The Coronavirus is Defining News Story of These Times

When I was a kid, I kept hearing about the Kennedy assassination that had occurred a little less than 11 years before I was born.              

It seemed to me that the world, or perhaps especially the United States, could be divided into two different eras, if you will. There was the country that existed before the Kennedy assassination, and then the country that existed after that event. Indeed, that was the impact of that singular news event.  

Prior to it, the United States enjoyed a unique status in world history. This was less than two decades after the country had been instrumental in liberating numerous European, African, and Asian countries during World War II. It had also helped to rebuild many of those same countries, in what seemed like a generous economic plan. And, of course, the United States enjoyed the highest standard of living of any country in history. We were the leading power in the world economically, militarily, politically, and culturally. People around the world watched American movies and television, and listened to Americans music. Our education system was the highest rated of any in the world. The highway system seemed to make the case for us having, arguably, the most advanced infrastructure in the world. In short, the country was in the truly incredible position of being the envy of the entire world.  

All of that seemed to change with that singular event. When Kennedy was gunned down, it seemed effectively to end the era of unprecedented Americans strength and good fortune. Litle by little, incrementally, the United States would lose that former prestigious position, and if the American people seemed to believe in their government leaders almost to a fault up to that point, there were a series of events, beginning with the assassination itself seemed to grow ever more skeptical of government. Following the assassination, there was the release of the Warren Report, the official account of the events of the assassination, which a majority of Americans did not believe told the full story. Then, there was the Vietnam War, and that went very badly fairly quickly, hurting the image of Americans around the world, and not really for the better with some of the abuses, such as the My Lai massacre. Domestically, skepticism over the war grew, while the nation seemed to grow ever more divided. The Pentagon Papers added still more skepticism towards government officials here within the United States, and then, Nixon and the Watergate scandal seemed to tip the country over the edge that it had not previously jumped over before. It was forever altered.  

The country seemed to shift almost from a naivete of believing in government leaders, to one of being skeptical of anything involving government, to the point that they could forgive anything and anyone else, gravitating towards another extreme. He country grew more divided, although that was temporarily distracted from that with another major news event that came to define a generation: the September 11th attacks.  

This altered the country in many respects, as well, obviously. It, too, became a defining news story that defined the times. Global terrorism became the major news story, seemingly the major challenge for a changed world to face. There were other terrorist attacks. The Boston Marathon attack was the next biggest one here within American borders, but there were also huge terrorist attacks in other countries: the Madid attacks of 2004, the London attacks of 2005, and a series or terrorist attacks in France in 2015 and 2016, to say nothing of other major terrorist attacks in other countries, as well, including but not limited to Nigeria.  

Now, however, a very different American nation than the one that existed before September 11th, and especially before the Kennedy assassination, now faces yet another defining moment with this whole coronavirus thing.  

If the Kennedy assassination seemed to compromise the American image around the world, and proved that what happened in other countries (political assassinations) could happen here as well, and if the September 11th attacks compromised that sense of invulnerability that Americans enjoyed beforehand, then this, too, will alter the impression that many Americans had of being safe from such health emergencies and viruses, even though they have plagued numerous countries around the world throughout history.  It will surely change the country once again.