A day to live in history

Historians may someday list January 22, 1998 as one of the most eventful days of the 20th century. And you were there, thanks to TV. If you had your eyes on a television screen that day, you saw:

* Pope John Paul II visiting Cuba and meeting with Fidel Castro. Imagine traveling through time and being able to witness comparable encounters between notable people: John the Baptist and Herod...Pope Gregory VII and King Henry IV...Thomas More and Henry VIII.

* The White House in full battle regalia attempting to refute charges of adultery and lying leveled against President Clinton. As journalists scurried hither and yon in search of leads, Clinton sat squirming beside Yasir Arafat and avoiding questions that most men can easily answer by saying: "I am 100-percent faithful to my wife."

* Yasir Arafat and President Clinton meeting on Mideast peace. Any other day of the year, such a meeting, coming a day after the President had met with Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu, would have been the big news. This day, it became a footnote to history.

* The Unabomber, Theodore Kaczynski, pleading guilty to murder. The story of the mysterious bomber and his manifesto, how he was stalked by investigators and turned in by his brother, and what happened before his trial could begin is the stuff of grand novels.

* A space shuttle streaking heavenward. Yes, we've become inured to such launches, which now seem as routine as the latest Greyhound bus leaving the downtown terminal. But the scene is still striking, especially when it's contrasted with the shocking and striking news of this day.

* Tens of thousands of pro-lifers gathering in Washington, D.C., to mark the 25th anniversary of Roe vs. Wade and Doe vs. Bolton, the two Supreme Court decisions that legalized abortion nationwide.

I would like to dwell on the last story for a moment. The March for Life has often been ignored by the secular media, most of which is determinedly pro-abortion. This year could have been different due to the anniversary. But the story was crowded off front pages and out of TV broadcasts by the other events of this special day. As a result, almost the only place to see the march was on C-SPAN.

I can't argue with the news judgment that made the March for Life an also-ran this year. But I can regret that an extraordinary scene was missed by America because of the other news. Speaking to the assembled multitudes at the march were Dr. Bernard Nathanson, one of the early leaders of the pro-abortion movement, and the two women whose cases were used to bring about the Supreme Court decisions. They are all now pro-life.

Seeing the three of them join to condemn abortion was a stunning and historic moment. It was like the heads of the Ku Klux Klan, the American Nazi Party and the Skinheads coming together to launch a crusade to protect civil rights, build a Holocaust museum and open the U.S. to more immigrants.

As we live in the present, it's usually impossible to guess how the future will rate our times. But when this century becomes the distant past, I believe that our descendants will watch videotapes of January 22, 1998, marvel at what happened and say: "What a day! Did those people realize it?"

(01-29-98)

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