she met my Dad and became an American. Why do I mention this? Because her family experienced the sudden building of the Berlin Wall and how it effected so many people they knew. Whole families separated before they could plan how to be on the right side. This was another symbol of the cold war.
Years later I spent one weekend in Berlin and of course went to the Wall and I have read many stories of how people escaped across it. The looming guard towers and armed soldiers were everywhere. It was so intimidating.
Then many decades later I was taking care of my infant daughter and I was floored when the news announced on Nov. 8, 1989 the Wall had come down. The coverage of all those celebrating people so happy and free was deeply emotional. I will always associate my daughters birth with this happy event. This was the news that stunned me most.
Instead of choosing an obvious inflection point in history (e.g. the atomic bombs
on Hiroshima and Nagasaki or one person on the Supreme Court giving the
Presidency to G. W. Bush in 2000)I select the two current maritime disasters.
In my opinion they illustrate vividly the enormous and unrelieved evil of the inequitable
distribution of wealth in the world. Mankind is obviously still as barbaric and unevolved
as it was thousands of years ago with the exception of a comparatively small group of
us who actually care about progress and the fair treatment of humanity. The following
is an important commentary about the treatment of the two disasters:
“We may have all come on different ships, but we’re in the same boat now.”
--MLK, Jr.
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JUNE 23, 2023
Kuttner on TAP
A Tale of Two Disasters
The Titan submersible tragedy has overshadowed the sinking of a boat carrying hundreds of impoverished migrants.
Note from Bob Kuttner: While away in Europe, I’ve invited François Furstenberg to write today’s On TAP post.
When the Titan submersible disappeared in the North Atlantic last Sunday, with passengers who paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for the risky voyage, the world took notice—and mobilized.
A multinational force immediately launched into action to search the site, some 900 miles off Cape Cod. The U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Navy, and the Canadian Coast Guard established a unified command the morning after the distress was reported, and French and British ships with deep-sea capabilities soon joined. By Wednesday, they were combing a search zone about twice the size of Connecticut, as deep as 2.5 miles under the surface. Medical personnel equipped with a hyperbaric recompression chamber stood ready to help.
Private actors joined the effort as well. Within 20 hours of being notified, a Cape Cod–based company specializing in sub-sea research expeditions assembled a team; three U.S. Air Force C-17 aircraft transported them to Newfoundland on Tuesday. Within hours, they were sailing on board a Canadian ship.
Later that day, some 60 hours after the Titan was first reported in distress, rescuers discovered a debris field confirming the implosion of the submersible and the death of all five occupants. The tragedy, as The New York Times put it, had "mesmerized people worldwide for days."
The same can’t be said about a tragedy that unfolded just a few days earlier in the Mediterranean. There, up to 750 Pakistani, Syrian, Egyptian, and Palestinian migrants had jammed aboard a rusty fishing trawler to undertake a perilous journey from Libya to Italy. Five days into the voyage, the ship was in severe distress. Food and water had run out. "People were dying. People were fainting," recalled one refugee.
As the boat floated helplessly off the coast of Greece, with at least six dead refugees on board and hundreds more locked in the hold below, passengers sent out calls of distress. Few, however, bothered to respond. On June 13, two merchant vessels approached the ship to offer supplies before sailing off. The Greek Coast Guard arrived that day, but did not intervene. (Indeed, just a few weeks earlier, Greek authorities had been filmed kidnapping recently arrived migrants on the island of Lesbos and towing them back out to a life raft. European officials in Brussels had expressed that they were "concerned" by the images.)
Early on the morning of June 14, as the Greek Coast Guard ship looked on, the rickety fishing trawler lurched and began to sink. With only one ship deployed, the Greek Coast Guard was ill-prepared to help. Only thanks to the arrival of a $175 million superyacht were around 100 survivors saved from drowning. An estimated 650 desperate migrants, many of them women and children, went down to the sea depths.
The divergent responses should trouble anyone who ponders the contrast, even for a moment. They tell us a great deal about the entrenched and interrelated inequalities of the world over the last few decades.
With a U.S., French, or British passport, countries will spare no resource to save you. Hold a Pakistani, Egyptian, or Syrian passport, and those same countries will make every effort—building walls across vast terrestrial borders, flying you to Rwanda, or towing you out to the middle of the sea—to keep you out.
The wealthy victims of the Titan tragedy have well-reported identities. Readers and viewers were invited to empathize. The identity of the migrants, by contrast, remains mostly unknown—even those who survived. As for the ones who perished, we are unlikely to ever know who or even how many disappeared.
Both voyages involved extreme risk. The passengers on the fishing boat undertook their journey out of necessity; for the passengers on the submersible, it was a choice. Space on the rickety trawler cost far less in monetary terms than space on the advanced submersible. But as a share of the passengers’ total wealth, the refugees paid far more.
It’s worth asking about the extent to which the wealth of billionaires who adventure deep underwater—or into space, for that matter—results from the poverty of global billions. Did those Pakistanis on the trawler flee the climate catastrophe in their country, made so much worse by the developed nations that burned up the fossil fuels to enrich a few billionaires? How much has the soaring concentration of wealth in the United States and in other developed countries resulted from the ability to exploit workers in the developing world?
It’s worth asking, too, to what extent the extreme inequalities of wealth within developed nations fuel anti-migrant sentiment and right-wing backlash, which generates perilous obstacles for refugees, forcing them into ever-greater risks in their quest for a better life for themselves and their children.
The spectacle of impoverished migrants sinking with the ship while every resource is mobilized to save the wealthy few certainly recalls a past maritime tragedy—the very one whose wreckage the submersible went to explore. Why did the original Titanic hold such a grip on the popular imagination? Why is it that, more than a century later, people will pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to visit the wreckage? Wasn’t it at least in part because it stood as a parable of the hubris of modernity in our last Gilded Age?
Martin Luther King famously said that the arc of the moral universe bends toward justice. Perhaps he was right, but it can also bend the other way. Maybe the moral of the Titanic tragedy was that, rich or poor, we all sail on the same ship, and we will all sink or survive together. Well, now we have our own parable, updated for the 21st century. It’s up to us to decide what meaning we want to make from it.
François Furstenberg teaches history at Johns Hopkins University.
The invasion of the US Capitol on 1/6/21 was the most shocking story I've seen. Also, GOP's adulation for Putin. I'm old enough to remember "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"
1. Trump’s election
2. 1986 space shuttle explosion
3. U.S. Insurrection, January 6, 2021
4. Fall of Soviet Union in 1991
5. Discovery of CRISPR
9/11 and Trump 2016
There are so many. Certainly 9/11 stands out. But I lost hope after Sandy Hook. If the shooting of 26 people at the school, 20 of whom were children 6 and 7 years old, couldn’t bring about much needed gun reform, nothing ever would.
The absolute denigration and humiliation for both Anita Hill and Christine Blakey Ford over their bravery for coming forward, for nothing. No validation, while being grilled and tortured over details they experienced, to just be railroaded by the government. So much more needs to be done about this kind of situation for women. While both the judges got confirmed and live high off the hog. Unreal.
During my late teens & early 20’s the Vietnam war was hugely impactful. Seeing boys I knew go off to fight a war, gradually realizing that what we were told by the government was not as trustworthy as I had thought, discovering the power of passionate people marching & demonstrating for peace - & of course later seeing how many lives were forever damaged & altered.
Tied with this though is the election of Trump. I went to bed election night with a sense of dread, woke up to such a feeling of despair & shock. And then over these last years seeing that my sense of dread didn’t even begin to capture how much damage he would do & continues to do to our country.
Before I was alive my country dropped bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. I now have a warm and forgiving Japanese daughter in law. She took me to see Hiroshima and that experience changed me profoundly.
In my lifetime I have to say the shock in 2016 learning that so many of my countrymen could not see the truth about the evil unleashed on us.
My initial choice would be the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building bombing in Oklahoma City. As I thought more on this I realized this tied in with other events.
1. The tragedy at the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, because it happened in my state, Texas.
2. The Oklahoma City bombing. Timothy McVeigh used the Waco incident as the reason he bombed the federal building.
This one struck me so hard because the week before the bombing the Southwestern Association of Law Libraries held our annual meeting in Oklahoma City not far from the Alfred P. Murrah building. We had a great time over those few days. We had walked past that building. We toured the building behind it and knew the law librarian who worked there. My colleagues in the law library where I worked at the time spent that day watching the TV our director had set up in the back of the circulation area. We tried to get away and do some work but always found ourselves back in front of the set. "We were just there last week!" What about our friend who worked in the building behind the bombed one? It would be several days before we finally heard from him with his first-hand account of how they were impacted in that building. (A major concern was debris contaminating stored evidence material and the possible impact of upcoming trials.)
3. January 6, 2021. A friend called me that day. "Do you have the TV on? Have you seen what's happening at the Capitol!" I turned on the TV and couldn't believe my eyes. Surely this couldn't be the United States! I contacted family members and then was surprised again when a sister commented that she had to wait to see the news for herself because it could be Antifa, not the president's supporters.
How they tie together.
In 1995, Attorney General Janet Reno sent Merrick Garland to Oklahoma City and he served as the federal prosecutor for Timothy McVeigh’s initial hearing. "Early in the investigation, Garland served as supervisor and line prosecutor, presenting arguments at an initial hearing on the case even as he coordinated the sprawling, multistate investigation." "But as Merrick Garland huddled with the lead prosecutor on the case, he urged caution in presenting the massive amount of evidence from the wreckage. 'Do not bury the crime in the clutter,' he said." (How the Oklahoma City bombing case prepared Merrick Garland to take on domestic terrorism. https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/merrick-garland-oklahoma-city-bombing/2021/02/19/a9e6adde-67f2-11eb-8468-21bc48f07fe5_story.html)
A surprising side note: The article cited above is dated February 19, 2021. As I read through the two-year-old comments I was stunned when I read this one and a reply to it.
"Like Russian 'collusion', this domestic right wing terror threat will never materialize...'"
Reply: "...Breathtaking would be the slaughter of Ukrainian civilians by goose stepping Russian storm troopers."
Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022, just over a year later.
The memories are flooding back reading comments from others. I was a freshman in high school, in a biology lab, when we heard about the assassination of President Kennedy. Still hard to accept. Other events that are memorable include the moon landing, the Challenger disaster, 9/11.
The most profound event has been the enduring appeal of Donald Trump, despite the lies, the incompetence, the corruption, and the devastating impact on our political system.
On October 22, 1962 I was on my way to work on the flight line at Hamilton AFB, CA where I helped maintain the computers and radar on the F101-B fighter interceptor. I worked the third shift and when I parked my car in the lot by the flight line President Kennedy came on the radio with his address about the Cuban Missile Crisis.
After the speech I went to the radar shop where everyone was stunned as the teletype stated printing out DEFCON alerts (defense condition) all the way up to DEFCON 3. We were put on 12 hour shifts seven days a week and the infrared missile and the atomic rockets were loaded on the planes and about half of them took off.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrPkIYb9iog
https://www.criticalmach.net/attackgeometry/attack-geometry.html
There are two things that really rocked me and at the time may have seemed small. The first was hearing Bush announce that we would be bombing Iraq. I pictured the future with thousands and thousands dead and a seismic shift in our relationship with the Islamic world that I knew would affect us forever. The second, even smaller one was when I heard that Mitch McConnell had blocked Merrick Garland from even having a hearing. I realized that we were no longer in a Democratic nation if one side refused to play by the rules.
I will never get over 9/11. I was in NYC that day. Nothing as horrible as that. Nothing.
As a child of parents who were caught up in the throes of war and its aftermath as children in Germany, the fall of the Berlin Wall tops my list. As a young man I witnessed their joy and optimism for a free future which honored human rights.
Trump being elected. Every other event in American history has had an ending and none of those events led to the United States becoming a fascist country. Trump killed more Americans than all the wars the U.S. has ever fought with his corruption, incompetence and sadism. The horror continues with his cult and co-conspirators and the billionaire class
The horror and the danger unsurpassed by any other event in American history.
The Kennedy shooting in Dallas (too young to really understand but I felt how unmoored adults were
Challenger loss
9/11 (it took years before I could see the towers fall without dissolving in tears)
Obama election (I cried joyfully for about 5 days)
January 6 (wept once again as it was happening)
When the two impeachments failed to gain convictions in the Senate
Oh my gosh, where to start, where to end? The tragedies of the 60’s JFK, RFK, MLK and feeling like the bottom dropping out….then, at the same time, as a young high school student, having recently graduated friends deploy to and not return from Vietnam, or come back forever soul-wounded—it was almost too much to take in coming of age then. Widening the lens, paying attention to the terrible and growing impact of humans on our ecosphere AND the stunning advancements (arts/medicine/science/etc) humans have created. Watching the slow hollowing out of the middle class and upward wealth concentration. The alarming rise of the push for a theocratic/autocratic state—NOT in my country if I can help it!—and power hungry win-by-whatever-means strategies taking over democratic ideals. Watching this festering erupt in Jan 6th was horrifying, especially as it was egged on by those who held high offices. I try to stay aware of those changes and upheavals that are surely unfolding day by day. I oft say that the only reason I want to live forever is to know how it all turns out. Maybe if Homo sapiens had more Bonobo DNA there would not be so much strife….maybe… https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2021/03/20/978868116/some-generous-apes-may-help-explain-the-evolution-of-human-kindness
There are two, first and foremost 9/11, second is the the loss of Challenger. But I also have to say that the profound anger I felt on January 6th comes close too.
The variety of events that people have shared here have reminded me and opened my eyes to several events that have shaped our history. As I think back on my 7+ decades as an American, January 20, 2009 stands as a stunning and bright day...we inaugurated Barack Obama tas President of the United States.
And looking forward; my biggest concern for the future of American, is who we inaugurate on January 20, 2025.
The most stunning moment in US history in my life happend the evening Donald Trump was declared victorious over Hillary Clinton, the most accomplished candidate ever to run for the US presidency. The devastation put in motion then continues to this day. In my work, we call this Complex PTSD: ongoing trauma with no agency. The only difference is that we will have agency eventually: we can vote again in 2024.
I was most stunned by the election of Donald Trump in 2016. I was living in Ireland at the time and told my worried Irish friend the day before the vote not to worry because no women, Blacks, Latinos or LGBTQ people would vote for him! Ha. I was so wrong about the women, as more than 50% of women voting choose Trump over a capable and experienced woman candidate. I thought the pussy tape would end any support Trump had among women. Silly me!
To me, it was the unbelievable change from the historic election of Obama to the nightmare of Trump as president. The contrast is still difficult to believe, or stomach.
Of all of the above, I have to say 9/11. The World Trade Center disaster, smoke and flames rising high in the air, could be seen from Route 17 which runs through Ramsey,NJ where I was living. 704 New Jerseyans died that day, 11 from Glen Rock alone. A 4th plane took off, later than the others,from Newark headed for San Francisco. Over Ohio 3 al Qaeda members hijacked United Airlines Flight 93, forcing 33 passengers + crew members, to the back of the plane while the 4th replaced Pilot LeRoy Homer, Jr, an Air Force Captain reservist, winner of many awards,flight teacher at the Academy, who served in the Gulf War. They were 18 flying minutes from the US Capital Bldg, the target. Passengers fought back.13 people called home, & because the plane had taken off late, learned of the other disasters, and knowing what their fate would be, fought back with courage, bravery & sacrifice. #4 knew he would never hit his target, made the decision to crash. The plane flipped over as he was not very experienced and headed nose first into the ground at Shanksville, PA at @600 mph, a short distance from a school. Two unarmed AirForce jets went after it while still airborn with the mission to stop it , one to crash into the front, the other into the back which was of course, a suicide mission for those pilots. 4 men are noted as leaders , Burnett, Glick, Bingham, and the one most remembered, Tod Beamer, 32, who spoke the last words recorded-Let's Roll !
Investigators crawled on hands and knees among the wreckage which had made a 15 foot deep crater. Few human remains were found. It makes one heartsick knowing these heroes said goodbye to wives, parents and faced death head on to save the countless lives of others. Forever remembered.
Since these things remembered are grim and dark, allow me a little fun. I didn't know it, but SIR Mick Jagger and girlfriend only live maybe a mile from me in Lakewood Ranch, FL. The big headline is that they have put their house up for sale at $3,499,000 , over a million more than bought in 2020. He is 79 and still dances around on stage like a 20 year old. Girlfriend-36. Perhaps we could have another Al Pacino happening. ; ) Anyway, it's off to NYC. I wonder if they would take a small deposit and hold it for me, like, I don't know, $100 ?? Oh well, I guess You caint always get what you want. Darn.
Air-raid drills-1950. Television-1951. Polio vaccine-1955. Elvis-1956. Sputnik-1957. Vietnam War-1961. JFK death-Nov 22, 1963. Beatles-1964. Birth of JKG -my daughter. MLK-1968. RFK-1968. Man on the moon-July 1969. Kent State-May 1970. Roe v Wade-Jan 1973. Nixon resigns July 1974. Challenger disaster-Jan 1986. Hill/Thomas-Oct 1991. Waco-April 19, 1993. OKC bombing-April 19, 1995. Columbine H S-April 1999. September 11, 2001. President Obama-2008. Sandy Hook-Dec 2012. Russia/Trump-Nov 2016. ETTD! COVID-2019. Jan 6th. 78 years - what a ride!
There are so many I have witnessed since my first memory of JFK's assassination watching my grandmother weeping all day when I was at home sick with her as a first grader; however, the two that come to mind most recently that have my head spinning are the reversal of Roe v Wade and how many states have passed "no exception" laws, and the Jan. 6th insurrection. If that was a BLM demonstration on the capital grounds, even a peaceful protest, those demonstrators would have been shot for going into the capital building and NEVER would have been allowed to just walk out free and unharmed like the insurgents did. What we watched was inconceivable how anyone could believe the lies the GOP tried to spin when we saw what we saw with our own eyes. I am still so angry IQ 45 was not impeached over that and the loyalty and cowardice of his party is absolutely appalling.
Easily 9/11 was the most shocking event in my lifetime. And, although not as acute a situation, the COVID pandemic was, in a chronic sort of way, the most surreally unexpected event in my lifetime
If I use my ability to remember exactly where I was when I learned of it as a gauge of how stunned I was, it would be the assassination Kennedy, the explosion of the Challenger and the death of Princess Diana.
The news story most captivating to me today is what is happening Russia. As I am hoping for the defeat and removal of Vladimir Putin. However, who and how that comes about is also the most troubling. Yevgeny Progozhin, is the most frightening scenario for the world and Russia to succeed.
Other possible players, Chess master Garry Kasparov, and exiled Russian businessman Mikhail Khodorkovsky engaging with other oligarchy for a assignation would be better for Russia and the world.
World leaders good and terrible have been taken out throughout the 20th and 21st centuries multiple times. Individuals who were lucky to get close enough. Planned coup d'état. to change the government internally. Vladimir Putin recently humiliated some of the top power brokers in Russia, including the Director of Russian intelligence, the Commander of the Russian Armed Forces, General Gerasimov, and even the Commander of Russian Forces in Ukraine. He may have finally overstepped his power and use.
The next few weeks will be very interesting for the world and the Russian people.
Kent State. The fact that the National Guard would shoot and kill peaceful protestors on a college campus was an eye opener for this soon to be 13 year old suburban white kid. That reaction was reinforced by the song Ohio (which I sang incessantly along with most of the other songs on 4 Way Street), my brother getting close to draft age, and my sister being away at college campus. Of all the assassinations, riots, protests, Vietnam on the nightly news and other events of the ‘60s which I remember (all too well), Kent State hit closest to home.