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Re: That Most Searing Day



Date:    Mon, 31 Jul 2000 12:20:36 -0400
From:    Daniel Sokolow <daniel_sokolow@MCGRAW-HILL.COM>
Subject: Re: That Most Searing Day

I've been ignoring this thread, but I can only assume from this
particular post
that things have gotten a tad nasty.  I for one wasn't born (and
wouldn't be for
some time) when JFK was killed, but I think historical perspective is sort of
useful when this kind of thing comes up.  I imagine that the reaction (of
Europeans of a particular social class, granted) was similar when the Archduke
Franz Ferdinand was killed, igniting WWI.  Perhaps there was similar distress
when Caesar was stabbed (Et tu, archivist?)

I think that assasination is, like it or not, part of human existence, and has
been for many thousands of years.  Kennedy's death is different, if
only because
the images have been broadcast so vividly and so quickly.  Add the mystique of
the Kennedy family, the telegenic first family, JFK's relative
youth, and you've
got the makings of a cultural icon and the enormous outpouring of grief still
felt to this day.

It will take a more distant, dispassionate crop of historians to fit
JFK and his
assasination into its proper historic context.  I understand that JFK's track
record as president was mixed, and had he not been killed, I suspect he would
have been pilloried or praised, depending on the political bent of the writer,
but he probably wouldn't have been sanctified (if not deified.) I can respect
the trauma that the event had on people who witnessed or experienced it, but I
don't think it's fair to expect everyone else (foreigners, those of us unborn,
etc.) to share the same feelings.

Just my two cents, dropped into the already roiling waters.

DS




I don't get it...I thought historians were supposed to look at history from
as many directions as possible to get a clearer picture of the past.
Daniel's message seems ballanced and logical.  The rest of you need to
lighten up, sheesh.
Chris Corley


On a personal note I saw the motorcade that November day in 1963 AND still to
this day can not understand the fascination.


Peter Kurilecz
pakurilecz@aol.com


During a presentation I saw at the American Library Association
conference last month, a speaker said he did not believe in objective
history, it's all subjective, and I was quite charmed. (and yes,
Chris, as you siad above, I believe that makes it all the more
important for us archivists to be less subjective in our selection of
materials, so that historians CAN look at things from many different
perespectives and arrive at "new" views of historical "truth")


I have absolutely perfect baby boomer personal recollections of JFK's
assasination -- my 3rd grade teacher handled announcing it extremely
poorly, the only time I ever saw my dad cry was when we were watching
the funeral on TV and the riderless horse went by, geez, Lou Reed
even wrote a song about it -- but that does not mean I expect the
event to be sacred to everyone outide a certain age and national
origin.

Regards,
Debra





dshapiro@slis.wisc.edu
Debra Shapiro
Continuing Education Services
UW-Madison SLIS
4282 Helen C. White Hall
Madison WI 53706
608 262 9195
FAX 608 263 4849

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