Fresh Ideas: To the Future!

This narrow isthmus 'twixt two boundless seas,

The past, the future, -- two eternities!

-- Thomas Moore (1779-1852)

A silver and blue announcement arrived last week from Jesse Steele, who will graduate from Carson High School on June 7. One of our best and brightest, he will attend Stanford in the fall and begin his journey into a future we can only imagine.

Soon, across the country, thousands of young adults, like Jesse, will stand ready and eager to kiss us good-bye and head out in search of their destinies. Into their capable hands we will place the future of our world.

In 1603, William Shakespeare wrote, "They say miracles are past." But the bard of endless imaginings knew full well that the only obstacle to miracles is the inability to imagine them. To the class of 2003, I say: Expect miracles!

Just think about the events that have happened in Jesse's lifetime -- and then imagine what might lie ahead:

1985: Gorbachev becomes last president of Soviet Union; Titanic wreckage found; hole in ozone layer, first detected in 1977, now indisputable; world's largest atom smasher goes online in Illinois; Nintendo home entertainment system introduced; Rock Hudson becomes first major public figure to die of AIDS.

1986: Challenger explodes; worst nuclear disaster ever at Chernobyl, USSR; Haley's Comet makes closest approach to earth; Iran Contra Scandal starring Oliver North first reported; Statue of Liberty is 100 years old.

1987: Baby Jessica falls into well and is rescued as the world watches; Black Monday -- the Dow Jones Industrial average plunges 22.6 percent, surpassing the 12.9 percent drop of 1929; U.S. budget reaches trillion-dollar mark; last California condor taken into captivity; world population reaches 5 billion.

1988: CDs outsell vinyl for first time; Pan Am Flight 103 explodes over Lockerbie, Scotland; Bobby McFerrin says, "Don't worry, be happy"; first plutonium pacemaker made; Benazir Bhutto becomes first woman to head an Islamic nation; Long Island beaches close due to medical waste washing ashore; Human Genome Project begins.

1989: Berlin Wall falls; Cold War ends; the Exxon Valdez spills oil in Alaska; Lucille Ball dies; thousands of student protesters murdered in Tienanmen Square, Beijing, China; stealth bomber is ready to fly; Pete Rose banned from baseball; Colin Powell appointed to highest army post ever to be held by black officer, Joint Chiefs of Staff.

1990: gene therapy viable; smoking on domestic airlines banned; spotted owl added to endangered species list; Iraq invades Kuwait; Hubble space telescope launched into orbit; Nelson Mandela freed.

1991: Soviet Union ends; Biosphere II launched; Magic Johnson tests HIV positive; first cholera outbreak since the 19th century occurs in Peru; Pablo Escobar, Colombian drug lord, surrenders; Anita Hill accuses Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment; Mount Pinatubo erupts in the Philippines.

1992: President Clinton elected; South Central Los Angeles riots after Rodney King trial; largest shopping mall in U.S. constructed in Minnesota; first nicotine transdermal patch invented; for first time in history, World Series banner flies north of the border.

1993: ATF raids Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas; Israel and PLO sign peace accord after 45 years of steady fighting; women assume combat roles in U.S. military; Muslim fundamentalists bomb World Trade Center in New York.

1994: Hubble telescope confirms existence of black holes; World Series canceled due to player strike; tunnel between England and France opens; O.J. Simpson runs after Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman are murdered; Jackie Kennedy Onassis dies; oldest known human ancestor, 4.4 million years old, found in Kenya.

1995: Oklahoma City bombing; Ebola virus hits in Zaire, Africa; Dr. Bernard Harris is first black American astronaut to walk in space; Capt. Scott O'Grady shot down over Bosnia and rescued five days later.

1996: Unabomber Kaczynski arrested in Montana; truck bomb kills 19 U.S. servicemen in Saudi Arabia; Flight 800 from New York crashes, killing all; Oakland, Calif., school board says Ebonics is separate language; Princess Diana and Prince Charles divorce.

1997: Scientists in Scotland clone Dolly, a sheep; the Mars Pathfinder lands and takes photos on Mars; Princess Diana dies; Hale-Bopp comet first spotted.

1998: India violates worldwide ban on nuclear testing; President Clinton orders air strikes on Iraq; peace agreement signed in Northern Ireland; Swissair Flight 111 from New York crashes in Nova Scotia, all killed; Ku Klux Klan members drag James Byrd Jr. to death; veteran astronaut John Glenn, 77, returns to space onboard Discovery; Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa break Roger Maris's 1961 home run record.

1999: Columbine High School tragedy; NASA loses two Mars-bound space probes; most deadly earthquake of century kills 13,000 in Turkey; Egypt Air flight crashes off Nantucket coast; Pokemon fever grips the US; first non-stop hot air balloon world trip; Y2K scares everyone but fizzles out.

2000: Alaska Airlines Flight 261 crashes into ocean, killing all; Charles M. Schulz dies; Pope John Paul II begins first official visit by Roman Catholic pontiff to Israel; President Putin takes office in Russia under first democratic transfer of power; former Klansmen surrender to face charges in 1963 church bombing; federal judge orders Microsoft breakup; Tiger Woods wins U.S. open by record 15 strokes; first map of human genetic code completed; head of Bureau of Indian Affairs apologizes for "legacy of racism and inhumanity"; American astronaut and Russian cosmonauts board international space station.

2001: George W. Bush becomes 43rd U.S. president; Islamic militants and al-Qaeda terrorists attack U.S. by crashing jetliners into World Trade Center twin towers; discovery of Bose-Einstein condensate, key to microworld of quantum physics; discovery of cell cycle regulators with new possibilities for cancer treatment.

2002: Former Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic's trial begins on charges of crimes against humanity; Operation Anaconda launched against remaining Taliban; Pennsylvania miners rescued after 77 hours in flooded mine shaft; Washington, D.C., suburbs terrorized by snipers who are later caught; 7-million year old skull discovered in African desert suggests that hominid adaptations may have evolved more than once; gene linked to language ability found alike in humans and chimpanzees; synthetic virus created from scratch; 166 million Americans have home Internet.

2003--So far: space shuttle Columbia explodes, killing all; Operation Iraqi Freedom begins -- and ends with U.S. win.

Amazing list, isn't it? Look at it closely, and you'll find miracles. You'll also find that we need miracles more than ever, especially on the most fundamental frontier -- the frontier of human kindness. So, to Jesse and the Class of 2003, wherever you are -- you are the keepers of our dreams and our hopes for tomorrow. As you walk into the brave, new world of the future, we wish you Godspeed.

Marilee Swirczek's three children, her own miracles, graduated from Carson High School. Thanks to Kristie Gangestad and Erich Holcombe, WNCC Library, for help in research for this article.