JFK/Are you old enough to remember?

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MJPease
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JFK/Are you old enough to remember?

Post by MJPease » Fri Nov 22, 2013 6:58 am

Good Morning, Are you old enough to remember the assassination of JFK? If so do you remember what you were doing that day 50 years ago. I'm 61 I was at school #82 Buffalo NY. I don't remember them telling us about it at school. I do remember getting home and seeing my mother ironing clothes in front of the TV. I could tell that she had been crying. I hugged her and then watched the TV broadcast with her. JFK was more than well liked by my family Irish Catholic Democrat he could do no wrong. His picture sat on our TV, since he was recently in Buffalo.
"Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country." I hope I got that right. Take Care Happy ThanksGiving
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Michael J Pease

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gordy
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Re: JFK/Are you old enough to remember?

Post by gordy » Fri Nov 22, 2013 12:19 pm

i was negative five years old.....i dont remember much about it :mrgreen:
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Re: JFK/Are you old enough to remember?

Post by Eternum 1 » Fri Nov 22, 2013 2:11 pm

I was attending Junior High in Vancouver when the announcement came over the PA that classes would be cancelled for the rest of the day. Rumors were rife but before leaving the building it filtered through that the American President had been shot.

We were in shock as a group and I was deeply affected because I was a fan of John Kennedy and even at that age had read his "Profiles In Courage" and also read a well circulated biography about his actions as commander of PT109.

My very first recollection of Kennedy was sitting in my estranged father's living room and watching the Senator debate on t.v. a sweating stubble faced Richard Nixon to whom I had a dislike on a visceral level. My feelings abut Nixon only increased in revulsion over time.

I went home feeling rather numb at the news of the assassination and observed many older Vancouverites sombre expressions and some even shedding tears as the word spread.

Although Kennedy had created the Green Berets and had advisers in Vietnam I don't think he would have spent the lives and wealth that LBJ did and what a difference that would have made. JFK resisted the MIC that wanted him to bomb the Russians in Cuba and he supported civil rights as best he could considering the south was mainly composed of Dixie-crats and solidly opposed to any improvement in the lives of black Americans.

I believe that his ability to make a deal with Moscow thwarting a war in Cuba would have led to direct negotiations with them to avoid escalating the war in Vietnam. That possibility, obviously ended on Nov 22 and the pattern of future war profit capitalism was set.

It's ironic in retrospect, because the tea partiers of the sixties including the John Birchers were rabidly opposed to JFK and today their descendants pretend to honour him...even going so far as to have a memorial ceremony this morning, in Dallas, where he was shot. Most people tend to forget the cheering that went on in parts of Texas and the south at the time of his death.

JFK is why I became sceptical of the corporate media and hostile to the military complex and later became a underground journalist and anti-war activist. I can draw a line from the day he was shot to my progression as a liberal ever since.

It's something that will stay with me forever as was the day in June when RFK was shot and it made me and the world realise no one is safe from gun violence in post apartheid America.
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Re: JFK/Are you old enough to remember?

Post by LadySaturn » Fri Nov 22, 2013 3:04 pm

Wasn't born yet. But I've heard stories, did my own research and watched about every documentary. And I have this to say... JFK was the last President that was truly for the people. Granted, Reagan had his moments but JFK was definitely the KIng David of the time. And even though he wasn't a flawless man, he was a hell of a leader. I mean to influence a nation like he did. And for anyone to compare any leader to Kennedy is just wrong. Just :badword: wrong. There is no one like Kennedy not even Obama and there never will be. This man was on the inside and knew what was going to happen to this country and the people of this nation by the hands of a few and he tried his damnedest to prevent it. And to be honest, I think he literally did so knowing damn well it might get him killed. To me that's what a leader is about. Willing to fight for the people even if it means death. Thank you Mr. President *Kennedy*. We the people young and old, past and future generations will never forget you and all that you did.

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Re: JFK/Are you old enough to remember?

Post by heinzs » Fri Nov 22, 2013 3:29 pm

I was in 10th grade typing class. I remember it well.
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Eternum 1
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Re: JFK/Are you old enough to remember?

Post by Eternum 1 » Fri Nov 22, 2013 4:59 pm

Some perspective from a decade ago:

I was in a seventh grade classroom in a segregated Mississippi public
school when the principal announced on the intercom that President
Kennedy had been shot in Dallas. She paused and added, softly, that he
did not survive. School was dismissed. We jumped in celebration that
Mississippi’s arch enemy, that nigger loving John Kennedy was dead and
we had the afternoon off.


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Re: JFK/Are you old enough to remember?

Post by bags123 » Fri Nov 22, 2013 5:33 pm

I was in Mrs Schraders 4th grade class at Grandview Elementary. I had no idea what everybody was so upset about.
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LadySaturn
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Re: JFK/Are you old enough to remember?

Post by LadySaturn » Sat Nov 23, 2013 9:56 pm

Eternum 1 wrote:Some perspective from a decade ago:

I was in a seventh grade classroom in a segregated Mississippi public
school when the principal announced on the intercom that President
Kennedy had been shot in Dallas. She paused and added, softly, that he
did not survive. School was dismissed. We jumped in celebration that
Mississippi’s arch enemy, that nigger loving John Kennedy was dead and
we had the afternoon off.


http://www.allhatnocattle.net/dan_crunch_time.htm

That's just sick. To celebrate the death of someone. Even if you didn't like what he had done you at least show some damn respect for the dead and the family.

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