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President’s Podium John C. Buchanan
A ‘storm’ of unprecedented fury gathers on the horizon
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ovie-goers undoubtedly will remember “The Perfect Storm,” a 2000 drama starring George Clooney and Mark Wahlberg that tells the true-life story of a commercial fishing boat that was lost at sea during the rage of a nor’easter that collided with Hurricane Grace in the fall of 1991 off the coast of Nova Scotia. It was a movie without a happy ending, as all six crew members of the Andrea Gail perished in the storm that reportedly produced waves as high as 100 feet. The tragedy, in addition to spawning a book and a subsequent movie, also produced a term – “perfect storm” – that has become part of our vernacular to describe a convergence
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of multiple events with invariably disastrous consequences.
The now oft-used term could well describe the outlook for 2024, a year that portends all sorts of ominous
Or the continued rise of autocratic forces around the world, fed by assorted tyrants and demagogues seemingly bent on taking mankind to the edge of the abyss.
other countries.
Or a further assault on the fundamental institutions that safeguard representative democracy, imperiling the future of free and fair elections while fueling conspiracy theories that sow distrust and contribute to political polarization.
Or a widening and intensification of the war in Ukraine, a Russian-provoked tragedy approaching its two-year anniversary in late February that has the catastrophic potential to trigger a nuclear conflict between two superpowers.
Or an utter disregard for the concepts of civility, dignity, integrity, and honesty in political expression, trading those values and virtues for a system built on deceit, immorality, prejudice, revenge, greed, and hate.
events occurring.
Such as a much wider Mideast conflict that erupts across the region, spreading far beyond the Israel-Gaza borders to include military combatants in a host of
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