Yes, I know, many of you weren't even born then. But do you have stories from your parents, grandparents etc? What political assassinations or attempts do you remember? It'll soon be 28 years since John Lennon was murdered.
- ON THIS DAY -
On Nov. 22, 1963, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated while riding in a motorcade in Dallas. Suspected gunman Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested. Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn in as the 36th president of the United States.
I was in the 9th grade in Great Neck North Junior High School. There was neither panic nor hysteria, just some confusion. In our very WASPy school, emotions weren't exposed publicly. We just sat in the classroom, not fully comprehending. I don't know how the adults were handling it in the office, far from the curious and prying eyes of the kids.
Our TV was black and white, since color was barely an experiment at the time, so we didn't see the red blood on Jackie Kennedy's lemon yellow coat. Maybe it would have been a more frightening time if we had seen the blood in color.
My impressions were that "everything was under control." Johnson was immediately sworn in to succeed Kennedy. And being that LBJ was an experienced and very skillful politician, he really had things under control. His biggest challenge was ridding his government of Kennedy people.
Kennedy had brought in some new, non-political people into the cabinet and other high positions. I remember reading some "memoirs" telling of naivite and confusion when the Kennedy appointments first tried to navigate the US Government. Actually, it was Johnson who passed the laws Kennedy had promoted. Kennedy just wasn't wily enough to be politically effective. I guess that Obama's apppointing Rahm Emanuel is to bring an experienced and powerful person in to prevent a Kennedy-like failure.
I wonder if I should make this a meme and tag people to blog about it. I just request that if you have anything to say about the topic, please do blog about it and, of course, pass the link to anyone you think will have an interesting memory. Thanks
