November 22, 1963

It was an ordinary day in Mrs. Hasner's classroom in Florida. The first announcement came after lunch, during math. It seemed only moments later that the second announcement came and we all went home in stunned silence. The weekend was gray fog, the television blaring until the test pattern came on. Jackie's stalwart strength, Caroline's brave smile, John-John's salute, the caissons, the horses, the guns firing, the glare-splashed shooting in the underground garage, the most horrific events in the history of the country played out before our bleary eyes. The shiny future of Moon landings, abundant energy for all, a chicken in every pot and two cars in every garage, everyone can own a home if they just work steadily, all of those things simply evaporated. The world of today is not the world I was promised. It was stolen from me. From all of us.

I sure hope we the people manage to seize the controls away from the Goldman-Sachses, the teabaggers, the war profiteers, the theocratic moles in our government, and all of the other parties bent on silently taking over this country and sucking it dry.

I sure hope we don't see the events of forty-six years ago repeated by the swarms of lunatics bent on self-aggrandization at the price of our Constitution.


I'm almost glad I'm as old as I am. I'm not optimistic about the future of the world.