By Edwin Cooney
On Christmas Day of 1999, my friend David B. and I lingered over a few glasses of wine trying to decide what year of the fading century was likely to be the most historically significant one affecting the fate of all humanity. I, of course, was ready to nominate six years: 1914, 1918, 1933, 1945 1969 and 1991.
The years 1914 and 1918 began and ended World War I. The year 1933 saw Adolf Hitler and FDR both come to power. The year 1969 saw humankind land on the moon. The year 1991 saw the collapse of the Soviet Union, thus ending the "cold war."
David and I finally settled on 1945 for several reasons.
First, Franklin Roosevelt's death occurred on Thursday, April 12th ending an historic era here at home. Second, the war with Hitler's Germany ended on Tuesday, May 8th. Third, the United Nations opened in San Francisco on Monday, June 25th. Fourth, the World War with Japan ended on Sunday, September 2nd aboard the Battleship Missouri in Tokyo Bay. Most significantly, the two atomic bombs which were dropped on Japan on Monday, August 6th and Thursday, August 9th ushered in the atomic age altering scientific and social events beyond anyone's imagination up to that time.
As for the present, 2023 was both good and bad for most of us. Certainly, many people experienced happy marriages, births, and financial opportunities. Then, there were sad divorces, deaths and departures as well as academic and professional achievements and disappointing setbacks.
The year 2023 saw the 100th birthday of Henry Kissinger on Saturday, May 27th which was celebratory. Mr. Kissinger's death six months and two days later, on Wednesday, November 29th, evoked criticism and praise for his remarkable life and career.
I was saddened especially by the deaths of former First Lady Rosalynn Carter on Sunday, November 19th at 96 and of singer Harry Belafonte on Tuesday, April 25th, also at age 96. Then there was the passing of Baltimore Orioles Hall of Fame third baseman Brooks Robinson on Tuesday, September 26th at age 86. Finally, we Yankee fans lost Joe Pepitone on Monday, March 13th at the age of 82. Ah, crazy Joe Pepitone! The first baseball player to openly and proudly use a hair dryer in a big league clubhouse, showing it off for the television cameras.
If you're a Kansas City Chiefs football fan, your team's Super Bowl victory over the Philadelphia Eagles, 38 to 35 last February 12th, was grand. If you are a Texas Rangers baseball fan, their World Series victory on Wednesday, November 1st was both wonderful and about time since it was their first since the team was founded in 1972.
The major factor that makes any year good, bad, significant or insignificant is how we rate our personal, national or international fortunes. An even more intriguing question is what's behind or what constitutes our fortunes. If one asserts that good luck creates good fortune, isn't “good luck” the result of our capacity to arrange the sources and circumstances to create that good luck? Does God really and truly only help those who first help themselves or is that admonition just a little too slick and self-serving on the part of some pretty arrogant people?
As for the nations currently at war: Israel versus Hamas and Russia against Ukraine: has 2023 been a good year for any of them? What the events of 2023 tell this observer is that all heads of state face substantial limitations that invariably obstruct their goals of conquest or gain, but more about that another time!
It's both natural and right that you and I wish one another a “Happy New Year” even though we know unhappiness will rear its ugly head occasionally! After all, we not only expect to live but, more significantly, we expect to be a happy and prosperous people. Any other expectation would be unworthy of us!
RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,
EDWIN COONEY
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