By James Perry

Setting here thinking about the tumultuous 1990’s and what occurred January 16th 1991 under the presidency of George H. W. Bush. On this date January 16th 1991 we entered a war against Iraq caused by Iraq invading Kuwait and committing major atrocities against the Kuwaiti people. Iraq at this time was under the dictatorship of Sadam Hussain. United States Army General Norman Schwarzkopf led the multi-national air, land and sea military invasion of Iraq to push Iraqi forces back into Iraq and stop them there. Next 14,000 Jews were airlifted from Ethiopia by Israel. Jeffrey Dahmer was arrested, tried and convicted for murdering young males and he was also suspected of cannibalism. Apartheid was cancelled in South Africa. Next the Soviet Union collapsed December 25th 1991 ending the cold war that started in 1947 between Russia and the United States.

During Bill Clinton’s presidency the Bosnian War begin on April 6th 1992 and lasted until 1995. Next the Watts riots in Los Angeles, California started after the Rodney King trial ended with the burning and destruction of parts of Los Angeles, California. A siege of Randy Weaver’s cabin at Ruby Ridge, Idaho began August 21st of 1992 and ended August 31st of 1992 with his thirteen-year-old son, Sammy being shot in the back and killed, his wife, Vicky being shot through the window and killed while holding a eleven-month-old child and the family dog being killed. A U.S. marshal. William Degan was shot and killed by return fire from the Weaver cabin.

The World trade center bombing by Arab terrorists occurred on February 26th, 1993. The siege of the Branch Davidian Church at Waco, Texas by the ATF agents began February 28th 1993 and on April 19th 1993 Attorney General Janet Reno after talking to Bill Clinton ordered the ATF and FBI to move on the church. After the fire ignited by the government forces was put out eighty-eight people were dead. Also, in 1993 Lorena Bobbitt operated on husband’s reproductive organs. On July 20th 1993 Vince Foster’s body was found at Ft. Marcy’s Park outside Washinton, D.C. A lot of speculation to the cause of death.

In 1994 Nelson Mandela began his presidency of South Africa. The Rwanda war between the Hutu and Tutsi tribes occurred from April 7th to July 19th 1994 with the loss of 800,000 lives. The United States were asked to intervene and save lives but it refused to.
O. J. Simpson was declared not guilty of stabbing his wife Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman to death in 1995. The trial began on January 24th 1995 and ended with a not guilty on October 3rd 1995. On April 19th 1995 The Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma was bombed by Timothy McVeigh killing one hundred sixty-eight people and wounding many more. November 4th 1995 Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated.

On July 5th 1996 Dolly the sheep was the first cloned mammal ever to be cloned from an adult cell and was named after Dolly Parton. JonBenet Ramsey was killed on December 25th. The killer has not been found yet.

On March 22nd 1997 the Hale-Bopp Comet track came close to the earth and could be seen with the necked eye. At midnight on July 1st 1997 Hong Kong was handed over to China by the United Kingdom. Immediately after China started cracking down on personal liberties and businesses which resulted in mass rioting that caused the Chinese government to impose more harsh actions on Hong Kong Citizens. On August 30th 1997 Diana Princess of Wales along with her boyfriend Dodi Fayad were injured in a car crash in Paris France. Princess Diana died shortly after in a hospital on August 31st 1997.

On March 27th 1998 a new product hit the market. It was called Viagra. By April Fool’s day that year there seemed to be a much friendly atmosphere around the United States.

On December 19th 1998 US President Bill Clinton was impeached by the House of Representatives for perjury and obstruction of justice. Bill Clinton also wanted to know what the word ‘is” is.

On April 20th 1999 two high school students both male who attended Columbine High School in Columbine, Colorado shot and killed fifteen students on a shooting rampage through the school. Both shooters were shot and killed by law enforcement. I was passing through the Denver area during this bloody situation and listened to eyewitness interviews of students on local radio and most of the interviews were never aired on national television or radio because of their stated sexual orientation of the shooters.
July 16th 1999 John F. Kennedy, Jr., his wife Caroline, and her movie star sister, Lauren Bessette departed an airport at Fairfield, New Jersey in his new Piper Saratoga airplane enroute to Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts. It was near dusk in the afternoon with haze in the air making it dangerous for VFR flying. They crashed into the Atlantic Ocean killing all aboard. The divers found the aircraft. The wings were found quite a distance behind the aircraft which means they were torn off the plane in flight. Kennedy was being trained by a local flight instructor in order to be competent in this airplane. The instructor was not available to be on this flight. It’s terrible that the futures of these three who had so much to offer were wiped out by such a preventable accident.

December 31st 1999 the Panama Canal was given back to the country of Panama. America lost thousands of men to the snakes, jaguars, and disease in the completing of the canal. After France pulled out the USA spent millions and millions of dollars to complete the canal. The treaty to return the canal to the country of Panama was signed by Jimmy Carter in 1977. Today the canal at both ends at the Pacific and Atlantic are controlled by China.

As the year of 2000 neared the entire world was concerned with the Y2K bug. The worry was the computers would not read the year 2000 and the earth as we know it would stop. No commerce, no utilities. No shipping. All city, county, state and federal computers would shut down.

But when we awoke on January 2000 it was well. The coffee pots worked and with a good cup of coffee the world was fine. See you next month.