The assignment: Which three events that you have witnessed in history are most important to you and why? Interviewee: Robert Barrack (Dad)
His Answers:
1) The Cold War.
My Dad considers the Cold War to be among the most important events he has witnessed specifically because of nuclear proliferation and lingering threat of nuclear war. Being from Oak Ridge, (home to the Manhattan Project), he and the rest of his community considered themselves to be living in one of the more likely targets for a nuclear strike. As a result, nuclear detonation drills were mandatory everyday at 5:00PM in which each family retreated to their backyard bomb-shelters. Drills at school were not uncommon where an air raid siren sounded and students got under their desks. A time of much higher tension, especially within his family came during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
2) Assassinations of Robert F. Kennedy, John F. Kennedy, and Martin Luther King Jr.
Being the men that they were, my dad considers these three men to represent all the good in the world at that time. They were heroes and role models to him and his family. Their assassinations occurred within five years of one another, (my Dad’s 7th grade, 8th grade and freshmen years; 1963, 1968, and 1968 respectively). The suddenness and close proximity of their deaths was very symbolic of the country’s reluctance to change in his eyes.
3) The Six-Day War
Having been raised a practicing Jew and Pro-Israeli activist, my Dad experienced one of the strongest senses of pride during the Six-Day War in Junior High. He puts special emphasis on two facts which he considers to be his points of pride: 1) Israel, a country of no more than 10 million at the time, repelled an entire Inter-Arab coalition in just six days. They captured not just their land, but actually pushed into the invading countries. They captured so much land that they could not effectively hold it all with their forces so dispersed. Eventually they gave back the land at the exception of the Golan Heights and Gaza Strip. 2) When Israel fights in wars like this, it is not like the wars the United States fights. When Israel fights, they fight for the survival of their nation.
My Answers:
1) 9/11
I am positive this will become a cliché answer, but I feel that leaving this out would be wrong. As we all know, 9/11 was the most effective and worst attack America has dealt with thus far on her own soil. Despite the tragedy in the event itself, I believe that the most significant aspect of this event was the repercussions that followed, specifically the incursion into the Middle East and the quasi-Vietnam War response we have seen from the American public.
2) Obama Cancels Domestic Manned Space Flight
Houston, we have a problem. Obama canceled all domestic and near-future manned spaceflight missions and then followed up by telling the chief of NASA that his primary mission was to improve the United States’ global image in places such as the Middle East! What an idiot. As you might be able to tell, I don’t like Obama… or his space plan. His space plan is not bad, per-se, but it could definitely be better. Like most things Obama, it seems that this was rushed through the proper channels without biding time editing and perfecting it before its initiation. Obama has suspended all planned domestic manned space flights for the next two decades in the interest of developing robotic spacecraft and preparing for a mission to mars. One would think that this would be a bragging point in his plan, but these are merely sub-points. I assume that after reading through this rambling paragraph, you may be wondering why this is so important to me. This space plan and its effects on the aerospace industry directly affect my career path of choice- aerospace engineer. Though no engineering jobs will be cut with this plan, my long-term goal of joining the Astronaut Corps is very much in jeopardy.
3) Hurricane Katrina
Being from New Orleans I am obligated to put this up here. Though I was not in the city itself at the time of the storm, watching your hometown be swept away is something very few people get to experience. I have not been back to New Orleans since the storm, but it is very high on my “To-Do” list.
