I'm thinking of the tributes and stories today as we mark the 50th anniversary of John Kennedy's assassination. I'm also thinking of the vast differences in the way the world was then.
Kennedy's approval rating averaged 62% during his all to brief administration. It was not without some absolute policy disasters, The Bay of Pigs, the contentious relationship with the Steel Industry, trying to navigate the proper course in Southeast Asia, the beginnings of a sea change brought on by the Civil Rights movement. At the same time, it was not without triumphs; The Berlin Speech, Cuban missile crisis, the breakthrough of being a President who came to office as being the "first (Roman Catholic), the spectre of being "Camelot." Marilyn Monroe?? Just sayin'.
Inflation was troubling, unemployment was in mid ranges but what John Kennedy brought was youthful optimism. He proposed lofty policy initiatives (The Peace Corps) the NASA space program. I remember reading Theodore White's chronicle* of the 3 1/2 years and what was striking was Kennedy's comment to House Speaker John McCormack, whereby Kennedy supposedly said. 'what a lousy, fucked up job this turned out to be." On top of the world? He apparently didn't think so.
So think back my friends to landslides which turned good fortune into a shit show. Every President has basked in the moment and had it wrenched away by many different circumstances. So on the 50th anniversary of a pretty sad day, let's try to remember that no one is immune from an even handed fate- even when the hand is not evenly dealt.
What I do know is that today is a vastly different climate in terms of the flow of information, the 24/7 news cycle what is news and what is not, what is truth and what is not and what our personal circumstances are within the age we live in. I sat in my 9th grade math class as the Principal of my school announced that the 35th President of the United had been shot and killed in Dallas, Texas. What we went through trying to wrap our heads around that.
So have a great weekend. Short work week, next week and Thanksgiving to boot. It'll all be OK. I think.
*The Making Of The President, 1964.
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