That Was the Year That Was... 2008, 1968

There was a 1964 television show called That Was The Week That Was, aptly described by the Web site imdb.com as a "topical political satire program that poked fun at the events of the week...a series of musical numbers, skits, and irreverent humor...(that) prided itself on being controversial." With apologies to the short-lived but Emmy Award-winning program, 2008 and 1968 could each, though 40 years apart and different in many respects, be termed That Was The Year That Was.<br /> <br /> Perhaps no year since 1968 can compare for all the significant history-making events that occurred in 2008.<br /> <br /> 1968 had the Tet Offensive in Vietnam, the major campaign launched early in the year by the North Vietnamese and the Viet Cong against U.S. forces and the South Vietnamese Army. It was, most experts agree, the turning point of the Vietnam War.<br /> <br /> 1968 also brought with it the assassinations of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy.<br /> <br /> 1968 was the year President Johnson caught us off-guard with with these words during a nationally-televised speech billed as an update on the status of the Vietnam War: ""I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party (the Democratic Party) for another term as your president."<br /> <br /> 1968 was the year the Democrats held their convention in Chicago which led to bloody riots in the street as anti-war demonstrators and Chicago police squared off. <br /> <br /> And, 1968 was the year the Civil Rights Act was passed and Richard Nixon was elected president.<br /> <br /> The year ended on an upbeat note, with three Apollo 8 astronauts circling the moon on Christmas Eve, taking turns reading from the Bible as their capsule sped over the rocky landscape below and the big blue sphere of Mother Earth rose ahead of it: "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the Earth...and the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep...and God said let there be light, and there was light...and God saw the light that it was good...and God called the light day and the darkness he called night, and the evening and the morning were the first day." Astronaut Frank Borman closed the message with these words: "And from the crew of Apollo 8 we close with good night, good luck, a Merry Christmas and God bless all of you, all of you on the good earth."<br /> <br /> I still get goose bumps thinking about it and the hope that it held for all of us at that time after a year unlike many of us had never experienced.<br /> <br /> But jumping ahead 40 years, who would have thought when 2008 begin that by the end of the year, the U.S. would have elected its first African-American president following the longest and most expensive campaign in history; that the world economy would be in the throes of a "financial meltdown" the likes of which has not been seen since the Great Depression; and that gasoline would hit $5 a gallon (or close to it) in the U.S. and would be in short supply at times.<br /> <br /> Maybe the number of "significant" events pales compared to 1968 but it seems that the events of 2008 that do stand out had more of a direct impact on the overall population.<br /> <br /> On a personal note, I will remember 2008 as the year I lost a longtime colleague at Jacobs Media, of which AccessNorthGa.com is a part. John Parks died suddenly in early January. But, it will also be remembered for a happier occasion: in February Sandra and I were presented with our first grandchild.<br /> <br /> So what lies ahead in 2009? <br /> <br /> Unlike the year that followed 1968, there is nothing on the table that we know of that will take our minds off the problems left over from 2008. Noting like the landing of man on the moon in July 1969 - an event the country sorely needed at the time. It's one which seemed to bring new hope for a brighter future and if, only temporarily, united a country so divided over the Vietnam War and the Civil Rights movement.<br /> <br /> 1968 and 2008... each well deserving of the moniker That Was The Year That Was.<br /> <br /> Happy New Year.