Ah memories. The 1980s brought us Survival Spanish, Laverne and Shirley, VCRs, video games, cell phones. George Lucas continued to dazzle movie audiences with never before seen special effects in The Empire Strikes Back.
A fellow named Ronald Reagan became President of the United States and made a lasting impression on America and the world. My vote helped put him in office. Looking back I'm not sure it was the right thing to do but we didn't have many options at the time. Few Americans wanted another 4 years of Jimmy Carter whose bungling got us into the Iran hostage crisis and led to a general atmosphere of distress worldwide.
Mount St. Helens erupted on May 18, 1980 making the mood even more apocalyptic. Prophecy preachers and tabloids had a field day predicting Armageddon. It was a turbulent decade filled with gigantic events, which is why those of us who lived through it didn't join in the hysteria over 9/11. But some good things came out of the 80s. Most of the technology we take for granted today was developed and perfected during that time. The way that technology is racing ahead today, if we don't blow ourselves up in the next few years we'll soon be living like the Jetsons. There's every reason for hope. In 1983 a civilian airliner went off course into Soviet Union airspace and was shot down killing hundreds of people including a U.S. congressman. If that didn't set off World War 3, I don't think anything will.
As of Nov.11, 2008 we have just elected another president because we didn't have many options. Barack Obama will be America's first black president, a democrat, a liberal, and even rumored to be a Muslim. As CNN's Jack Cafferty stated, there is no more fitting way to slam the door on the Bush administration which has left our military and our economy in ruins.
Obama is a good man, highly educated, intelligent and articulate. A Harvard graduate, if anyone is smart enough to clean up this mess it's him. I wish him well.
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