A calendar of crises

By Jim Thompson
HCP columnist

I got to thinking about happenings over my fairly long life and concluded there has always been a crisis.  

Maybe that is just the nature of humans – we have to have a crisis.

Let’s take a look.

Currently, the crisis is the possibility of runaway artificial intelligence.

Then, we have inflation and gas prices.

Before that, it was Covid-19.

Global warming.

Black lives matter.

Financial crisis of 2008.

Internet bubble.

World Wide Web.

Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Fall of the Soviet Union and its satellites.

Russian invasion of Afghanistan.

Hyperinflation (over 20%).

Iran crisis and the failure to rescue the hostages.

Two popes in about two weeks (John Paul I and John Paul II).

Nixon resignation.

First gas crisis (went from 29 cents to 45 cents).

Vietnam War.

Assassination of Martin Luther King.

Assassination of Robert Kennedy.

Riots.

Assassination of John Kennedy.

Cuban missile crisis.

Bay of Pigs invasion.

Recession of 1958.

McCarthy communist hearings.

Korean War.

And this is with doing no research, only what I can remember. And I do remember the tail end of the Korean War because Ohio had aluminum license plates during the war, and as a tiny little boy, I remember “helping” Dad putting them on our 1950 Chevy.

Jim Thompson, formerly of Marshall, is a graduate of Hillsboro High School and the University of Cincinnati. He resides in Duluth, Ga. and is a columnist for The Highland County Press.