1992: A Year of Genius and Insanity

1992: A Year of Genius and Insanity

By: Sarah Williams

Period 5

Honors US History

4-30-08

One of the most chaotic years in our history is 1992. With the Presidential election, massive world events and large events occurring right here in the United States. I believe that the year of 1992 was one year that had a very predominant effect on American society and culture today. While many things can have an effect on a society and cultural mind set, I will show you three major happenings in 1992 that truly shocked our nation and the world around us, to have lasting effects on today. The generation of today has had their minds molded and formed to change and try to grow successfully in this lifetime. The three events that changed many things in this world are the election of Bill Clinton for president, The peaceful split of Czechoslovakia and the trial and conviction of John Gotti.

John Joseph Gotti Jr. was born to John Sr. and Philomena Gotti in 1940. He was the fifth of thirteen children in his very large family. John and his brothers grew up in Brooklyn, New York with a very tainted childhood. They quickly from an early age on became intertwined with child and adult street gangs, often getting caught for petty crimes. In 1960 he met his future wife Victoria, the mother of his children,( Victoria, John, Frank, and Peter.). Frank was accidentally killed when he was hit by a car. But the man who hit him, John Favara, was mysteriously kidnapped and never seen again after the accident was viewed was accidental by the authorities. After be coming married, John for a while attempted a stab at normal suburban life for the sake of his loving wife Victoria, but he always fell back to crime. It wasn’t before long that John Gotti was a loyal and upcoming member in the famous Gambino crime family. He started with fencing stolen good, transporting drugs, and loan sharking. In the 1980’s he was referred to as “Teflon Don” because convictions could never stick to him and he always walked away scuff free. That all changed on June 23rd, 1992 when Judge I. Leo Glasser sentenced Gotti to life in prison without chance of parole. This was such a monumental change and wakeup call for Americans everywhere. John Gotti and his gang had ruled New York and some parts of New Jersey with no fear, actual pride in knowing that they would never get caught. But the bugging of Gotti’s home and all of his clubs were what ultimately landed him in his life sentence. The fact that the F.B.I. had cracked down and succeeded in bringing down such a large mob boss re-affirmed our trust in our legal system to stand up through all of the corruptness and do the right thing. The Judicial system did its job by getting the hard and corrupt criminal off the streets and fulfilling its job. I’m sure the F.B.I. agents could have taken a pay out from Gotti if they really had wanted too, but instead of taking the easy way out, they followed through with the law. John Gotti died in jail in 2002 from throat cancer. The first thing that this has taught is that justice will always prevail.

The second change that most effects the world in the year of 1992 is the peaceful split of Czechoslovakia. Czechoslovakia was a peaceful and sovereign state from October 1918 until 1992. After World War 2 Czechoslovakia was returned to its original pre-war state and peacefully remained that way for many decades to come. In 1989, the country was retransformed into Democratic from the Velvet Revolution. This all was occurring that same time as the fall in communism in Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Romania. The end of communism in the country did not mean that they had to all together had to shed the communist name, it only meant that they took the socialist part away from it, and replaced it with the term federal. National tensions were growing throughout Czechoslovakia during 1992, so the Czechoslovakian parliament decided to peacefully get rid out the country of Czechoslovakia and make into two new countries, Czech Republic and Slovakia. They were formally (on paper) created on January 1st,1993 , but it was decided in parliament that they were to split the two countries up in 1992. This is a major change in the world because it showed how a country can act rationally and peacefully and without hatred or war cut ties and break free from one another. The Czechoslovakian government handled their problems and