43 years ago...

The Grassy Knoll

 

For what it's worth, I think a great, *great* day in our history.

On that day, it was reaffirmed that the power to govern this country does not live and die with one man -- that the will of the people can be transferred -- and that the essential functions of government are greater than the existence of mere individuals.

It brings tears to my eyes even now to think about it. It's things like this that we all can take for granted, which lots of other people can't.

 

I was in the 8th grade when they came in and told us that the president had been shot. That and the events that happened during that week changed us as a nation. We lost our innocents. I wish my crystal ball was not in the shop. It would be interesting to see how history would be different today if Kennedy had not been shot on that day now so long ago. :mellow:

 

Do we only think that this is the "saddest/greatest" day because it is modern? Wasn't the assasination of Lincoln a catastrophe to be remembered, the attempt on Reagan..... Garfield.......???I agree with Pinot...that is the REAL lesson in all of this.

 

I was in the fourth grade. They sent us home. There was no school the next day.

Was this more tragic than Lincoln's assasination? Maybe not. But it had a greater effect on the nation than previous events just as the Vietnam war and Man walking on the Moon had a greater effect.

They were all televised. I saw Kennedy shot over and over. I saw his funeral live in real time.

I saw the war.

I saw a man step foot on the moon.

Saddest/greatest because it is modern? No. Saddest/greatest because of the instantaneous way in which it touched people around the world? Yes.

The world saw an American president die.

But the world also saw the United States continue on under provisions in our Constitution for just such an event. We lost our President. But we did not lose ourselves.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Schmika @ Nov 22 2006, 05:27 PM) [snapback]353303[/snapback]</div>

I always considered Pinot rather noir.

It has nothing to do with modern but rather that we attach our memories to what we saw. I was on SAC alert when Kennedy was shot. I figured I'd be off to Russia in my B-52 shortly, but it didn't happen.

I was on a long run in Chicago when I heard Reagan was shot on my little radio, but they made it sound not too terrible. Only later did we learn how serious it was.

Lincoln I grew up with. Volumes had been written about that tragedy. It was in all of our blood that this was a great wrong to the nation.

Garfield? They killed the cat too???

 

My Birthday Party was delayed and remember seeing the horseless carriage entering Arlington Cemetary asking "Who is Pres. Kennedy?" It would take a year or so to figure that out....

Dallas is a lot more comospolitian - less Southern than it was in 1963.

True - The Dallas Morning News was onto JFK the way Rush Limbaugh would be onto Pres Clinton 30 years later, but the story of the school children might have been over school being out - not the assassination.



If you think about it, this was the first breaking news event as we know it. The world was starting to get wired, enough that word of JFK's death spread very rapidly for the pre-internet era. It was significant news for the demise of the leader of the Free World a year after World War III almost happened.

Like today, the media covered events as it happened 24/7, often recaping events with little to add. If the same kind of media existed when Lincoln or FDR died, the impact would have been enhanced.



Does anyone wonder why the deeds of the Nazi's seem the most evil? Allow me to suggest the power of recording it on film and audio for posterity - modern media. It's a lot easier to see what the Third Reich did than Nero or Attila the Hun. Granted the Nazi's did things on a huge scale, etc, but to see and hear actual footage, including Hitler's rants make a larger impression. While Hitler's evil deeds may still be considered the most vile ever, if we had videos back to the start of recorded history, others would seem nearly as bad.

In advance, I apologize for mentioning this regime as it tends to ruin discussions....

 

Aldous Huxley (Brave New World) and C.S. Lewis (The Chronicles of Narnia) died the same day but the Kennedy news was so overpowering that nobody heard about them.

I was alone in the Crew Alert Area TV room when Lee Harvey Oswald was shot by Jack Ruby. I ran into the hall shouting, "They shot Oswald," and was nearly trampled to death by the other pilots running to see. Some times!

 

We do view news items of "our today" as more severe because it affects our life more directly. Seeing the body casts of Pompeii up close and the shell scarred Victoria and Albert Museum in London brings to life the pain of other events. Our world bears many emotional and physical scars, our goal should be to stop as many new ones as we can.