Feb MeMe

Originally posted on GMR - but since it's shut down, I reposted here.

Going with the suggested GMR meme theme of the month (write about a memorable photo) I didn’t have too hard of a time bringing forth a few images. Unfortunately. Perhaps it is the power of suggestion with Brad’s kick-off entry, but all of them revolved around tragedy and change.

My initial thoughts conjured up images from 9/11: the second plane headed toward the North Tower or people in mid-fall/jump. I still have massive trouble being able to view these. I had mentioned in my last September 11th blog entry that even during Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11, even though the screen goes black before the plane hits the tower - still I had to look away. So, now that I’ve left you with those visual images in your head, I guess I’ll move on to mine. …and it is no less jarring.

I like reading historical event books. If I get onto a subject, I can obsess about them even: Manson, Everest, Patty Hearst. I’m just weird that way. But my first recollection of this behaviour would have to to be the JFK assassination.

I was just over 3 months old (yes, do your math!) when John F. Kennedy was assassinated. Though from an early age I was fascinated about the actual event. What other sixth grader do you know who has read the entire Warren Commission Report?

There are less than 27 seconds in Zapruder’s film of the actual event. Oddly enough, the academics always view frames attempting to determine if there was a second shooter or a magic bullet by focusing on the body positions of Kennedy and John Connally. What gets overlooked is in those split seconds is the realization, anguish and desperation of Jackie Kennedy and inevitably, a nation.

A number of books speculated that she was attempting to grab part of her husband’s blown-off skull, but what is fairly well documented is her panic of trying to get the fuck out of the car. The silent film doesn’t capture the aural chaos.

This day and this film has brought us a much more wary and voyeuristic nation. Conspiracy and video now rule the day. From Rodney King to Anna Nicole. From 24 hour news to YouTube.

In reality, Camelot was only wounded that day. We’ve been beating it to death ever since