the opinionist

With just over a week to go until the Chicago Bears play in Super Bowl XLI in Miami - the city of Chicago is positively giddy with excitement and anticipation.
Twenty-two years is quite a dry spell for a city so addicted to football and the fans have been patient long enough.

For an Englishman’s perspective - this is also a fascinating educational process. My son still understands more about the rules of the game than I and my frequent misuse of terms and phrases has the whole family shaking their heads in mild annoyance, including, I might add, my two-year-old daughter.

Twenty-two years has seen a lot of change for the city, the country and the world - and yet it is also quite interesting how little things have changed.

The obvious changes that gradually snuck into our lives but are firmly entrenched include - the internet - cellphones - fax machines - TiVO - DVD’s - reality T.V. - Paris Hilton (dated Brian Urlacher? wow!)

Other aspects of life in 1985 don’t seem so different from today:

Life in 1985 saw the Evil Empire - the USSR - Soviet Union at its pinnacle - under the leadership of then Premier Mikhail Gorbachev where now we have the ‘Axis of Evil‘.

José Daniel Ortega Saavedra, a fervent socialist, had just become President of Nicaragua - and again - this many years later - Daniel Ortega has just become President of Nicaragua once again! What are the odds?

George Herbert Walker Bush was Vice President in 1985 - versus President George Walker Bush in 2007! What are the odds?

Coincidentally, a 38 year old GW Bush became teetotal and a born-again-Christian around 1985 and look at him now!

1985 saw the U.S.-Iranian relations at an all-time-low. The return off the Ayatollah Khomeini to a jubilent revolutionary Iran in 1979 saw escalating tensions between Iran and the U.S. which culminated in the Hostage Crisis and a severing of all ties between the nations.
The Iran / Iraq war was at its height in 1985 and our friend and ally - Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was an eager receipient of (at least) political support from the United States.

2007 sees escalating tensions between Iran and the U.S. and Iran is effectively fighting a war of attrition against the United States inside Iraq - and from the viewpoint of political will and troop morale - it could be argued that it’s winning.

1985 saw the War on Drugs and ‘Just Say No’ and 2007 sees the War on Terror and the Government’s reigning in of civil liberties under the auspices of the Patriot Act.

There are many (many!) other changes - obviously - from then to now - but perhaps the biggest and most startling difference. In 1985 we had security in the homeland and now in 2007 we have a Department of Homeland Security. What are the odds?

Oh, Go Bears!

Posted on January 27th, 2007 under 1985, 2007, Bush, Homeland Security, Iran, Iraq, Reagan, chicago bears, gorbachev, ortega, paris hilton, patriot act, super bowl, ussr •  Email This Post • RSS 2.0 feed • Leave a response, or trackback