But several times in my life, I've experienced or witnessed events and their impacts that have worldwide influence, interest, or implication—negative or positive. In fact, the current "COVID-19 Pandemic" is one of those, and the "race riots" following the George Floyd killing are another. These events have made me think about some of the previous stunning events I remember from my lifetime. I want to comment briefly on a few of them to set the stage for sharing a few thoughts about the current situations.
These are some of the occasions in my lifetime, in my memory, when it seems the nation or the world "stood still" for a time while we confronted events or incidents, good and bad, that held our attention and in some ways influenced us or even united us in our reaction and response.
11/22/1963 - As a 6-year-old in first grade, I remember that I was playing outside during recess on the hill at Peteetneet school in Payson, and heard someone say, "Someone shot President Kennedy!" We were called back in to class where tearful teachers had us watch news reports on grainy black & white televisions before we were sent home early. Most of the rest of what I know about the events came later, but even as a 6-year-old I could sense how deeply affected the world was by the assassination of the popular, charismatic young president.
7/20/1969 - I was 12 when the world paused to wonder at the unfolding saga of Apollo 11. I followed the reports of the launch and several days' journey, amazed at the science involved to achieve all that was happening. I vividly recall watching (still in black-and-white) and hearing the dramatic moon landing and first steps at a friend's home on a Sunday afternoon and evening. The subsequent liftoff from the moon, rendezvous, return, reentry, spash-down, and recovery each seemed so dramatic and fantastic—even though we weren't quite sure if the astronaut s might be bringing back some weird, unknown lunar contamination! We never looked at the moon quite the same after that.
1/28/1986 - I was working at IBM in Manassas, Virginia and was at lunch with some co-workers. Either during lunch, or right afterwards as we heard news on the car radio, we heard about the Challenger shuttle launch disaster. We pulled off at a furniture rental store to join the clusters of people around display televisions, where they were replaying over and over the video of the launch and explosion. The launch had been widely anticipated since it included a female high school teacher. There was speculation at first that the astronauts might somehow have survived, but that desperate hope didn't last long. The replay of the explosion video, and the attempts to analyze and explain, were nonstop for days afterwards.
11/9/1989 - I grew up in the years of the "Cold War" with constant high tension between the USA and the USSR. There was fear and dread about our communist enemies, the threat of potential nuclear war, and all kinds of horrible concerns. The "Iron Curtain" dividing the east and the west, though mostly virtual, was high and strong. And a wall dividing the city of Berlin was a physical manifestation of the separation. But through the 1980s, the curtain began to weaken. There were negotiations and invitations; there was a challenge from one president to another, "Tear down this wall." And when it happened, the world was rivited to watch the wall crumble and the Communist Bloc deteriorate, overcome by a wave of free enterprise and hope.
4/20/1999 - We weren't accustomed to mass shootings on the scale of what took place in Littleton, Colorado. Two senior boys showed up at Columbine High School with multiple guns and took the lives of 12 classmates and a teacher before taking their own lives. The casual, deliberate nature of the act was chilling. I thought back to high school classmates who struggled socially or academically, and wondered what could drive someone to this point. But worse was yet to come. Perhaps nothing rivals the events of 12/14/2012 at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newton, Connecticut when a disturbed 20-year-old killed his own mother, then drove to the school and took the lives of 26 others including 20 first graders who were only 6 and 7 years old. How devastating to a community. I couldn't stop thinking of my mother's decades of teaching first-graders. How could someone look at those little faces, hear the cries and keep pulling the trigger?
1/1/2000 - I completed a degree in computer science in 1983. As I worked in the industry and read the literature, I soon learned about what came to be called "The Y2K (shorthand for 'Year 2000') Problem." In the early implementations of computers when storage was a limiting expense, dates were stored as only two digits (omitting the "19" portion of the century). Differences between two dates could be calculated by simple arithmetic, and such calculations were everywhere in all kinds of software. But someone realized that when 1999 became 2000 and you tried to compare dates based on only two digits, the answer would not be what was expected. They warned that all kinds of software would have issues, including embedded control software for utilities, transportation control, flight navigation, financial systems, etc. The problem would be especially acute when the current date became year 00, at midnight on New Year's Eve. So a massive industry sprang out of nowhere in the 1990s to specialize in rewriting software or installing additional checks and controls that could prevent disastrous results. Then, on the night of 12/31/99, we all held our breath. I remember watching the television reports as each new timezone passed the magic moment, wondering what calamities might occur. As the transition passed almost completely event-free, there was a huge sigh of relief. Some people believed we had all been victimized by a massive hoax, but many others felt that heroic "software rescue" efforts had averted the calamities.
9/11/2001 - My office was only a mile away from our home in Orem, Utah, and I went in to work early on Tuesday morning as I often did but then came home to have breakfast with the family. On the way home I heard breaking news reports on the car radio about a suspected tragic accident in New York City, involving an airplane flying into the side of an office tower. As I arrived home and switched on our bedroom TV to help Bonnie wake up, we saw the onsite news reports about the incident with the smoking "twin towers" of the World Trade Center in the background. As we watched, behind a TV reporter trying to share details, we saw the second airplane plow into the other tower. It was quickly obvious that this was not a tragic accident. We were stunned and shocked to watch the growing smoke and fire, and then witness the collapse of the towers—and then to hear of two other deliberate airplane crashes. America was under attack! The news coverage was incessant for weeks following. All air traffic was stopped in the US for fear of other attacks occuring; I remember how it somehow felt eerie to be conscious of the massive shutdown, that NO airplanes were flying anywhere in the USA. Patriotism reached a peak and flags were displayed everywhere; it was a time of remarkable patriotism and national unity. Some things were never the same again as security measures were dramatically increased in airports and other settings.
2/1/2003 - Following the 1986 Challenger disaster on liftoff, there was apprehension with each new shuttle flight. But we assumed the risky time was liftoff; we didn't expect the problems to come late in the flight! When the Columbia shuttle basically exploded into fragments upon reentry into the atmosphere as it was returning from its mission, just 16 minutes before its scheduled landing, it was almost as shocking as the first disaster. The cause was determined to be a result of damage to one of the wings when a piece of foam broke from an external tank shortly after liftoff; the exposed wing was unprotected during reentry and basically melted, causing the shuttle to lose control and eventually disintegrate. Seven more innocent lives were lost. Somehow these failures in advanced technology seem particularly gripping.
12/26/2004 - Our family spent the week of the Christmas / New Year's season in 2004 on a humanitarian service expedition in Mexico, working in a remote village that was quite isolated from the events of the world. When we emerged from that setting, it was stunning to read of the Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami, which claimed the lives of over 200,000 people. In a world where we have learned to be constantly connected and informed, this was such a shock because we were so "blissfully ignorant" during our expedition of the suffering that had occurred on the other side of the world. The recovery efforts from this disaster were enormous and prolonged.
1/12/2010 - We knew there would be serious damage and destruction as soon as we heard about the shallow, magnitude-7.0 earthquake in Haiti. The epicenter was near the densely-populated capital, where pervasive poverty meant very sub-standard construction. It was heartbreaking to realize that the city basically crumbled, with multi-story concrete buildings collapsing in deadly heaps. The death toll was estimated at 250,000 with an additional 300,000 people injured, and 5 million people displaced. Many billions of dollars of aid were sent in the years that followed.
These are some of the occasions in my lifetime, in my memory, when it seems the nation or the world "stood still" for a time while we confronted events or incidents, good and bad, that held our attention and in some ways influenced us or even united us in our reaction and response.
Other similar heartbreaks through the years included 4/16/2007 at Virginia Tech, where my wife went to college, and where a shooter killed 32 students and himself; on 6/12/2016 in an Orlando Night Club with 49 victims plus the shooter who was killed by police; and then 10/1/2017 in Las Vegas when 58 people were killed by a sniper from a hotel window before he took his own life. So many troubled people, lonely people, angry people. This is a problem that won't go away easily.
Then on 2/27/2010, only six weeks later, the Chile earthquake at magnitude 8.8 was significantly stronger. But because of various factors the damage and impact was much less. What made this one poignant and personal for us was to have our son Matthew serving in Santiago as a missionary. He and his companion experienced 3 minutes of shaking, along with many strong aftershocks, and then helped in cleanup efforts. We had some very uneasy hours that morning until we learned that he was OK! There were an estimated 370,000 homes damaged, and over 500 killed in the disaster.
So much of the experiences of our lives are lived in a pretty small "world"—our personal portion of the bigger world, unique to us and unknown to most others. When something happens in our little personal world, usually no more than a handful of people are aware. When something happens that impacts or touches millions of people instead of a handful, we marvel at the things we truly share. Often those things are compassion, emotion, pity, concern, love—the tender workings of the heart. Those things are much more important than we often realize as we navigate the challenges of our normal daily lives.
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