Mrs. Kopas

English 12; Period 1

31 May 2004

August Memories

    On a beautifully hot summer day in August, Americans watched the Republican Senate approve a defense bill billions of dollars less than President Reagan had asked for (Fritz) while people of all ages flocked to the hit movie "Top Gun" starring Tom Cruise opening up in theaters. However, in the small town of Vermilion, Ohio an event occurred that shook a whole neighborhood. For my mother, this day started off as any normal day should; she got up, felt fine, even though she was uncomfortably pregnant because of the summer‘s heat. Around 3 o‘clock in the afternoon she started to feel a "little funny," and that was where I came into the picture (Parent last name). My father of course had to finish mowing the lawn before he would take her to the hospital, a task he still finds monumentally important. While in the operating room, the doctor was nowhere to be found. He was "on the phone" while my mother was in labor. As the doctor rushed in to perform his job, my dad asked him bluntly, "What were you doing, playing golf?" Immediately, the doctor put out his hands and boom, I was there. At exactly five o’clock on August 9, 1986, I was born. As my parents brought me home, it was soon realized that I was the first baby girl to be born in a neighborhood of all boys (Parent’s Last Name). As people on Mason Road were lining up at the house to hold the newborn baby, me, other events of major importance were occurring in the world.
    There are those who say that some things never change, while others marvel at the technological advances seen every year. In terms of world events, conflicts around the world have continued to dominate the news. For example, terrorism and hostages headlined the news of 1986 as they do today. An Islamic Holy War Organization in Lebanon threatened hostages Terry Anderson and David P. Jacobson who were being held unless Kuwait agreed to free "17 colleagues convicted of a series of bombings in December 1983" (Hizazi). Both Jacobson and Anderson were eventually released; however, Anderson spent 2,455 days in captivity until 1991, longer than any other American hostage (Karabell). As today, the Middle East was an area of terrorism. In 1986, Beirut, Lebanon, was the site of terrorist bombings that tore at efforts to restore law and order. Seventy-seven people were killed by the six bombings that occurred and four hundred were wounded from July 28th to August 9th. All these and countless other bombings set off "clashes between the Muslim and Christian militiamen" ("Beirut"). Christian leaders accused the Syrian intelligence of masterminding" the bombings, to "force the President to make peace with the Muslim rivals" ("Beirut"). Later in May 2000, Israel pulled out the last of its troops from Lebanon after twenty years of attempts to stop Hezbollah, a "Shi’te Muslum terrorist organization," however, many wondered whether or not this would stop the violence ("Israel"). Today, violence still reigns in that country.
    While terrorism exists throughout the globe today, the chill of The Cold War has thawed a bit since 1986. At that time, the Soviet Union was still perceived as a huge threat to the United States. Many in the media were afraid that President Reagan was not "responding to Soviet proposals" for arms control ("Stalemate"). Some said that he held back and that our response was very nervous and delayed. According to Time magazine, critics said that "For the first time" the United States only responded to Soviet proposals "rather than taking the initiative" ("Stalemate"). Now that the Cold War has ended, historians look back at the period and wonder if Reagan’s policies in fact brought the Cold War to a close. Some say that the "timing indicates a triumph for the policies of the first Reagan administration which intensified the Cold War competition particularly in terms of military build-up and effectively over-burdened the Soviet economic system," so that the Soviet Union and its satellite nations had to reform (Lane 10). However, theories on the ending of the decades-long Cold War remain "contentious" (10).
    The ending of the Cold War did not mean an end to conflict, however, especially in Yugoslavia which at the time was disintegrating as a satellite state of the Soviet Union. It was in 1986 that the dissolution of federal Yugoslavia was hastened by the rise to power of Slobodan Miloshevich as president of the Serbian Republic and his embrace of an extreme Serb nationalist agenda. That agenda called for a solution of the "national question" by the creation of a Greater Serbia, uniting all Serbs in a single state; in 1986 it was endorsed by the Serbian Academy of Arts and Sciences ( Riedlmayer). In August of that year in Yugoslav markets, the article "The Past withstands the Present," describes how all old customs of dress and Asian appearance remain: "… the capital of Kosovo was expanding into a large modernized city, Prizren and Pec, to keep their old tradition and distinct Asian air ("Yugoslav" ). Yet, by the end of the century, the war in Bosnia would ultimately force Miloshevich from power because of ethnic cleansing in Kosovo (Holbrook 325).
    On the domestic front as well as throughout the world, d rugs were becoming an increasing problem at this time, and not simply because of its addictive qualities. As a result of many drug users sharing needles, AIDS was becoming an uncontrollable disease. The New Jersey’s Deputy commissioner of Health showed that "60% of the NJ AIDS cases were drug related." ("Proposal "). New Jersey was asked to adopt a program that gave free sterile syringes to addicts, if dirty needles were given back in return. Many of those opposing the initiative believed that it would encourage the addicts to keep using drugs ("Proposal"). The importance of stemming the AIDS virus was evident earlier in the summer when "Dr H Mahler, the Director of WHO, announced that as many as 10 million people world wide could already be infected with HIV" ("The History"). The disease, so feared and so fatal, was proving to be an issue in the legal realm as well. For the first time that August, the U.S. Federal Government brought "illegal discrimination suit" against a nurse who had been fired from his job without offering him an "alternate" job (Pear). Though AIDS has ravaged people in all nations, from the 1990s to the present, the worst hit area for AIDS with 70% of world-wide cases has occurred on the Sub- Saharan African continent (Wilensky).
    Admired by those in his own party, Ronald Reagan’s most controversial initiatives, the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) or "Star Wars," technology, was seen by critics as foolish and dangerous for world peace. Supporters believed that the technology would lead to a freedom from nuclear war (Fritz). According to Time, in an August 1986 letter written to his friend, Laurence Beilenson, President Reagan emphasized his dream that the initiative would stop the Cold War (Reagan). Meanwhile, children, especially boys, were dreaming of The Transformers, a science fiction type toy that could "transform" either into a robot or a plane, truck or car. The movie version came out in August of 1986. While many young little boys loved it, for Ralph Novak it was a horrible movie. He went on to say that it was "86 minutes of relentless skirmishes" ( Novak). Children still loved the movie, even though Optimus Prime, leader of the good guys, dies and goes to heaven "the big junkyard in the sky" (Novak). Let’s face it, some movies are classics and some are just junk.
    Financially, some said the economy in 1986 was not so great. Yet some analysts said that "hopes for a revival of the U.S. economy should not be given up" on completely (Carrier). On the day of my birth, the Dow Jones average of 30 industrials rose 18.98 points to 1,728.62. The New York Stock Exchange gained 136.41 and the American Stock Exchange went up from 3.88 to 264.90 (Carrier). Prices in 1986 were much lower than today. For instance, bread was only .56 cents for one loaf. Milk was $1.92 per gallon. Gas was only .93 cents per gallon. Compared to the $ 2.00 per gallon for gas at this time, the increase is more than a dollar difference and dollars add up. The average income for a worker was 34, 924 dollars per year, but the most drastic change since 1986 has been with the minimum wage, from $3.35 per hour to today’s minimum wage of $ 5.15 ("Headlines").
    Though newspapers by nature focus on the sad events that befall so many, there were light-hearted times in August of 1986 as well. I consider myself lucky to be brought up in the wonderful times of the Cabbage Patch Kid frenzy (where no mother was safe in a department store, for fear of being trampled by the mass of other mothers in search of the plastic-headed phenomena born out of cabbage patches.) These freakishly beady-eyed babies no doubt terrified many children with nightmares, or maybe that only happened to me. I also consider it a great honor to be born on the day when one of the greatest movies of all time hit the theaters; that movie, "Ferris Bueller’s Day Off," remains a classic at our home to this day ("Headlines").
    Though music like "That’s what Friends are For" by Dionne Warwick & Friends and the huge sensation, "Walk Like An Egyptian " by the Bangles were the year’s largest hits in 1986, ("I Love") the song that speaks most for me is the recently released song, "Glory of Life" by Rascal Flatts. The speaker of the song relates how "mercy and faith" can keep him "warm" (2) despite the many trials he might face. Though my life has been relatively tragedy-free, there are always times that one feels that "it’s a long road through the darkest of nights" (7). Death of grandparents, the moving-away or loss of a best friend, or perhaps simply the nostalgia of growing up and leaving all that one knows can make a person feel that "high is this mountain I climb, deep is this river of time…sometimes I stumble." (10-11, 13). Fortunately, I have my family and love of God to "give me shelter" so that "love won’t let me lose sight of the glory of life" (19-20).
    On the day of my birth, many events happened locally, world wide, economically, and culturally. Whether the news discussed Reagan or Cabbage Patch Kids, Augie or Top Gun, lower gas prices or a cross-country ride for charity, I find myself very lucky to be born in these times of both the good and the bad. The mid-80s were great years in which to grow. It is important to examine the past, whether it be knowing what not to do because of past mistakes of leaders or events, or knowing what to do because of the right choices of those leaders. Important choices include those that show the love of families. The following is from a book which my mother read to me when I was a child; coincidentally, it was published during the month of my birth:
"I'll love you forever,/ I'll like you for always /As long as I'm living,/ My baby you'll be." (Munch).

Works Cited

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       Newsbank. WTHS.  20 May 2004.

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         2004 <http://www.anysonglyrics.com/lyrics/r/rascalflatts/the-glory-of-life.htm>.

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       WTHS. 21 May 2004.

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