This Week's Column

Distractions of history or defining moments
The news can be distracting at times. But sometimes it needs to be.
When I sat down to write this column a fire was raging in Sonora. I would start to type and then I’d hear more.
My concentration was busted while doodling on the paper on my desk and listening for news of how the fire was going.
It made me think about past events in my life where I was glued to the television, radio or newspaper just to see what had happened. Moments everyone stopped to concentrate on the same event. Distraction from our life but a focus on things that are larger than we are.
Moments when thoughts of self disappeared and the world became interested in something as a collective.
When tragedy strikes, distraction from self is evidence of belonging to the community at large. The memories of these types of events that cause the distraction are ingrained in memories for life.
My first memory of that was when President Ronald Regan was shot. I can remember watching it on the news for days and seeing the replay. That was way before cable had multiple news channels, Internet news and news at the speed of satellite.
The next event I remember consuming my thoughts was the Challenger Space Shuttle disaster. At one point I wanted to be an astronaut; the U.S. v. Russia space race was of great interest to me.
I can remember sitting in the school library to watch the launch and then seeing what happened. The news would show it over and over again trying to diagnose what happened.
Locally, I remember following coverage of the Carrollton bus crash. The story broke my heart, and I wanted to know as much as I could about it.
In another memory, I sat down with my dad to watch the 1989 World Series and remember the abrupt interruption and coverage of the earthquake in the days that followed.
There were many late nights during the first Gulf War, watching the reports come in from the war front. I’d watch the coverage of scud missiles firing through night vision photography.
I also remember the tragedy of the Oklahoma bombing. I was home from work that day for some reason and saw the shocking coverage. I cried for days.
A recent and shocking national experience was Sept. 11, 2001. Who can forget that? I would watch and watch hoping to hear about more survivors. The haunting images of the planes and ash filled aftermath are as clear in my mind as if it happened yesterday. We stayed glued to the television at work and I rarely turned the television off at home.
Then the second Gulf War began, and news came quickly with reporters embedded everywhere.
These moments of historic distraction, though tragic, connect people. They stay in the memory, impossible to erase.
What moments in history have defined your lifetime and stick in your memory? Was it Pearl Harbor, D-day, the JFK assignation, Martin Luther King Jr., the day Elvis died? Go online to www.thenewsenterprise.com and comment on this column to let us know what things have stuck in your mind as history’s distractions unfolded in your lifetime.