There are anniversaries–births, triumphs, marriages–and there are anniversaries–deaths, defeats, tragedies. And then there is the Kennedy assassination. Nothing else in America’s frame of reference resonates so searingly–and so controversially. Pearl Harbor begot V-J Day and a sense, however imperfect, of some closure. The assassination of John F. Kennedy–50 years ago this November 22–is still an [...]
While I’m not a huge fan of “60 Minutes”–and its formulaic, redundant interview style–I typically check in to see what’s on tap and who has a book they’re promoting. I was recently rewarded with a Lesley Stahl piece on construction of the National 9/11 Memorial Museum. It was illuminating–and reaffirming. It was illuminating because it [...]
Among the gun-violence issues easily conflated these days: Newtown and Chicago. Newtown had 20 Elementary School students and six faculty members slaughtered in December. Chicago had 500 homicides last year. First Lady Michelle Obama recently visited Chicago to speak out about youth violence and the tragic toll it has been exacting. For her, the issue [...]
* I read with peevish interest that Parade magazine interview with former President George W. Bush. One inevitable question dealt with Americans’ safety in a post-9/11 world. The knee-jerk response was right out of GOP talking points. “W” still has his Oval Office neocon script and hymnal. “The ultimate way for there to be peace [...]
This may sound naive–or worse. But here’s my response to those voting something other than their consciences, common sense or society’s best interest on last week’s Senate measures to expand background checks and to ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. Shame on you and whatever ideologically defiant constituents and NRA lobbyists you answer to. People [...]
The 21st century has become an ongoing repository of declassified documents from the 1960s. Among them: a reminder of exactly what President John F. Kennedy faced with the militant Cold Warriors he inherited at the Joint Chiefs of Staff. That was especially so with its chairman, General Lyman Lemnitzer, who missed Eisenhower, had no respect [...]
I don’t think this is a reach. The Boston Marathon terrorist attack has tragically reinforced last summer’s still controversial–to some–decision to go heavily pro-active and pre-emptive in preparing security for Tampa’s hosting of the 2012 Republican National Convention. Yes, it looked like a militarized zone around a good chunk of downtown and Channelside. Yes, it [...]
How does this sound for a movie? A unique, show-business oriented, coming-of-age-story that’s also a 1960′s period piece–that combustible era of racial riots, Jim Crow, Freedom Riders, anti-war protests and blind-siding assassinations. Then add the phenomenon of a dominant, black-owned recording business that shrewdly dared to market to both black and white listeners while jump-starting [...]
Another name for the Mike Tyson one-man show: The P.T. Barnum Tour.
It was the racially riotous 1960s. The clean-cut, thickly-bespeckled, 30-ish white man hailed a cabfor two that night on Broad Street in the hardscrabble section of North Philadelphia. Then the coat-and-tied gent and his more informally-garbed younger companion hopped in. Actually, the teenager silently scooted in first and sat behind the driver, whopaid him no mind. “Boy, I’ll tell you it’s a good thing you were under the light because I almost never stop for [...]