Near the infancy of #ScaiaBlog, we discussed the 50th anniversary of the assassination of John F. Kennedy. We’ve come so far since then. I introduced a “subscription” feature, and the number of subscribers has soared from zero to several.
We’ve discussed such a wide variety of topics including (but not limited to) operas about John F. Kennedy, speeches John F. Kennedy made in Texas, and a hypothetical situation where a gentleman who had voted for Kennedy in 1960 saw Richard Nixon emerge from the shadows too late.
The last one was even closer to #ScaiaBlog’s birth, so our editorial board is concerned this comprehensive rundown of things I sometime think about at work is getting less imaginative.
To invigorate the blog, to bring it an exciting new essence, let us discuss the 60th anniversary of the Kennedy assassination.
My station led a solid recreation of what happened in 1963. Yours truly was stationed in Dealey Plaza, where I had interviewed the head of the Sixth Floor Museum. He explained the last thing the first lady of Texas said to Kennedy was, “You can’t say Dallas doesn’t love you.”
Stephen Fagin and I even talked about the JFK opera.
We talked about how Kennedy stopped the motorcade in Fort Worth because he was having such a great time. They’ve got an exhibit right now with accounts from his trip to Texas and artifacts from his stops in San Antonio, Houston and Fort Worth. Fagin explains they wanted to show the depth of that trip, which included Fort Worth collectors filling Kennedy’s hotel room with art.
Fagin says everything that happens during his visit carries a more symbolic significance because of the assassination.
Looking back on that 50th anniversary blog now, an associate put it more bluntly:
“Fort Worth gave Kennedy a Picasso,” he explained. “Dallas gave him Lee Harvey Oswald.”
I ran into that associate today when I was at Dealey Plaza. We discussed how they had drawn a crowd, just not as big a crowd as the 50th anniversary.
In fact, Dallas Police and the Sheriff’s Department were diligently monitoring everyone. They’d usher people out of the street who had wandered out to take a picture of the X’s even though Elm Street still had regular weekday traffic rolling through.
Taking pictures of the X is a popular activity, but you must be careful. I helped an associate who was visiting town for WrestleMania a few years ago.
“What a great opportunity to shove a microphone in people’s faces!” I exclaimed.
At Dealey Plaza today, they saw people from lots of different racial and cultural backgrounds [in addition to the people there every day handing out pamphlets explaining how they, and they alone, have gotten to the bottom of this thing]. They saw people coming together regardless of political affiliation.
A lot of people brought their kids to see first-hand what they’ll learn about in school. The Sixth Floor Museum’s Fagin said among the items in the current exhibit is the Eastern Airlines banner from the stair car the Kennedys walked down at Love Field and then was used to load the president’s casket afterward.
But while your kids can get a more personal account of what happened, maybe, just maybe, you won’t want to show your young child the entire exhibit… the Parkland hospital doctor’s shirt stained with the president’s blood, for instance.
The mayor of Dallas was more hopeful:
Stay tuned for another ten years, and you just might be presented with another strangely lighthearted blog about John F. Kennedy.
