Day/Month Assignment

Glenda O 'Dell

Professor Jamo

College Composition II

February 7 , 2008 The Best Day Ever . So My Parents and History Say

Nearly a week after the first man landed on the moon , and just days before Woodstock 's maiden art and music fair , the loud and eager cries I made as a newborn baby , on the 1st1 of August , were perhaps my earliest symbolic cheer for the slogans of that "one giant leap of mankind "Apollo 11 Lands on the Moon ) and "rock and roll "Dissent and Discovery ) of the year

1969 among other great occasions . My parents say that there pervaded an air of serenity and calm in Joplin , Missouri , a quiet which was later minutely shattered by my frail baby cries . Nothing worth noting of any of that sort comes to my Parent 's memory other than local weather reports of a bright and sunny day . Yet at around this time , America was close to bursting at the seams with its achievements as the rest of the world , too , was pregnant with important events and ideas that would shape history for years to come . The year saw the waning support for violence in reference to the Vietnam War , and the increase in the interest for culture , music and the arts and academic pursuits . The year is one of those historical turning points of our times that would affect the way we think and act for decades to come . It is in this sense that the years that followed were simply causal versions of 1969 . This is saying that the years after is the year 1969 told in different ways . To stretch the metaphor even further , it is as if I am being born into the same circumstances over and over in the same year for almost four decades

To speak of August 1 , 1969 , and do the date justice , is to go back a few months in to have a look into important events that predated the day . On January and the subsequent months until August , Richard Nixon was inaugurated into office and became the 37th president of the United States of America "A New Administration Easing In . His program was generally to sue for peace with Vietnam and take the appropriate steps to release America from the war by convincing South East Asian countries to build their own military defenses . He began to withdraw troops from Vietnam in the hopes of ending the war before things become messier Other historic key figures and world leaders were inducted into power as well . Yasser Arafat , Nobel laureate for Peace , for instance , finally got the nod among the Palestinian National Congress to head the Palestinian Liberation Organization . He

was then known for his strong leadership and concrete visions for his people . Yasser Arafat made sure that the organization was no longer dependent upon the selfish dictates of other powerful Arab states "Towards Open War . The PLO became more than an instrument of influence among the ruling majority into an...