Liam Sweeny's Blog - Posts Tagged "9-11"
JFK and September 11th
As I'm sure everybody knows, today is the 50th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. I wasn't even a seed when this happened, though my parents, like so many others remember where they were when they head the news out of Dallas that day.
The early 1960's was a picturesque time in the American landscape. The American dream was held firmly in place, despite the Bay of Pigs and the terrifying days of the Cuban Missile crisis. The economy was strong, we had good, decent jobs available. But when Kennedy was assassinated, the American culture began a slow progression towards inner conflict, and left a sad trail.
Kennedy's assassination, more than anything, changed us as we saw ourselves. We lost our innocence. It wouldn't be until one Tuesday morning in September of 2001 that we would again change as a nation, that a whole new generation of people would know where they were when they heard the terrible news.
I have to wonder, despite all of the war, enhanced security and blind patriotism in the early period of 9/11, which may be trailing right about now, what we will face fifty years from that day.
No conspiracy theories here, no links save for two days that crushed us as a nation. When looking at Vietnam, the turmoil, revolutions and unrest of the 60s and 70s, the excesses of the 80s and the indifference of the 90s... What will the cultural path of five decades of our (my generation's) "JFK" be?
The early 1960's was a picturesque time in the American landscape. The American dream was held firmly in place, despite the Bay of Pigs and the terrifying days of the Cuban Missile crisis. The economy was strong, we had good, decent jobs available. But when Kennedy was assassinated, the American culture began a slow progression towards inner conflict, and left a sad trail.
Kennedy's assassination, more than anything, changed us as we saw ourselves. We lost our innocence. It wouldn't be until one Tuesday morning in September of 2001 that we would again change as a nation, that a whole new generation of people would know where they were when they heard the terrible news.
I have to wonder, despite all of the war, enhanced security and blind patriotism in the early period of 9/11, which may be trailing right about now, what we will face fifty years from that day.
No conspiracy theories here, no links save for two days that crushed us as a nation. When looking at Vietnam, the turmoil, revolutions and unrest of the 60s and 70s, the excesses of the 80s and the indifference of the 90s... What will the cultural path of five decades of our (my generation's) "JFK" be?
