View From the Editor’s Desk: Princess Diana, Mikhail Gorbachev, Labor Day, and Family
On this last day of August, here are a few thoughts….
A strong thunderstorm roared through the Shenandoah Valley yesterday afternoon, bringing with it lower humidity and lower overnight temps. It was a wonderfully refreshing 60 cool degrees this morning without the wet blanket of humidity so familiar in summer. Fall is knocking on the door.
Whew, what a busy August! I’ve just returned home after spending two weeks in RVA and Staunton with my two sisters. The Colorado sister flew in to join our RVA sister and me, and we were all over the Commonwealth making the most of our time together. She flew out yesterday, making it safely back to the Rockies. Now I’m behind on my reading: a fiction about the Blue Ridge Mountains, “Where the Crawdads Sing” lent by my RVA sister, and political articles set aside for a spare moment. I even re-read the April op-ed by Bearing Drift guest writer Karen Duncan: It’s Beginning to Look Like Gilead as Christian Nationalism Grows, to refresh.
Labor Day weekend is almost here, and we have out-of-town family coming in for one last blast before summer 2022 is written into the book of memories. Wishing you safe travels if you’re on the road this weekend.
On this day 25 years ago, Princess Diana died in a car crash in Paris. My parents had driven up from RVA and were visiting at my house when it happened. I remember that because as I walked back from the paper box that morning, Mom opened the bedroom window and called out to me about the headline news that was spreading like wildfire around the globe. What followed were somber days as two young boys were in the spotlight after losing their 36-year-old mother and the world mourned.
Diana was a different royal in a way that made the public love her. I remember most her effort to break the stigma of AIDs at a time when there was little understanding and much fear of that bewildering disease. She helped open a hospital unit in London dedicated to HIV/AIDs victims, and she visited and interacted with the patients, hugging babies and shaking hands, and showing compassion and kindness to those who had been shunned by others. It was just one of many missions she carried out during her brief time on earth.
Speaking of Mom … boy, I miss my parents. We were fortunate to have them with us into their 90s so we couldn’t have asked for more, but their absence the last few years definitely leaves a hole in family gatherings and holidays. And those rocking chair talks on my front porch … good memories. Time moves on.
Yesterday’s passing of the last Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev at the age of 91 brought back a rush of memories since he and Ronald Reagan were a big part of the headlines from my youth. These partners in history worked together to bring down the Berlin Wall, a source of tragedy and suppression for decades and a place that generated horror stories of attempted escapes from East to freedom in the West, often ending in death for those who dared to try. Likewise, the successful attempts of other brave souls brought stories of the hardships of life behind the Wall.
When Gorbachev came on the scene, he presented as a Russian leader more willing to work with the west. The evil, evil empire of the USSR dissolved under his leadership as he engaged with President Reagan, and it changed the world. The USSR became Russia as it began loosening the noose on its population and became more welcoming to the world. Reagan became known as a president of peace and, after Reagan left the White House, President George H.W. Bush (#41, the dad) continued to work with Gorbachev in the wake of Reagan’s lead, landing the plane, so to speak, in the waning Cold War years. It was a hopeful time in world history that left good youthful memories.
Unfortunately, the current Russian president Vladimir Putin has undone much of the good that came about under Gorbachev’s presidency. If you’re too young to remember those old Soviet days, you probably won’t understand how much Gorbachev was appreciated by the west. The “evil” of the old days has slowly crept back in and is on full display with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Be well….
~Lynn
