Grab and Keel

Yesterday and today I woke up feeling depressed for no apparent reason. It lasted all day. It took until after I watched the made-for-TV movie on PBS and Heidi LI’s comments for me to have an “aha” moment. I don’t know if anniversary grief rears it’s head after so many years, but it’s an odd coincidence. Maybe it’s this election.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy was assassinated and died this date November 22, 1963. My friends and I stood horror stricken in the schoolyard as we heard.  I saw the news, I saw the blood, I saw Jackie and the swearing in of Johnson. Later I saw her children and the funeral procession. It’s more collective memory of a generation to pass forward.

I also saw the efforts of newscasters trying to get out real information, their intimacy in a situation now not possible. It was a time when we thought newscasters were the fourth estate. They may still be, but what with the downhill slide it’s become a real effort to find them.

Jackie said: “Let them see what they’ve done!” as she refused to change her bloodied clothes.  And we did.

 I Own My Vote, PUMA, The Denver Group, Just Say No Deal

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