The 90's: The Last Great Decade? Part 3: Politically Incorrect

Part Three: Politically Incorrect

1) Bill Clinton's Sexual Harassment Trial, Monica Lewinsky and Impeachment
--My daughter, whose name is Monica, was 3 years old when all of this hit the fan.  She was confused as to why her name kept getting mentioned on TV.

--"It depends on what the meaning of 'is', is."

2) Viral Horror
--The Blair Witch Project

3) Tech Boom
--Pixar
--Steve Jobs returns to Apple after a 10 year absence.

4) Hard Drugs
--Viagra

5) Public Enemy No.1
--Osama Bin Laden attacks two U.S. embassies.  On August 7, 1998 truck bombs explode in the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

--Clinton retaliates, but is accused of trying to sidetrack the American people from the Lewinsky scandal.

6) Sit Down Com
--Seinfeld rules the American airwaves.  It was the biggest hit of the decade.

--I'm not surprised, since it is one of my all-time favorite shows.

7) The West Wing
--A liberal's fantasy White House

8) The Famous Royal Couple Splits & Diana's Death
--Princess Diana does a tell all interview, which is unheard of in British royalty.

--After going against convention, Princess Diana goes on to become one of the most loved women in the world.

--The world is in shock and mourning when Diana is killed in a car accident.  I will never forget that day, because the footage was never ending on the TV.  Her funeral is watched by 2.5 billion people.

9) World Trade Organization
--An anti-globalization protest of the WTO in Seattle lasted for 5 days and caused $29 million in damages.

10) The Shooting at Columbine High School
--I will never forget this day, it brought tears to my eyes.  Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris murdered 14 students and 1 teacher.

11) The Internet Bubble
--Theglobe.com is a sensation overnight.  Everyone goes crazy, but then theglobe.com isn't making a profit, so their stock plummets.  The bubble bursts and people lose a lot of $.

12) Y2K--The Millenium Bug
--Many people were genuinely freaked out about this and really thought the world was going to come to an end.  People stocked up on food and water, etc... I figured if anything really bad happened I'd be dead anyway, so why be psycho about it.  I remember that I even forgot about the panic until the day after New Years, and then I realized I was right about not freaking out.

Previously:
Part One: Great Expectations
Part Two: Friends & Enemies

The 90's: The Last Great Decade? Part 1: Great Expectations

--The National Geographic Channel did a short mini-series entitled, The 90's: The Last Great Decade?  It has 3 parts, so I thought I'd do a post on each part and give a rundown.

--Since, the 90's was when I entered adulthood, I remember almost everything that is mentioned very well.  In many cases, I remember where I was and what I was doing when the events unfolded.  Yet, I did learn some new things, because for the first 3 years of the 90's I was in college and paying no attention to the outside world.

Some of the contributors who were interviewed as part of the series:
-Rob Lowe (he narrates all 3 episodes)
-Newt Gingrich
-Tucker Carlson
-Jerry Springer
-Colin Powell
-P.J. O'Rourke
-Monica Lewinsky
-Detective Tom Lange
-Matthew Perry
--Roseanne 

Part One: Great Expectations

1) Gulf War
--On August 2, 1990 Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait.  CNN was the first news organization to air live from Baghdad when a war had started.  Kuwait is liberated.

2) Humvees and Hummers
--The humvee got a lot of good press from the war.  The humvee led to the creation of the hummer.  Arnold Schwarzenegger ended up buying 2 of the first ones.

3) Roseanne
--She credits herself in this series as being the one who got President Bill Clinton elected.  I'm not sure thats true, but even if it was, it definitely isn't something to brag about ;-).

4) Clinton's Election
--I had all 4 of my kids while Clinton was in office.  It was because of his presidency that I woke up and started paying attention to politics and current events.  I was outraged by his lack of morality.

This series credits Clinton and his team with inventing the spin machine for how to get out of tough spots, and Clinton had many.  James Carville was the leader and can probably be credited for keeping Clinton from being impeached.

5) Vanilla Ice and the Hip Hop Culture
--Vanilla Ice had a quick rise to fame, even though it didn't last long.

6) The Fresh Prince of Bel-air
--The series credited Will Smith and cast on the Fresh Prince with giving a new and better image of the black man.

--My oldest son used to get very excited when this show came on and would "dance" in his high chair to the theme song.  The show always came on when I was fixing supper.

7) Rodney King
--This was an event that I didn't know much about because I was in college when it happened.  And while I was outraged about about the Rodney King beating, and think the police shouldn't have been acquitted, it doesn't excuse or justify what happened afterwards.

--I was horrified as I watched the footage of black men beating and almost killing Reginald Denny.  Denny's skull was fractured 91 times.  Titus Murphy was one of the four people who rescued Denny and got him to the hospital.  He was a true hero.

--The riots ended up killing 55 people and causing $1 billion in damages.  How is killing innocent people and ruining businesses in your own neighborhood going to fix police brutality?

8) Clarence Thomas
--There are few things that outrage me as much as Anita Hill being used by liberals to try and destroy Clarence Thomas's life, character and chance to be a Supreme Court Justice.  Thank goodness she wasn't successful, but it bothers me to this day that many still mistakenly believe he was guilty.    Anita Hill is a disgrace to all the women who have been genuinely sexually harrassed.

--And the U.S. is fortunate that Thomas is on the supreme court, he is an honorable man.

9) Thelma and Louise
--A rogue movie in the 90's.

10) The Rise of the Bimbo
--Anna Nicole Smith got a breast enlargement and it led to a huge rise in women getting the surgery.

--She was one of the first people to become famous for no rhyme or reason, but many would follow.

11) The Decade of the Internet
--The world wide web transforms people's lives.

--Bill Gates makes computers accessible and affordable for everyone.  By 2013, Gates is the world's #1 philanthropist.

--In the 80's, there was a movie called, Revenge of the Nerds.  In the 90's, the movie actually happens.

12) Generation X
--Nirvana is one of the many voices of Generation X.  Kurt Cobain commits suicide.

13) Reality TV
--The Real World launches a new genre of TV, reality TV.

--Court TV airs the Jeffrey Dahmer trial live.

14) The 1993 World Trade Center Bombing
--It was treated as a criminal justice matter and the men who were responsible were arrested.  It should've been seen as an act of war.

13th Anniversary of 9/11

 

--The National September 11 Memorial opened on the 10th Anniversary on September 12, 2011.  The Museum portion opened this year on May 21, 2014.

--The National 9/11 Pentagon Memorial opened on September 11th of 2008.

--Empty Sky is the New Jersey 9/11 Memorial, it was dedicated on September 10, 2011.

--I look forward to visiting these memorials some day.  When I visited the Oklahoma City Memorial in 2010, it was very moving.


--We must never forget!  I'm concerned that some of the people at the head of our government have forgotten, and that as a result, our country is even more vulnerable to another attack.  May God have mercy on our country.

Previously:
2011--10th Anniversary of 9/11!
2010--September 11th --May We Never Forget!
2009--Remembering 9/11!
2008--September 11th--May We Never Forget!
2007--September 11th--My Generation's Pearl Harbor
2006--9/11 Tribute To Christina De Laura
2005--Remembering September 11th

In the Presence of My Enemies

I'm not sure how many of you are familiar with the story of Gracia and Martin Burnham. Here is a brief excerpt about what happened to them from a review of Gracia's book:

In The Presence of My Enemies tells the story of Martin and Gracia Burnham, a missionary couple who were kidnapped and held for over a year by the Abu Sayyaf, a terrorist group with ties to Osama Bin Laden.

While celebrating their anniversary at a small resort in the Philippines they were snatched away and spent the next year of their lives on the run, fighting to survive in the Philippine jungles. They were constantly faced with incredible hardship and often lacked even the most rudimentary comforts. They were held pending the payment of a large ransom, one which missionary groups will never pay. It was not until the aftermath of September 11 that real progress was made in trying to rescue the Burnhams.

This was an event that was very close to my heart and affected me in a personal way. The Burnhams both went to Calvary Bible College which is here in KC. There were people from my church that personally knew them and when they were abducted in the summer of 2001 it was talked about a lot here in KC. I prayed for them on a daily basis while they were missing for over a year. I will never forget hearing the news that Gracia had made it out alive while Martin had been killed during the rescue. It was a huge deal.

I think it was a year later that Gracia published her book and came and spoke here in KC. I was fortunate enough to get to hear her tell her story and she even autographed my copy of her book. The book is extremely compelling and very moving on so many different levels. It gives you a first hand glimpse of terrorists and what it is like to be a captive at their hands.

I was reminded of all of this Saturday night when the History channel aired a documentary entitled, Stalking Jihad. It was a great program telling the other side of the story of how the CIA was involved in helping the Philippine military rescue the Burnhams and the other innocent people the Abu Sayyaf had kidnapped. It is sad how much the Philippine government limited our involvement, otherwise I think they probably could've been rescued sooner and perhaps Martin would've escaped alive.

What I did find interesting was that 9/11 actually helped speed up their rescue rather than dampen the rescue efforts.

For so many different reasons I highly recommend that you read Gracia's book, In the Presence of My Enemies and watch the History channel's, Stalking Jihad. I'm hoping that the History Channel re-airs it because I didn't get to see the whole thing and Netflix doesn't have it.