Having had all I could take of current world news for now, I lay in bed this morning, staring at the ceiling and trying to think of something pleasant to write about for today’s blog. The best I could come up with was a search through today’s date in history for some interesting bits and pieces that — due to the fact that they are in the past — were not likely to be upsetting.

I was at least partially right.

First, the good stuff:

1789: George Washington unanimously elected first U.S. president. Probably the last time the Electoral College was ever unanimously in agreement on anything. But at the time, there were only 69 electors, representing the 11 states that had ratified the U.S. Constitution. Simpler times, indeed.

1826: “The Last of the Mohicans” is published. A classic.

1913: Civil rights icon Rosa Parks is born. Good news for the future.

1938: Disney releases “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.” Probably not politically correct nowadays, but in my view, you still can’t outdo Disney for sheer joy.

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Next, a bit of quirky news:

1974: Patty Hearst kidnapped by the Symbionese Liberation Army. Following payment of ransom by her father, media tycoon Randolph Hearst, surveillance videos of bank and store robberies showed Patty — in what appeared to be a classic example of Stockholm Syndrome — having willingly joined with her captors in their crime spree. Eventually captured by authorities, she was convicted of armed robbery and served 21 months of a seven-year sentence before having her sentence commuted by President Jimmy Carter. She later married her bodyguard, Bernard Shaw, and lives with him and their two daughters in New York and Connecticut. In an amusing twist of fate, Shaw is now head of security for . . . wait for it . . . the Hearst Corporation.

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And some good news/bad news, depending upon your view of social media:

2004: Facebook launches. This one is still open for debate.

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Unfortunately, even looking to the past, I found items related to man’s continuing inhumanity to man:

1861: States meet to form Confederacy. Leading to the start of a bloody four-year conflict that — emotionally, at least — never really ended.

1915: Germany declares war zone around British Isles. World War I, of course.

1945: Yalta Conference foreshadows the Cold War. With World War II drawing to an end, this historic meeting among U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin would seem to have been good news. But, with each of the three leaders determined to fulfill their respective agendas, compromises were necessary, and issues remained at the close of the conference that ultimately led to the decades-long Cold War . . . another one that, like the many-headed Hydra of mythology, seems destined never to die.

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And, as though we needed another war:

1962: First U.S. helicopter is shot down in Vietnam. By any standards, a major disaster that would drag on for another 13 years.

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I think I’ll go back to staring at the ceiling now, while I contemplate which of today’s news flashes are screaming most loudly for my attention.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
2/4/25