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The Final Word: Tragedy amid celebration
Friday, April 18, 2008 11:08 PM EDT
As I wake up this morning, I will check my head for gray hairs.
Today is my 25th birthday, meaning I am halfway to 50, or as a colleague put it, a third of the way to fulfilling my life expectancy.
I will have fun with a Saturday birthday and will enjoy it with my friends. I’ll laugh when I think that “Star Wars: The Return of the Jedi” was the top box office hit in 1983, the same year Michael Jackson released his unforgettable “Thriller” album.
However, I will also spend some time in prayer and reflection when I think of the bizarre and horrifying chain of events that has happened in history during the week of my birthday.
It is true that the days of April 16-20 have been infamous, especially during the span of my young life.
Today is my 25th birthday, meaning I am halfway to 50, or as a colleague put it, a third of the way to fulfilling my life expectancy.
I will have fun with a Saturday birthday and will enjoy it with my friends. I’ll laugh when I think that “Star Wars: The Return of the Jedi” was the top box office hit in 1983, the same year Michael Jackson released his unforgettable “Thriller” album.
However, I will also spend some time in prayer and reflection when I think of the bizarre and horrifying chain of events that has happened in history during the week of my birthday.
It is true that the days of April 16-20 have been infamous, especially during the span of my young life.
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• The day before I was born, a suicide bomber attacked the American embassy in Beirut, killing 63 people.
• Three years later, on my birthday in 1986, the United States attacked Libya in a terrorism-related strike.
• On my 10th birthday, in 1993, fire broke out at the Branch Davidian complex in Waco, Texas and 81 people perish in a much-publized disaster.
• Two years later, on the day I turned 12, 168 people perished in the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City.
• In 1999, the day after I celebrated my Sweet Sixteen, 12 students and one teacher died in a school shooting at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo.
• And last year, just three days before my 24th birthday, another school shooting struck — this time at Virginia Tech University, where 32 teachers and students were killed.
From a young age, I’ve always had an awareness and concern for the events that shape our nation and world. Many times I’ve been forced to — having to celebrate my birthday with the somberness of a tragedy floating in the background.
I will not pretend to be someone who can connect the dots. While ours is a world of war and tragedies, it seems this week seems particularly dark in the annals of American history.
— Jeremy Speer is sports editor of the Gaylord Herald Times. Contact him at 748-4520 or jeremy@gaylordheraldtimes.com.
• Three years later, on my birthday in 1986, the United States attacked Libya in a terrorism-related strike.
• On my 10th birthday, in 1993, fire broke out at the Branch Davidian complex in Waco, Texas and 81 people perish in a much-publized disaster.
• Two years later, on the day I turned 12, 168 people perished in the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City.
• In 1999, the day after I celebrated my Sweet Sixteen, 12 students and one teacher died in a school shooting at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo.
• And last year, just three days before my 24th birthday, another school shooting struck — this time at Virginia Tech University, where 32 teachers and students were killed.
From a young age, I’ve always had an awareness and concern for the events that shape our nation and world. Many times I’ve been forced to — having to celebrate my birthday with the somberness of a tragedy floating in the background.
I will not pretend to be someone who can connect the dots. While ours is a world of war and tragedies, it seems this week seems particularly dark in the annals of American history.
— Jeremy Speer is sports editor of the Gaylord Herald Times. Contact him at 748-4520 or jeremy@gaylordheraldtimes.com.
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