Rip Van Winkle and the American frontier experience

Rip Van Winkle in the Modern Era

One of the first things RIP did after awakening was get the newspaper. There were a lot fewer available and some that used to be very well-known are no longer in existence, according to the vendor1. The vendor mentioned that the "Internet" was responsible; apparently, in the last twenty years computers have become so available and inexpensive that just about everybody now has at least one of them at home2. RIP went immediately to the local library where he received a lesson in using computers and something called "Google" that has become the modern way that people look for information on just about everything3.

Rip discovered that shortly after he went to sleep the Soviet Union collapsed4 and with that, the Cold War era ended5. Seventeen years after the Challenger disaster another space shuttle, Columbia was also lost6, John F. Kennedy II died in 1999 when his private plane crashed7, and Senator Ted Kennedy just died of brain cancer8 shortly before Rip woke up. However, the most startling things that Rip found out were that the United States went to war twice in the Persian Gulf, fist in 1991 to oust Iraqi forces from Kuwait9, and again in 200310.

The second Iraq war was ordered by George W. Bush, who became president eight years after the end of his father's presidency11, and Saddam Hussein was captured by U.S. forces and eventually hanged by an Iraqi court12. The U.S. was attacked by Islamic Terrorists who destroyed the World Trade Center in new York City in 2001 and the U.S. armed forces have been simultaneously engaged in two wars (in Iraq and Afghanistan) practically ever since13. Since then, a new cabinet position of Homeland Security Director was added to the president's cabinet14, in conjunction with ongoing counterterrorism as a national focus15.