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The change will come quickly. [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-09-10
Turning points in history are rarely expected. They are triggers, tipping the scales suddenly in one direction or the other. During my life, the assassination of JFK, 9/11, COVID and Chernobyl come to mind. Such events catalyze reactions that can be neither predicted nor controlled.
John F. Kennedy was the last truly unifying president of the post-WWII era. He inspired my generation with hope for the future, and his assassination was met with shock and horror across the country. But it also led ultimately to Richard Nixon, as divisive a figure as Trump is today. Nixon instilled a cynicism and mistrust in government that has never been extinguished.
Personally, I believe that Chernobyl was the proximal cause of the collapse of the Soviet Union. To quote myself from the front page of my blog: “A disaster of that magnitude couldn’t be lied about or swept under the rug. The greater openness of “glastnost” could only speed the process of collapse by laying bare the gulf between the fantasy and reality of Soviet life.”
9/11 set off two disastrous wars. George W. Bush used lies and misinformation to justify the invasion of Iraq, further stressing the trust between government and nation. Yet the origin of Al-Queda was the Afghan-Soviet war, a war that radicalized a generation of Islamists. It was also a war fueled by weapons and aid provided to Afghan fighters by the CIA.
It has been a hot, dry summer in Massachusetts. We’ve only had to mow our lawn twice. But as autumn approaches, clear days and cool nights make for pleasant evenings sipping a beer on the back porch, talking to the neighbors or just watching the squirrels acrobat around in the trees. There is a hummingbird that makes my wife’s monarda a regular stop on its nectar tour. At first, I thought it was a giant dragonfly until it flew close to me and showed me its birdly profile.
9/11 was also a perfect late summer day on the Eastern seaboard. Maybe the two hijacked airliners that left Boston that morning flew over my house on their way to their destinies. Like that day, whatever happens next will happen quickly, and our world will once again be changed.
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