I was twelve when they murdered the president

[Philosoraptor]

And I remember eating Thanksgiving leftovers watching the t.v. which was all about the assassination, and I watched Lee Harvey Oswald murdered, live, I knew I had witnessed history, and I knew something was real funny about it. A lone crazy gunman had killed our popular president. Not everyone loved him, and one of them went crazy and killed him, so we were told and so we believed. Until many years later when I saw the Zapruder film for the first time.

What a different world it was, the world of 1963, it might as well have been a different planet it's so far removed from the world of today. And there are so many frightening facts that we know now that we didn't know then, and some of the same sinister players from those days are in our highest political offices, if you follow my meaning.

I can never get through November 22nd without remembering the year of 1963 when the shit hit the fan, and I look around at the current situation all these decades later and I am truly amazed. But not in a good way.

[Gman]

1. I was 9 years old

I remember JFK's motorcade through San Antonio on November 21, 1963. That made the next day seem so much more impossible because we just saw him the day before. We didn't see how it could be that he was dead the next day.

[Skidmore]

13. It was my 9th birthday on which Kennedy was

killed. All of my birthdays have had this shadow cast over them, reminding me that power is handed to mortals and can be removed from them by mortals too. We were fortunate that Kennedy understood the great good that such power can accomplish and provided our nation with a glimpse of what can be acocmplished when a president uses power to serve the people.

[Hepburn]

2. I was 15

I was in high school ~~ math class, right after lunch. The principal's voice came over the PA system and he was all chocked up. He just said there was something on the radio. The newscaster's voice same on....and we just sat there, transfixed and listening.

I can even tell you what I was wearing that day...where I was sitting in that classroom, and even the shoes I had on. It's freeze framed in my mind.

I, too, watched the first televised murder. I was watching TV when they brought Lee Harvey Oswald through the corridor.

November 22, 1963 ~~ I think that was the day I stopped being a child.

[rfranklin]

4. I was 15 as well, living in Bangkok....people were crying in the streets...

It just seemed natural then that the President of the U.S.A. was loved and admired.

Oh well, we were young and didn't know any better.

[GCP]

25. I was 15 too

I lived in the UK and was doing my homework in my bedroom. My dad called up the stairs that Kennedy had been assassinated. I was overcome with deep sadness, thinking, "They've done it again" - meaning the American people, just like they did with Lincoln.

[Fla Dem]

51. 15 here too..someone interrupted band practice to let the

band director know the President had been shot. We were practicing for the halftime show for the Thanksgiving day big football game. He told us. We were in shock. He dismissed practice. I walked home with my friends. Found my Mom crying when I got there. Saw Cronkite announce he was dead. Our little B&W TV stayed on right through the funeral on Monday 11/25.

We had our Thanksgiving Day game,...can't remember who won or lost, but remember playing the Navy Hymn, and seeing everyone weep. Still can't hear that hymn without getting choked up and remembering.

[durrrty libby]

3. I was in the 3rd grade

and it seemed as though the world was coming to an end.

My grammy was from Ireland and with her lovely brogue, she would often say "what a fine Irish boy".

She adored JFK and her heartbreaking wails still reverberate in my memory


Many of my generation point to that day as the end of our innocence

[luckyleftyme2]

5. they were in maine

they were in maine the day b-4,they took a plane out of bangor. they said to four of us
they needed a place to sight their gun in. Isaid are you going deer hunting,no they said they were hunting the biggest game on earth. in texas!
duh,we were ignored!

[Crankie Avalon]

6. I wasn't even born yet...

...but from everything I've heard about the man from people who were alive then and from what I've read since, it seems like JFK was about as decent a human being as this country is ever going to allow itself to actually be elected as its president.

Amazing to think about what a contrast we'd have between the reaction to the taking away from us of a sitting president who was as loved as JFK was compared to the reaction if one as evil and disgusting as George W. Bush were to be--but then, creatures like George W. Bush never seem to get "taken away from us before their time," do they?

[Bluzmann57]

7. Some things one never forgets

Even though I was only 6 years old at the time. I was in first grade, the teacher and Mr. Hendricks, the principal both told us that school was being dismissed early. Well, we were just a bunch of kids and were sort of happy about it. Until I got home. My sister, who was two, was in her playpen crying her eyes out, likely because our mom was also crying her eyes out, staring at the TV. Later, when dad came home from work, they sat me down and explained the gravity of the situation, how the President was dead, and a bad man killed him. The world changed that day, and not for the better.

[Cassandra]

8. I was 9...

and my memories of that week are rather odd. I suppose I heard in school and was crying but I remember that less than sitting in front of the TV (we had one of those consoles with the stereo included)with my older brother watching Oswald being transferred and then shot. I'd never seen anyone shot before and that lingers much more strongly in my memory.
The Saturday after was raining hard and I was on Broadway with my father and brother and looked down and found a ten dollar bill on the street, which was a lot of money back then. A strange time with disjointed memories.
My parents had Vaughn Meader's album, The First Family,

and they used to love listening to it with us. We could recite it by heart. After the assasination, my father told us he was putting it away and we were never to listen to it again. And we never did.

[deminks]

9. I also remember.

I was just getting back to school from lunch (no school lunches back then, we walked home, ate, and walked back). The teacher told us what had happened. She brought in a radio and we listened the rest of the afternoon and talked about it. We were glued to the TV the following weekend, saw Oswald shot by Jack Ruby (We all thought even then that he was killed so he could be blamed. Dead, there would be no trial. Hard for a dead man to argue with the charges, and his family seemed terrified.), the funeral, and all. Walter Cronkite. Jackie covered in blood. Johnson being sworn in. John Jr.'s salute during the funeral procession. The endless drum beat during the funeral procession. "Magic Bullet" Arlan Specter. The Warren Commission - when I first learned that our governement could deceive us. I didn't believe that then as a child.

"Back, and to the left." I will remember that always.

[KharmaTrain]

10. That Day Was My Awakening...

I was 7 years old on that infamous Friday and still remember it like it was yestarday. I can remember many of the details of that day vividly (I wasted electrons posting about that in another post). That was the first day I really read a newspaper and I haven't stopped since.

There have been other dates like 11/22/63...when MLK and RFK were assasinated in '68, the shuttle explosion in '86 and 9/11, but that day was like none that had come before...like we all had lost a dear member of the family...a man so full of life and energy. I, too, have played the "what-if" game...would we have gotten as messed up in Vietnam? How would JFK had handled the Watts riots and other civil rights disruptions and what his legacy would have been if he had been around to follow through on the Voting and Civil Rights acts of '64 and gotten the credit for it rather than Johnson.

[B Calm]

11. I was 12 too.. I remember seeing my WW2 combat vet dad crying..

It was a sad time in American history..

[Hepburn]

12. I see 4 votes...

...I have already voted. Anyone care to give the 5th vote?

[Soloflecks]

14. I was in 9th grade.

I remember sitting in World History class when an announcement came over the loudspeaker. It was as if the world was about to end, as if civilization had gone over a cliff and we were all doomed. That was how it felt. When I walked out of the classroom I saw my French teacher crying and running to the lounge. Those few minutes were among the most surreal of my life, and the days following were filled with sadness and tears as we watched on TV. None of us will ever forget what that felt like.

[undeterred]

15. Today is history, children.

My second grade teacher said that and turned on a radio. We listened and watched her weep.

[Alamom]

16. I was 11 and told at school by the teacher. We were outside

during recess. They immediately brought everyone in to the auditorium and had total silence.

At home, it was like a relative had died. Daddy came home from work early.

We were watching when Ruby shot Oswald. Daddy said this wouldn't be all, there would be more people involved.........he knew.

I was wondering if we had just left the "pretend" world of movies and I love Lucy.....

Mother said we couldn't go outside for a few days, everyone was sad and quite. A sense of waiting was everywhere and I knew......

The real world had come through the TV and nothing would ever be the same again.

[annabanana]

17. I turned 14, the day he was buried.

John-John and I shared a birthday. I lived north of Boston at the time and the whole region was plunged into a deep deep mourning. All my parents friends spent the weekend at our house in front of the TV, wondering how this could have happened in America.

[annabanana]

18. That was the President,

The bullets of the false revenge have struck us once again
As the angry seas have struck upon the sand
And it seemed as though a friendless world had lost itself a friend
That was the President and that was the man.

I still can see him smiling there and waving at the crowd
As he drove through the music of the band
And never even knowing no more time would be allowed
Not for the President and not for the man.

Here's a memory to share, here's a memory to save
Of the sudden early ending of command
Yet a part of you and a part of me is buried in his grave
That was the President and that was the man.

It's not only for the leader that the sorrow hits so hard
There are greater things I'll never understand
How a man so filled with life, even death was caught off guard.
That was the President and that was the man.

Every thing he might have done and all he could have been
Was proven by the troubled traitors hand
For what other death could wound the hearts of so many men
That was the President and that was the man.

[Warren Stupidity]

19. It was the beginning of the end.

I too was 12. That day for me marks the start of the long slide into whatever it is that you want to call what we now have for a social and political system. I'll call it a theofascist kleptocracy, but I think that the beginning of our current system's methodical replacement of the ancient republic began on that bleak november day.

[IndyOp]

30. Gore Vidal says we really lost our nation when we let them lie to us

about the Kennedy assassinations...

I believe that to get our nation back we must reclaim the truth as painful as the process will be. The killers are still out there -- some still in the public eye -- the lies must be exposed, the killers punished.

:(

[Morgana LaFey]

68. I couldn't agree more

and am gratified to learn that as bright an intellect as Vidal agrees with me.

[bobbolink]

72. I didn't know Vidal said that, but looking back at history, it certainly adds up.

I think of Bobby, Jr., and wonder how he stands up to it all.

I hope he's with us for a very long time--we're so lucky to have him!

[Jeanette in FL]

20. I was 8 and every adult in my life was crying

We were dismissed from school early, the teachers were crying, the principal was crying, the bus driver was crying. My Mom was crying when I came into the house. My Dad was crying when he arrived home early from work.

It was at a time when children didn't ask many questions, but somehow I knew that day that things had changed drastically and dramatically.

[livetohike]

21. I was 11 and in sixth grade

The PA system came on in the classroom - no announcement, just a radio broadcast which we thought was odd. Then it abruptly cut off and the Principal came to each door and told the teacher. Our teacher immediately started crying and somehow got the words out that the President was dead.

We were dismissed early. My Mom was crying when I got home from school with my younger brother in tow (he was in first grade). She had my sister then 2.5 and my youngest brother 8 mths old on her knee. She was glued to the TV set.

When my Dad came home from work, we were sent out to play.....my Dad was in tears. It was the first time I ever saw him cry.

It all seems like it just happened yesterday...

After that, the whole world changed and I would like to think that JFK and RFK left my generation with an Idealism that we will never lose. Always strive to make things better - that's the lesson I have learned from them both.

[HamdenRice]

22. Philosoraptor, I always thought you were a young person!

Maybe it's the energy with which you post, but I assumed you were a college kid or in graduate school in a philosophy department!

Anyhoo, I was about 3, and it's one of my first memories about politics.

[B Calm]

56. He is young at heart!

[tetedur]

23. I was six, in the first grade.

I barely knew what a president was. The announcement came over the loudspeaker and our teacher left the room crying. I remember standing in front of the TV, watching the funeral procession and understanding that this was very sad.

In school they gave us a commemorative edition of "My Weekly Reader." It had a large picture of JFK on the front and his inauguration address on the inside. The teacher told us to keep it and one day we would read it and understand what the words meant. My classmates began drawing on his face giving him moustaches etc. It seemed that everyone in class had defaced his picture but me. I still have mine.

His death has haunted me the same way that 9/11 haunts me also. The questions concerning his assassination have not gone away. You can draw a straight line starting from that point in history to the point where we are now and say that was when we lost our democracy.

[iamahaingttta]

24. I was a week short of a year old...

...so naturally, I don't remember it.

However, MLK's funeral and RFK's murder were my sad awakening.
During the summer of '68, i remember laying in bed hearing gunshots. (we lived in Queens, NY)
I would lie awake with my face right up against the wall, so that I wouldn't see them coming when they came to assassinate me, just like they did to Bobby Kennedy. He was a younger brother, and so was I, so I figured I was next...

[randr]

26. Sitting in chemistry class on a rainy afternoon

We were told to proceed to our home rooms and the news was quietly spread as we walked together in a muted silence. Uncontrolled sobbing and anger as the announcement came over the PA. Days of National mourning and unity. Then they killed Martin and Bobby and the soul of America was blown away.

[Princess Turandot]

27. I was in 4th grade..

our teacher was speaking to us about the concept of history, and in trying to better clarify it for us, compared something trivial that happened the day before to 'what the President is doing now'. About 30 minutes later, the Principal of our small Catholic school opened the classroom door and motioned for her to come over. The young woman turned chalk white. True story. After the Principal left, our teacher told us what had happened.

JFK. A man of wealth who counted his blessings by giving back to his country by honest public service, followed in turn by his brothers. It's hard to believe that we'll ever see the likes of them again.

[ms liberty]

28. I was 4, and I can close my eyes now and still see it...

My mom was washing windows, and I was coloring in my coloring book in front of the TV. Walter Cronkite broke into the soaps (I think it was As The World Turns). I stood up and started crying, and ran to the window mama was washing. "Mama, mama - they've killed the President" I didn't know who "they" were, but I knew who the President was and I loved him; he was handsome and smart, and honorable and everything that was good about us all.

I remember the funeral, so solemn and heartbreakingly sad. His beautiful widow, holding the hands of their children, all so grief-stricken and brave at the same time. The certainty that everything had changed, and not for the better. I cried and cried, and my mom held me in her lap, and cried with me. There was a feeling that nothing would ever be right again.

It's the earliest memories I have of a national or world event, and it was followed soon after in my mind by the Beatles first appearance on the Ed Sullivan show. Another first - but a good one.

[aquart]

29. I was 17, all dressed for my senior pictures.

Which were not taken that day. I had a ticket in my wallet for a performance of Twelfth Night in the city that night, which was never used. But I kept the ticket for decades.

I remember rain. Not that day. The weekend. All weekend.

[DoYouEverWonder]

31. I was 8, sitting in class

when the principal announced the news over the school intercom. Then she told us to all go home. Usually, telling a 8 year old you could go home would be a joyous thing. Of course, it was just the opposite.

Spent the rest of the week glued to the TV with the rest of my family. I remember them all going nuts when Oswald got shot on live TV.

The Kennedy Assassination, was definitely a life changing moment for many people my age.

[DianeG5385]

36. I could have written this, it is my exact experience.

I was eight, I remember the shock, everyone going home, it's seared in my memory, watching TV non-stop, watching history as it happened. The country was changed that day.

[JuniperLea]

32. I was six

I had a new Barbie doll with a "stewardess" uniform and a cool little flight bag and the best high-heeled shoes I'd ever seen. I heard screams from the living room... no! God no! Oh please, God no! I ran down the hallway with Barbie firmly in my clutches and stopped short when I saw my mother and father sobbing in a desperate embrace. My mother took the photo of JFK from the wall and held it as firmly as I did my doll. For what seemed like days, we sat transfixed to the television; me with my doll and my mother with her photo. The film, the discussions, the funeral... and the president's son, saluting. He looked to be the same age as my little sister. I remember crying for him, losing his handsome daddy like that.

Now as I look back, it seems that was a lot for a little girl of six to process. Yet I can still remember how that Barbie felt in my hands.

[ProfessorGAC]

33. In 2nd Grade

By sheer coincidence, i was home sick that day, i was not a kid who missed much school due to be slightly sick. (Measles, mumps, that sort of thing. But, not for a tummyache.)

Well, my mom was on the phone with her best friend, who called during "As The World Turns". CBS broke in with a special bulletin. I was in our little extra bedroom, or TV room and my mom only heard a bit of it from the kitchen. (No cordless phones in those days.)

I shouted to her that the president had been shot. She said "Bye" hung up and ran in. We watched the rest of it all afternoon.
The Professor

[trof]

34. I was 22, in USAF pilot training.

Vance AFB, Enid, Oklahoma.

I was in the squadron room, being briefed by my instructor for our flight that day.
Someone passed by the door and shouted "The president's been shot!"
At first we thought it was a joke. But there was no punch line.
A minute or so later, one of the instructors came in with a portable radio.
"Kennedy's been shot in Dallas."

Training was suspended.
We gathered around the only TV available, in the officers' club.
Shortly after we got the word that JFK was dead, the base went into full lockdown.
Nobody in or out.
Armed guards on the gate and 24 hour guard duty on the flightline.

Rumors abounded.
This was the precursor of an all out attack on the U.S. by Cuba, Russia, "the commies".
It was the John Birch Society, the Ku Klux Klan, LBJ.
It was a weird and confusing few days before things got back to whatever passed for "normal" after that.
I too saw Oswald gunned down live on TV.
It didn't seem real.

[Beausoleil]

35. I was 8

I went to a Catholic school in Garland, a suburb of Dallas. I remember the day vividly, even some parts of the day before we found out about the assassination. It was a big day, with the first Catholic President coming to our city, at least everyone in our school was excited. I even remember the weather that day, sunny, cool and crisp.

I remember our teacher, an Austrian nun, telling us about the news after she was told by the principal out in the hallway. She was hardly able to speak as she told us that the President had been killed downtown.

I remember being shuffled to the church to say rosaries for the President and our parents being called to pick us up early from school.

After I left home to go to college, it was the first time I had to deal with the black cloud associated with Dallas. I was always proud of where I grew up, but for a long time, people only knew of Dallas as the place where JFK was assassinated.

[rateyes]

37. I was 3 yrs. old, and don't remember it...

but, MLK Jr. was assassinated on my 8th birthday, and RFK was assassinated a couple of months later. Those two events helped shape my life and political views.

[Hoosier Dem]

38. I wasn't born yet...

But I grew up in a working-class Catholic family where JFK was always seen as a nearly divine figure. I grew up hearing of his legend and the stories of the out-pouring of grief at his passing. I remember the stories of the family grief: my grandfather closing his shop and coming home, my grandmother sitting by the TV, watching the news and saying the rosary. Sitting next to her was my great-grandfather, who was nearly 90 and spoke no English, watching Walter Cronkite with tears streaming down his face. In time, JFK would become part of a sort of "Catholic-American Trinity" along with Bobby and Pope John XXIII ("Good Pope John", as my grandma always called him.)

It's always struck me how much our country lost on that day. We lost more than our president, we lost our innocence and lost our way as a nation. Granted, we have turned JFK into a mythic figure and have tended to gloss over his flaws. Still, his presidency was that "one brief, shining moment". Even the presidency hasn't been the same since: the downfall of Lyndon Johnson, the corruption of Watergate, the "Reagan Revolution", the impeachment/attempted coup against Clinton, and the current disaster. Sometimes, it's hard for people of my generation to look back and imagine a time like the Kennedy Era.

Rest in Peace, Mr. President. We still miss you!

:patriot:

[Greybnk48]

39. I was 15, and remember it all vividly

especially watching Oswald being shot and killed on live t.v. and the funeral procession with Jackie and those two precious kids that the entire nation loved. In retrospect, the whole thing had a sinister feel to it.

[Neecy]

40. I was almost 4

My mother had some soap opera on and was vacuuming when the news bulletin came on. I had no idea what it meant, but I ran to her, pulled on her shirt and said, "Mom, there's something wrong." That memory is still very vivid, as is my parent's grief all that weekend.

[Mendocino]

41. It was snowing heavy that day.

A slow windless day where the sky was thick with white and the sounds were muffled into a low drone. We were let out early from school, we knew not why. On the bus it was being whispered, "The Russians have attacked" or "Jesus is coming". It was only when the parents were meeting the children when we got off the bus that we became aware. I was six.

On a breezy spring day my father, brother and I just had put a basketball hoop, a present for my brother on his 14th birthday. We were trying out for the first time when my mother came out to tell us that Martin Luther King had been killed. A few months later, on a warm June night, another shooting, RFK died the next day. I was eleven.

Vietnam, Kent State, Iran hostage crisis...the list goes on and on. What seems sad is that I never seem to get over the indifference of mankind towards itself. I am now 49.

[zeemike]

42. I was 20 and in the Navy

Stationed at NAS Chase Field Beevill Texas And I remember it completely.
I had some time off that day and was in the base library reading a book when the librarian came over to me crying and said "They have shot the president in Dallas"
I went back to my division to find all flight operations were canceled and we all went back to our barracks to watch it on the TV
It all had a dreamlike quality, seeing Oswald shot on live TV and such, and I think we all knew we would never be the same again.
And indeed we were not.

[Jose Diablo]

43. It's been 43 years, and I can still remember it as yesterday

I was in 9th grade, which was in HS at the place I lived at that time. It was announced over the PA and everyone went home.

I neither liked or disliked Kennedy, wasn't that aware of world events at the time. I do remember when he was elected and beat Nixon in 59 or was it 60? It was pointed out Kennedy beat Nixon with the electoral college and didn't win with a majority of popular votes. I remember this fact from someplace.

From reading the other posts, I want to say I fealt grief, but I didn't. Like I said I had no emotions one way or the other. It was just a day to get out of school early, from my perspective. Maybe if I was a more caring person, it would have been different. But I want to be honest about it. Strange though, that I would remember that day so clearly when it didn't matter that much to me. Must be what I observed in others that marked it in my memory as something to remember.

[2bfree]

44. Today is my Mother's birthday and the day she found out she was pregnant with me.

She said it was the worst day of her life. The president was shot and she turned 35 and she found out that she was pregnant. My older sisters are 12 and 15 years older then me and she wasn't suppose to have any more children. Before she died a few years ago she told me how glad she was that she had me because I had kept them young. :)

[elehhhhna]

45. Don't remember that -- was only 4 -- but vaguely remember Dr King's assasination

We lived on the South side of Chicago. Mom was scared and Dad was upset and pissed off--some of his friends and coworkers were devastated--simply devastated...it wasn't exactly normal for a union auto mechanic/shop steward to witness other grown men sobbing...followed by almost punching out another old, then ex- "friend" over some horribly evil remarks...

That experience must have been very, very hard on Daddy. The only group-cry at work I've ever seen was November 25, 1987, when Harold Washington, one of Chicago's great Mayors, died at his desk at city Hall. Tough stuff.

[NMDemDist2]

46. i was 8, a hall runner brought our teacher a note. When she read it

she burst into tears. we were all shocked and frightened

she told us the news and since I was in california they kept us until usual time

when I got home Grammy was crying as she watched TV. Mother was in nursing school and came home early. it was a frightening day. Ruby's act on TV was just piling on the numbness we felt

a few years later, walking home from school I saw RFK's motorcade on the way to the airport for that final flight to LA the day he was killed

I am in tears again remembering those black days of my youth

[Gregorian]

47. They couldn't have liberal leaders in office.

But where would we be today had we been allowed to have our votes counted, so to speak. I just realized that that was their way of cheating. And they're still doing it. Conservatives are assassinating democracy by killing our votes, today.

I wonder where we'd be today. Perhaps it doesn't matter. Perhaps the corporations are running the show, and we'd have had Iran/Contra and all of the rest. I doubt it.

[SoCalDem]

52. The "old way" was just too "messy"..and the little people just never quit with the questions.

The "new" way is easier, and "cleaner".

SoCalDem Donating Member

Sat Feb-07-04 04:19 PM


The "New" Assassins!



Poor Jack Kennedy, Poor Martin Luther King, Poor James Meredith, Poor Malcolm X, Poor Bobby Kennedy...and so many others who were "under the radar", and we never even knew ..

People who dare to speak out are always in fear for their lives, and those named paid the ultimate price for their "free speech".

Had they lived now, in a more "evolved" time, they might have never had to die for their audacity. People who made waves back then were just "dealt with" in the crudest, but most effective way of the day......elimination.. Everyday people were stunned, shocked, saddened, outraged, and then they moved on. Daily life has a way of taking over, and except for a poignant "anniversary" acknowledgment, or the recurring "conspiracy talk", these people just passed into history as tragic figures.

Those assassinations did serve a purpose though. The message sent was loud and clear. Say the Wrong thing, and you are DONE.

In the "modern" world, although there are still assassination attempts here and there, the "serious" ones are not as common . A more efficient way of handling "rogue elements" is the new and improved way...Assassination by Media is the more accepted way now. If one looks back to the period following the Bobby Kennedy assassination, you can see it taking root. Bobby's slaying might have been the straw that broke the camel's back, in that people were ready to say..ENOUGH!!. People took to the streets and things got too "messy" for the old ways to ever work again.

Flash forward to the Watergate era. At first the story dribbled out and people did not pay a lot of attention, but the Washington Post knew they had a story and they kept at it like a junkyard dog. They challenged BIG GOVERNMENT, and they never quit. When the story finally got the attention of the general public, and Nixon was taken down, the press was bolder than ever before.

This was the era of the "white paper".... 60 Minutes was the very embodiment of "make them accountable".. They went after sleazy business practices and governmental screw-ups, and they hit hard.The show they do today is more "individual driven", and is pure tabloid journalism when compared to the way they started. The targets of their "investigation" are often beleaguered people who are already overextended financially by lawsuits or other problems, so they are probably less likely to sue, or they are the pathetic , sympathy-inducing people who have been "done wrong".

Behind the scenes though, there was a group of people who were seething with anger over what had just happened, and they were determined to get things "under control again". This was the beginning of media consolidation. Towns that had once had 2 or 3 competing newspapers, now had only one, television was still the "big three", Republican Think Tanks were sprouting up like toadstools after rain.

Jimmy Carter's tenure was the "test case" for what would come later. This gentle man was attacked in the press for every little thing. The Nixon hangover may have been partly to blame, since people were genuinely more interested in what went on "behind the curtain", but the things that Carter was berated about were just plain silly..Who remembers the "lusting in his heart" episode...or the "attack of the killer bunny".. or the "he wears sweaters in the oval office".."turn down your thermostats"...or "Amy is so ugly".. Those were the memes of the day.. The press chose to amplify these things to make this man appear to be a lightweight. The real problems he encounters as president were things not of his making, and It think he did try to solve them, but with only one term, and the difficulties of the first "oil crisis", and the "hostage thing", he was doomed..

Nightline was born out of the frustration of the hostage crisis. That show started as a one hour news program with a daily update on the hostages.

A rootin-tootin Dubya would have just saddled up (other people's kids) and attacked Iran, and if the hostages were killed, it would have been "collateral damage", but Carter thought he could negotiate them home. This was our first real experience with the "new middle east". They were radical.. They were mad.. They were Bad.The old ways would never work again. Oddly enough, we now know that some of the very same people we associate with the Reagan/Bush , Bush # 1, and Bush # 2 regimes were involved , behind-the scenes , in the Iran Hostage issue.. At the time, I do not recall hearing their names mentioned when Nightline went on night after night, enumerating the "days since....".

The press attacked Carter relentlessly, and I do not recall much rallying on his behalf from anyone, and the hostage crisis did him in. It was not accidental that the hostages were released at the exact moment of Reagan's swearing in. Bush 1 had CIA connections, and the Bush loyalists (the same ones we have now) choreographed the incident masterfully, and the press ate it up. People love a winner, and Reagan came in as a winner. It was also no accident that doing away with the fairness doctrine was high on the list of "things to do".

The republicans were riding high, awash with money, and the public gaze was averted. Inflation was rampant,unemployment was high,there had been wage & price freezes and gas shortages... All in all, people were willing to "be taken care of", and they trusted the grandfatherly guy they had seen in the movies. It was not long before the doctrine was gone, and without that, it was easy for very rich ideologues to start buying up media , and they did it with a vengeance.

Looking back, it's not hard to see how effective it was. The things that have been attributed to Reagan/Bush 1 would have never been tolerated by a Democratic administration.The Clinton years showed us that , in spades.

The switchover was seamless too. Local radio stations had mostly been music, with local hosts who did silly home town pranks, held local contests for their listeners, and had news on the hour. Somewhere during this time frame, "talk/opinion" formats started really emerging, and more and more stations gave up their music formats altogether.

What better way is there to ensure that a particular opinion saturates the public, than to have local radio stations all under the same corporate ownership?. If station ABCD in Omaha is owned by the same parent company as most of the others in the area, the "movement" between stations will not happen. In the past, a radio host could get into a jam with his bosses, and the next week, he was on a competing station in a nearby town, taking a lot of his listeners with him, but when the same people own all the stations, and a host goes against the wishes of his bosses, there is NOWHERE for him to go. The atmosphere of "go-along-to-get-along" stifles any real discussion of opposing ideas.

When the major source of information of a population only airs ONE viewpoint, it's easy to demonize the opposition. The "media people" had , and still have, easy access to their own "facts" that are regularly churned out by the think tanks, they have access to all the "professional speakers/pundits" that they could ever use (also cheerfully provided by the think tanks). These same people are often editorial columnists for the papers , who just happen to be owned by the same people who own/operate the radio & TV stations.. .

There was a time when, once an election was over, people just licked their wounds, accepted that they had lost and then vowed to try again. The "new assassins" in the media cannot ever allow the "quiet time" between elections, because the fires must always be stoked. The potential adversaries must be ridiculed,belittled,scorned, accused and abused, well in advance of the next election so that the "right" people win. The unusual aspect of this , is that since the Fairness Doctrine went by the wayside, it's usually the Democratic candidates who are put through the grinder, while republican candidates with more "baggage" are treated with kid gloves. Any misgivings about a republican candidate can be explained away as a "youthful indiscretion", or a "cute colloquialism" ,or a "miscalculation", or "getting inaccurate advice", and so many more.

A candidate who has all the qualities necessary for office, is attacked mercilessly from the moment they announce they are running for office. The 24/7 media of today is expert at the art of "linguistic assassination", and they have the time to do the job well.

Election 2000 is a prime example of assassination by media. Al Gore was a vice president. He did not wield the power that our current vice president does. He had impeccable credentials, was eloquent, had a squeaky clean family life, and lived modestly considering his position. He was actually considered dull. He never presented himself as a "life-of-the-party" guy.He was the studious guy, who read bills before he voted. He was the guy who did research. He was the guy who actually went to Viet Nam , even though he was not a Green Beret with a bayonet between his teeth, singlehandedly wiping out a division of Viet Cong.The fact is ..He went.

They hammered at him about his wardrobe. Every little gaffe, was portrayed as a LIE. His opponent was secretive, smart-assed, sullen, and unknowledgeable, yet HE was portrayed as "a bit rough", "a nice guy that you would like to have a beer with", " a friendly "people-person", and too many others to list. By implication, HE was the guy with the white hat, the Good Guy, and poor old Gore was the liar with the bad fashion sense, who was dull. The daily indictment and litany of his "sins" was impossible to ignore, and every interview started and finished with him trying to refute the smears aimed at him, and him alone.

The assassins have taken aim this election season, and again they have taken aim and have wounded, if not killed, a few of the possible candidates. The media has moved from a position of watching what happens, and then reporting on it, to MAKING it happen, and then tweaking it to make an ever-better "story"..

The little known governor from a small state ..hmm that sounds familiar... is such a good story. Howard Dean was this cycle's John McCain. The press loved him.....until they had built him up to almost rock-star status, and then the only thing for them to do to get more ratings, was to "kill" him. And so they did.. They report with childlike wonder at why "he's not doing better in the polls", and then they laugh and giggle and "cue up the tape".. Then they put on their scrunched up worried face and wonder if the campaign is broke.. They are "so concerned".. They cluck-cluck to each other about how disappointing it is to see him not doing well, and yet they have already reloaded for the next victim.

Now on to the next willing contestant, John "Botox" Kerry.




By the time the election actually occurs, the candidate has been hopelessly smeared, and politically assassinated.. It not only can remove a candidate from the prospect of elected office, but it effectively silences them as well.

Assassination by media is so much more effective, since the whole "martyr thing" is eliminated and it's not nearly as "untidy" as the old way..

[Gregorian]

55. There's more than one way to assassinate democracy.

I have to thank you. It's obvious you were aware and paying attention during the years when I was just living my life and oblivious to politics. I felt powerless, so I ignored it all. Plus I was repulsed by what I saw on the so-called news. I may not have been involved, but I knew what was going on.

Now, in four short years, and by standing on the shoulders of willing people like all of you here, I am coming up to speed.

I keep coming back to education. And that is because no matter what "they" do, we hold the leash. Either we change through technological breakthroughs in energy conversion, or we live with less comfort. But until we know better, it looks like they control us.

Today I'm still reeling from the discovery (and a late one, I'm ashamed to say) that Darfur is about OIL.

If we can teach, and learn, then we can see the truth. And then we are not longer powerless.

[bobthedrummer]

58. CrispyQGirl posted this in another thread, it is worth sharing.

Especially today.

"A Liberal Definition by John F. Kennedy: Acceptance Speech of the New York Liberal Party Nomination" September 14, 1960

http://www.liberalparty.org/JFKLPAcceptance.html

edited for spelling

[havocmom]

48. Mr Ingram, our principal, called our teacher to the hall and whispered to her.

She staggered back into the room, looked around helplessly and asked that we just all take our library books out and read quietly until lunch time (west coast).

Went home for lunch and my grandfather told me they shot the President. I asked, 'What?!?!' and then called him a dirty liar when he repeated it. Sat there, listening to the radio and just couldn't move.

We thought the flag had slipped down again at school cuz the janitor drank too much and stuff like that happened. Once the California flag was put above the US flag on the pole, so the lowered flag didn't alert us before lunch time.

I don't remember walking back to school or the rest of the day there. Mom came home from work early and for three days, it seemed like even the birds outside were silent.

America's heart just stopped. The world held its breath. The birds didn't chirp.

We learned about traditions: a riderless horse with empty boots backward in stirrups, the Missing Man Flight formation, gunfire salutes and taps. We had no way to really measure what was lost. We are still finding out more about the latter.

My daughter longs for a leader who can inspire a people like he did. She hopes to see it in her lifetime, but has her doubts.

The birds fell silent.

[AbbyR]

49. I was in eighth grade

We were just changing classes and I heard someone shout "Kennedy's been shot." Then I heard another voice, even louder, asking "Kennedy who?"

Then I went to math class, where our teacher told us what had happened. We had a moment of silence, then went on with math. I remember that class because the boy who sat in front of me smelled so bad - cigarette smoke and such.

Isn't it odd the things you remember. I also remember being horribly depressed over the whole incident and staying in my room for days, listening to the slow drum beats of the funeral procession on a radio.

I saw Oswald killed on live TV, and remember being horrified.

I think that was period of my life when I grew up.

[raccoon]

50. I was 12 too. And I remember it was on a Friday and the following

Monday we were off school, and it was raining that day where I lived.

[Cameron27]

53. I was in 9th grade.

We could see the flag being lowered from our windows & a lot of hushed commotion, and then they finally told us.

I sat in front of the tv for the entire funeral, we were in a daze for weeks and I don't think the country was ever able to replace that *New Frontier* feeling.

[Forrest Greene]

54. I Was Ten

...years old. They told us in school that he had been shot, but not that he was dead. I remember imagining one of the harmless TV wounds to the left shoulder like they all got on "Combat" & "The Gallant Men." The school bus, normally a scene of utter chaos, was completely silent & still. My sister came over with her kids, & I played in the yard with them. I remember thinking that, as the oldest kid, I had a responsibility to keep them occupied & not bother the grownups. I also remember not changing out of my school clothes into blue jeans.

Some years later, my brother, a firefighter & Red Cross worker, gave me an emergency blanket, something to keep in the trunk of the car in case of getting stuck in a blizzard overnight. It was sealed in a plastic bag, & marked with the date of its having been cleaned & wrapped: 11.23.63. I could never look at that blanket without feeling somber & knowing for certain what the person who wrapped it had had on their mind as they worked.

[mcg]

57. I was in 2nd grade, sitting in class,

the announcement came over the intercomm that the president had been shot.
I let out a nervous laugh, a student angrily said to me 'My father worked
for him.'. At first I just sat there stunned, looking at him and not knowing
what to say, I had never experienced a nervous laugh before. I don't remember
what happened after that, I might have tried to explain myself. I felt shocked,
confused, and guilty for having laughed. I had a sinking feeling as the reality
of the situation sank in.

My family watched the funeral on TV. I remember standing, looking at my father
sitting, head bent forward, weeping. It was the first time I had seen my father cry.

My family were staunch Democrats, we saw John Kennedy speak at a rally when
he was campaigning.

A few years later Bobby and Martin were murdered. When I found out that Martin was
murdered I laid down on the couch and cried.

[rsdsharp]

59. Memory is a funny thing.

I was nine when the assassination occurred. I have a clear memory of seeing a picture on TV that Friday night of Jackie climbing out of the limousine. It didn't happen. It's a faulty memory, as is yours of eating Thanksgiving leftovers while watching the wall-to-wall coverage. TV was pretty much back to normal by Tuesday, November 26. Thanksgiving 1963 was November 28 -- nearly a week after the assassination.

[LittleClarkie]

60. 2 months and 8 days

I don't remember shit.

[Scout]

61. I was a couple months over 4 years old....

pretty much all I remember is that my mother was crying and upset. It sickens me now to think about it though.

[mom cat]

62. I was 17 going on 18. I will never forget hearing about it in the hall

between classes, or the sound of my mother's glee that he had been killed. I made some commitments that day to which I still owe allegiance and always will. They killed the man, but not the dream.

[jannyk]

63. I was 11 and still living in London

I do remember it - the limited tv channels at the time had nothing else on. Each day in school we would read and discuss the major news stories, and of course this was front page news for at least a week.

Bobby Kennedy's assasination had much more effect on me. I was 16 and much more aware of what was lost.

[earth mom]

64. I was just about to turn 3, and don't remember...

but JFK, MLK and RKFs assassinations were tragic events that shaped my life as a child of the 60s. :cry:

[maveric]

65. I was 7 and watched LHO get whacked.

I also remeber him referring to himself as a "patsy". Which, IMHO, he was.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

66. I was 14 and in Junior High - only months before, I had seen JFK in person

when he came to the town where I was living, Colorado Springs.

Only a few months before he was killed, JFK rode in an open car down the main drag where I lived, Nevada Avenue. He drove right by my house and his motorcade stopped right in front of it. He rose to his feet in the rear passenger seat area and said a few words of thanks for the hearty welcome by the people of Colorado Springs. There was a big sign in the neighbor's lawn that said "Welcome Mr. President" and I was holding a giant American flag. The street was lined with people 20-deep for mile after mile on either side. President Kennedy was wearing a beautifully tailored suit colored violet blue. And since my family didn't have color TV at the time, I didn't realize how red his hair actually was. It looked very reddish brown in the mid-day sun.

On the day he died, every school kid at North Junior High was in shock. I still remember every kid's face in every afternoon class who sat next to me on that terrible day.

[Raine]

67. I was 12 too

at school the principle came in and told us then he went out and lowered the flag. I knew something terrible had happened but it was years before I fully understood the magnitude of it and how this single act had changed our country for the worst. :cry:

[greiner3]

69. I was 7;

And we got out of school early. We walked home and my mom was sitting in front of the tv and she was crying. I asked what the matter was and she said 'They killed the president.'

[MediumBrownDog]

70. I was in the womb.....

and my mother's family was afraid she would miscarry if she heard, so they kept her away from the radio and the papers for days.

She carried me to term, obviously. And she didn't resent being protected. She did then, and does today, care that much. Kennedy was her hero.

[dailykoff]

71. So sad.

But I think we've hit the bottom and we'll be out of this hellhole soon.

[tlsmith1963]

73. I Was Just a Baby

I was born in August of '63, so I have no memories of that day. But everything I have heard makes me glad I don't remember it. Everyone I talk to who remembers says it was an awful, awful day.

[Martin Eden]

74. Jackie was still covered in blood ...

... when she stepped off the plane that was carrying her husband's coffin. She hadn't washed or changed her clothes, and in the spotlight of national TV cameras you could see the blood on her dress and on her bare legs (this footage was shown tonight on a PBS documentary).

Can you imagine sitting at home on that horrible day, already distraught at what had happened, and seeing Jackie step off that plane? Your heart would immediately go out to her and you couldn't help but cry remembering the beautiful first lady with her children and the young president in Camelot .. and then you look more closely and recoil in horror to see her covered in the blood of her slain husband!

I can only imagine the inconsolable grief of that moment. I was 6 years old at the time, and my only vivid memories are of the funeral procession on television. Nevertheless, tears come to my eyes when I think of what has to be endured that day.