1900 versus 2020
Sometimes we need to put things in perspective. It helps. It even provides some comfort as we near the Summer of 2020 and the cancellations that are taking place, now. As most of you know, one of the special places in Chautauqua County is the Chautauqua Institution and its 9-week summer programming season. There has been an assembly on the 750 acre campus with a tapping of the gavel at the beginning and at the end of the assembly held in the Amp since 1874. For us to not have an assembly in 2020 simply seems almost unthinkable.
Imagine being born in the year, 1900. In your birth year, Galveston is decimated by a hurricane that kills close to 8,000. At the age of 1, President William McKinley is assassinated at the age of 58 after being fatally shot at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, NY by Michigan native, Leon Czolgosz. When you are 6, San Francisco is leveled by an earthquake. On your 14th birthday, World War I starts and ends when you are 18. Later in the year, a Spanish Flu epidemic hits the planet and runs until your 20th birthday killing 50 million worldwide and 675,000 in the US, alone. On your 29th birthday the Great Depression begins. Unemployment hits 25%, the World GDP drops 27%. That runs until you are 33. The country nearly collapses along with the world economy. When you turn 39 World War II starts. You aren't even "over the hill" yet and don't try to catch your breath. On your 41st birthday, the United States is pulled into World War II until you are 45. At 50, the Korean Wars starts. At 55, the Vietnam War begins. When you are 62 the Cuban Missile Crisis threatens to end life on our planet as we know it. At the age of 63 another President of the United States is assassinated, President John F. Kennedy in Dallas, Texas. When you turned 75, the Vietnam War finally ends taking 47,434 American soldiers in the battle that raged from 1964 to 1975. You would have witnessed the death of Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King, the racial riots, 2 wars that lead to conflicts in Iraq and in Afghanistan plus the Watergate Break-In which lead to the resignation of President Richard Milhous Nixon, the 37th President of the United States.
The coronavirus pandemic has been described at an invisible war, but the only comparable figures come from conflicts long in our rearview mirror.
Perspective is amazing. Yes, we are in a challenging time though try to remember or read about everything that those born in 1900 endured and accomplished. Have faith that we will endure as well and make particular note that they did it all without the internet nor without 24 hour news! The lack of which was perhaps a blessing.
Be safe .. in 2020.
Pat Locke
Maestro Muse
