Eleven Years Go Flying By

Friday, April 9, 2004

Page 15

AT THE SIDEBAR (Column)

Eleven Years Go Flying By

By J’AMY PACHECO

Is it just me, or did the last 572 weeks just fly by?

As hard as it is for me to believe, it was 11 years ago this month that I penned my first newspaper column. In those days, it was a chatty little thing that ran in a community newspaper and was titled “Around Town.”

Two years later, I went to work for the Metropolitan News Company. A lot of ink has been spilled since then.

When I started writing a column, Bill Clinton was a brand new president. My first year in print, federal agents engaged in a now infamous standoff with Branch Davidians in Texas, the World Trade Center was bombed but remained standing, and the House of Representatives approved the North American Free Trade Agreement.

A first class postage stamp cost 29 cents. “Unforgiven” received the Best Picture Oscar, while “Picket Fences” was named outstanding drama series on television. On Broadway, “Kiss of the Spider Woman – the Musical” and “Angels in America – Millennium Approaches” received Tony Awards. Eric Clapton cleaned up at the Grammy Awards, and a 13-year-old boy accused Michael Jackson of molestation.

When I wrote my first column, Richard Nixon, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Jerry Garcia, George Burns and Gene Kelly were alive. That year, Don Ameche, Frank Zappa, Cesar Chavez and Audrey Hepburn died.

When I started writing a column, I was not yet a mother. Today, I am, and I don’t think it will be much longer before my not-so-little one will be able to fill in for me.

What is perhaps most startling is the realization that I’ve now been writing this column for one-quarter of my life.

Gasp.

At this time every year, I look back at what has happened in the world since I started writing a column. This year, I thought I’d go the other way, and look at what I’d like to see happen in the next 11 years.

In the next 11 years, I’d like to see someone figure out how to cure cancer, AIDS, Alzheimer’s and every other life-sapping disease.

Over the coming 11 years, I’d like to see us become a less wasteful, more grateful species that places greater emphasis on protecting our planet and its resources. I’d like to see us become a kinder, gentler species that treats other living beings with respect.

I’d also like to be able to turn on my television set and radio without hearing the word “libido.” I’d like to be able to open my e-mail inbox without being subjected to a single advertisement for performance-enhancing drugs, products purporting to increase size or stamina or offers to meet lonely housewives.

I’d like to see a peaceful end to the terrorist crisis plaguing us today. I’d like to see our soldiers come home safely, and get to stay home. I’d like to see a world where countries cooperate with one another, help one another, and leave each other in peace.

I’d like to see us become a nation that spends less time nitpicking in court and the press, and more time working together to make the world a better place. I’d like to know it’s okay to say “under God” when I recite the Pledge of Allegiance.

Before another 11 years pass, my daughter will have graduated high school. I’d like to be able to look back at her school years fondly, remembering gifted teachers who gave of themselves. I’d like to remember her schools as safe and well-funded places where every child was encouraged to reach their full potential.

I’d like to know that my child will be financially and academically able to complete college, and that she’ll graduate into a world that will welcome her with open arms. I’d like it to be a world where she won’t be judged by the color of her hair or skin, her ethnicity, her gender or any other external factor.

Oh, and I would like to know that in 11 years, there will still be enough Social Security monies to ensure the financial well-being of everybody who spent their working years paying into the fund. And if that doesn’t happen, I’d like to know that the politicians responsible will be denied their government pensions.

I’d like to know that in 11 years, things will be good. I realize it’s a lot to ask.

But heck – a lot can happen in 11 years.

I know, because it just did.