The media here are making much of the fact that this week marks 50 years since the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963. Tomorrow (Friday) is the actual anniversary, but yesterday (Wednesday) President and Mrs. Obama and President and Mrs. Clinton participated in a ceremony in which all four of them placed a huge wreath at President Kennedy’s grave at Arlington National Cemetery. After the wreath was in place, a trumpet player played Taps, during which period all four of the presenters placed their hands over their hearts. Then they walked over and shook hands and chatted briefly with members of the Kennedy family (mostly nephews and nieces, I think) who were present. The senior member appeared to be Ethel Skakel Kennedy, widow of Robert Kennedy (the President’s brother). The only member of President Kennedy’s immediate family who is still alive is his daughter Caroline, but she could not be present because she flew to Japan last Friday to begin serving as U.S. ambassador there. Her absence reminded me of how Jacqueline Kennedy always made sure her children were out of the country during assassination week; one year John Jr. was sent to India as I recall.
It also struck me that although the assassination was a great tragedy for the entire nation, only two of the five living occupants of the Oval Office took part in the ceremony, and both of them are Democrats. Jimmy Carter, although also a Democrat, is 89 years old now and no longer running for office. The other two living former presidents are Republicans -- George Herbert Walker Bush (“Old 41”) and his son, George Walker Bush (Number 43) -- and they aren’t running for office either.
It would have been the decent thing to do to invite all five. It is my belief that the others were not invited. Every single thing our current President does and every single thing either of the Clintons does appears to be based on some perceived political gain among the electorate. Mrs. Clinton is likely to be the candidate of the Democrat Party for President in 2016, and President Obama has never stopped campaigning even though he is a full year into his second and final term.
Sometimes it’s the little things that matter most. The whole nation lost a president, not just Democrats.
Yes even we in Canada cried over the Kennedy brothers.
ReplyDeleteToo young to go this way.
RWP, I think what you are saying is that this is politics in action when it really calls for a bipartisan approach.
ReplyDeleteThe Clintons and the Obamas were showing their respect for JFK - just a little, humble and unselfish thing to do. I am shocked that you find it in your heart to read something malevolent into this reverential act of remembrance.
ReplyDeleteOh ~ and I thought you might like this blog post.
ReplyDeletehttp://thefitzyreport.com/2013/11/21/dearest-jackie/
The Fitzy Report is written by an Aussie living in NY
The assassination of the two Kennedys was shocking.
ReplyDeleteRWP, i just heard on the radio that JFK was the fourth US president to be assassinated whilst in office. Do you think the world has forgotten the other three assassinations?
ReplyDeleteLady's Life in B.C., Yorkshire Pudding, and Katherine,, your comments are always appreciated in these parts.
ReplyDeleteCarol, thanks for the link to the letter to Jacqueline Kennedy from Arthur Schlesinger. It was fascinating to read. Also, the other three assassinated presidents are Abraham Lincoln (1865), James A. Garfield (1881), and William McKinley (1901). I don't think the world has forgotten Lincoln by any means, but Garfield and McKinley are another matter.
ifin you expect hand holding cooperation from either party well maybe during the fifties, but today very unrealistic>><<>we arwen't in church are we???actually i always wanted a democratic president who acted like a rebublican, and in my opinion we sort of have that<><>in some ways we have the worst of democratic behavior and the worst of a president trying to do foreign policy like mkost rrebulican presidents have done in the past waging unrelenting war<><>sand doing what we hate democrats to do and that is run us into debt<><>><>health care <><>oh bob you ask for it when you touch polotics<>><i can harly go to church any more hear in utah or walk my streets and i amy not blaming demos. the republicans jeer at me and it isn't the crime at all
ReplyDeletep.s. and yorkie pud is only one to try and put a bright light on your comments<><>go pud, right on<><>shine on shine on ole bob and let's show it all>><
ReplyDeleteRWP:
ReplyDeleteIn the first place, G.H, W. Bush can barely walk and makes very few public appearances. In the second place hos son, the village idiot of Odessa Texas was invited and declined ( please see press briefing of WH on the day prior,) In the third place, isn't there enough paranoia in politics without YOU becoming a snark blog?
Please. Lighten up
I'm half with Yorkshire pudding and entirely with Putz on this. It was a shocking act that affected many, too many good people are assassinated, I'd say 'and not enough evil ones' but I don't believe that. You can't pay for your crimes if you're dead. All politicians are in some way working to their own ends, but they can still show respect honestly, and I'm saddened to hear that Putz is jeered at in the streets by Republicans, but not shocked if they are anything like the Conservatives we have over here.
ReplyDeletePutz, you didn't ask for my advice, but I think the secret to keeping Republicans from jeering at you is to hold your opinions in your head as much as possible and not let them come out of your mouth. We have the secret ballot in this country, and no one needs to know what you think. Save it for the ballot box. I would be recommending the same thing if it were Democrats jeering at you and you were the lone Republican. We have lived this long by living at peace with our neighbors, have we not? Why start provoking them now? Of course, you could move to New York or California to be among fellow liberals. Utah is certainly not a hotbed of liberal thinking.
ReplyDeleteReamus, this is about as light as I get.
All Consuming, I never know when to believe Putz, even when he has one of his best spelling days. Somehow I doubt that Republicans are jeering at him in the street although it's a safe bet that anyone who does jeer at him in Utah is a Republican; it is one of the most Republican states. Most people in Utah are also Mormons, and Putz likes it that way. He seems to want to have his cake and eat it too, as it were, but I don't think he can have it both ways.
It doesn't sound much like the land of the free if you should hide who you are by keeping your opinions to yourself if they differ from the majorit- or move somewhere else alternatively. If Martin Luther King had taken your advice the world would be a even more of a mess than it is at present. Not suggesting Putz is MLK but he has the same right to speak as he feels without getting abuse in the street from people.
ReplyDeleteAll Consuming, certainly Putz has the right to speak (except to yell "Fire!" in a crowded theater), but having the right doesn't necessarily mean one should. I believe it was your own Mr. Shakespeare who said that the better part of valor is discretion. There is a time to speak, and there is a time to keep silent. I'm just sayin'...
ReplyDeletePerhaps, if they are jeering at him, the reason they are jeering at him has nothing to do with his politics. I'm still not convinced that they are jeering at him. Who does he see except first-graders in the crosswalk? And his own family?
If his own family is jeering at him we best not enter the fray.
I'm surprised at your assumption that the others weren't invited. As for a bipartisan approach, this week marked the onset of the "nuclear option," but how many know what lead up to that option? Well, of the 168 occasions on which presidential appts were blocked, half of those have occurred during the Obama administration. Does this not suggest that the Republicans' goal is first, last, and always, to block any and everything that the other side tries to do, in which case, how can bi-partanship even be a possibility?
ReplyDeletefirst of all, what is the definition of jeer??????i am not imagening the views of others, and if looks could kill sometimes>><><<><>my dad however was never a democrat, and actually i am very conservative on anything but war management{ i would cut funding there ENTIRELY], health , and the city of enuch that was taken into heaven<><<> I IN GOING going to church one sunday,heard a presentter who talked of the city being taken into heaven and who said that health care worked there because they didn't have obama care.><<>how does that presenter, teacher, know that for a fact and the fact that god judges us all on a bell curve<><><>some fail some at the top and most of the middle just passes to get into heaven<><>balderdash
ReplyDeleteEverybody,I am growing weary of this subject. I think I will not publish any more comments on this post as they have gone far afield.
ReplyDeletePutz, does the Book of Mormon say that Enoch was a city? In the book of Genesis in the Old Testament, Enoch was a man who "walked with God, and he was not, because God took him" -- doesn't say anything about a city. The book of Hebrews does say that Enoch had this testimony, that he pleased God. Also, it is stated in the book of Jude in the New Testament that Enoch was "the seventh from Adam" so how big of a "city" could it have been anyway? (These are rhetorical questions -- remember, I'm not publishing any more comments on this post.)
I try not to make quick judgments about people’s motives. I read that Caroline Kennedy flew to Japan at this time because she felt all the pictures about her father’s assassination and all the TV coverage would be too painful to watch and I can understand that. I also do not know if people were invited or not, I read earlier that in another occasion the public was upset that Republicans were not invited at a function to later find out that they could not make it or refused to come – so one never knows – now that I think of it, it was the last M. L. King, Jr. celebration.
ReplyDeleteI made an exception for the lovely Vagabonde, who was late to the party.
ReplyDelete