Word: tragic
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Should we explain Bill Clinton that way? Bill Clinton and Lyndon Johnson were different in this: L.B.J. was unmistakably, with all his faults, a grownup man; his downfall--brought on when his Great Society got lost in the war he would not or could not escape--had a tragic size and weight. Clinton remains a very bright End of History boy-man. There is something trivial and unnecessary in his travails, and even if they lead to his downfall, they will seem sordidly silly...
...well-groomed intermediate slope, playing a game with his children, something many of us have done without incident for nearly 20 years. Like all sports, including ski racing and ski jumping, ski football has an inherent risk, but Michael's death was far from reckless; it was a tragic accident. BLAKE FLEETWOOD New York City
...Wade Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion in the United States. Although abortion should not be the only issue a citizen considers in the voting booth, it certainly must be considered an important one. The legalization of abortion was a watershed for the validity of individual rights, but a tragic miscalculation of who can enjoy those rights...
...weeks ago, a couple won a wrongful birth suit against the Columbia/HCA Hospital Corporation that had gone to extraordinary lengths to save the life of their child born with severe birth defects. Although surely a desperate and tragic situation for these parents, how much more desperate and tragic is it that this nation is coming to value the quality of life over life itself...
Intentionally or not, Johnson emerges as Branch's leading tragic figure. Unlike his privileged predecessor, the old Texas New Dealer knew the stink of poverty and racism. John F. Kennedy may have charmed the multitudes, but he did not impress King and other black leaders with his refusal to push hard for civil rights legislation. Johnson, a public relations catastrophe, did the right thing by ramming through the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The war, of course, would swallow his presidency and all other issues. That point is powerfully dramatized by the gathering of revolutionizing forces: television, the bringer...