I have determined that The Trump Kennedy Center, if temporarily closed for Construction, Revitalization, and Complete Rebuilding, can be, without question, the finest Performing Arts Facility of its kind, anywhere in the World.
"The baby boomers almost to a person can tell you exactly where they were and what they were doing when they learned the terrible news of November 22, 1963." I'm the same age as Donnie Diaper. We lived in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963 and my dad was one block away from the assassination site. A man ran into where Dad was lunching, shouted, "The President's been shot! Bow your heads and pray!" and then exited. I was in school and had planned to go see JFK but it rained that morning so the radio said he and Jackie would be under the bullet-proof bubble. But before noon the sun came out and the top was removed. I became a political scientist because of JFK and had my students read PROFILES IN COURAGE. You are so right! Donnie Dementia will always have JFK as yet another person who he could never, ever come near in any respect.
I was in my 7th grade Texas History class in Dallas at the same moment, Lynne. A classmate ran into the room and shouted, “Miss McAnally, the president’s been shot.” Someone turned on the tv, and we all watched Walter Cronkite deliver the horrible news. For me and many others, that was the day “the music died.”
Peggy, I was in 7th grade, too, in a school in Champaign, Illinois. We were in Music Class and we heard a kid running down the hall, screaming “The President is dead, the President is dead.”
We burst out laughing, not because we thought he was dead. We were laughing because the kid was going to be in bad trouble. We then went back to class, but no one said anything. I remember it was raining and my mother sent the cleaning lady to pick me up. When I got in the car, she was sobbing almost uncontrollably. All I could say was, “It’s true, isn’t it? All she could do was nod…
I actually had to correct a comment in a history book about that day. The book claimed children in Dallas cheered when they heard JFK was dead. Not true. Dallas cancelled school after the news without announcing to the children what happened. Parents were told to come pick up their children and tell them themselves. The kids cheered because who wouldn't be excited to have school cancelled for no reason?
3rd grade, unforgettable. All of us filed into the multipurpose room, were told the news and released to go home. Most of us walked or rode bikes. The school was “John Cabrillo”, much later de-Anglicized to “Juan Cabrillo”, with proper pronunciation. 😏
I was in the 4th grade, at a Lutheran Parochial school in Akron. Everything stopped and we prayed. The TV was on nonstop that wek, which was a rarity for our family. I'll never forget my Mom crying watching the funeral, and then seeing Oswald shot by Jack Ruby. So many assassinations in the Sixties. I realized in my 30s my deep seeded dislike for Dallas most likely could be tracked back to that day.
As I am 82 years old, the Kennedy assassination is a tragic event forever seared into my memory. I read a Stephen King novel, "11/22/63," that told the story of a man going back in time to undo that horrible occurrence. Two quotes from the book that reveal King's insights and help explain why he is so anti-Trump:
Both are on page 547: "But never underestimate the American bourgeoisie's capacity to embrace fascism under the name of populism."
"And never underestimate the terror white Americans feel at the idea of a society in which racial equality has become the law of the land."
I feel that the orange imbecile problem we are currently experiencing is a direct reaction to Obama’s election and eight years in office.
The thought of racial equality ( as you posted above ) terrifies them.
The orange imbecile speaks MAGANAZIs love language. All the dog whistles. The nudge, nudge, wink, winks they understand it all. They know where this is going and seemingly don’t care. MAGANAZIs cannot grasp “ Americanism “* if it bit them squarely on the ass and then slapped them in the face.
*Americanism:
Lead, follow or get out of the way.
The color of your skin, the country of your origin, the person you love, the God ( or not ) you believe in doesn’t matter one bit. You’re judged on your character. Nothing more nothing less. We’re Americans united together by ideas of freedom, liberty, compassion, opportunity and fairness under the law.
Everybody needs to remember for the future that when Trump is gone, we remove his name from everything, and that the history books record him as the worst and most corrupt President in U.S. history.
I think that because of what the next few years will bring he will be remembered for far worse than as only the worst or most corrupt president. I believe his evil is always underestimated.
If there was a singular event to set America on the wrong course, it was the assassination of JFK. I'm a boomer who remembers exactly where I was when it happened. I was home sick with the measles. My mom had set me up on a couch where I could watch TV with her as she did the ironing. When the soap was interrupted with the declaration that the president had been shot, my mom almost fainted. She sobbed as she held me.
Ew. Then Clarence Thomas was appointed. And then SCROTUS screwed us all by determining that corporations are people. And then came "Corporations United." Campaign Finance Reform DOA.
The words I read, that he never spoke I could hear him saying as I read them…the speeches you included took me back to my childhood, and a different, but trying time in this country…. And I wept. You are right, we must take up this mantle and remember what should have been, and make it happen. I humbly thank you.
Yes, I remember where I was that day, even what I was wearing. I was in 8th grade and it was just after lunch. We were waiting outside the door of our history class waiting for the teacher to come and unlock the door. He got there and asked if anyone had a radio on them. Back in the day, being caught with a transistor radio was the crime of the century, so no one admitted to having one. But then the teacher said nobody would get in trouble, the president had been shot. Eight radios were produced from various pockets and purses. With those radios all on the same news station and placed around the room, we listened to the horror of the announcement that Kennedy had died. At that moment, the national anthem began playing and in silence we all stood up and faced the flag, many of us with tears running down our faces. Even the boys and the teacher were welling up. The vice principal came around to each room and dismissed us for the day. It was horrible and I tear up as I write this. The world changed forever that awful day.
One basic value that Cheeto holds as number one importance is not to be a loser This underscores the Big Lie and all of the political machinations to try to reverse history as if it’s a time machine to go after anything that would state the obvious: he lost the 2020 election
Cheeto was so obsessed with the 2020 election loss that he even rigged the 2024(bit.ly/41UelTx) election with the help of vigilante challenges and with the help of his Nazi allies who love Der Fuhrer’s bravado But like almost everything Cheeto says, the use of the term “rigged” is nothing but a projection of what he himself has and wants to do in the future: Rig elections and his Nazi allies are complicit so that America never has a free and fair election again So once again the Nazi Republicans are experimenting like they did with the fallacious “trickle down economics”
Cheeto has tried to politically engineer mid decade gerrymandering but that become a bust The Nazis have been trying to get voter information so they can nationalize the vigilante challenge theme They created the SAVE act (and yet to pass) to disenfranchise the feminine vote Then he sent Gabbard to Georgia to confiscate 2020 ballots The Cheeto suggested that he’ll get control of voting equipment but his latest gambit is to have 15 GOP states(https://bit.ly/3NRxC4V) take over elections so that it will guarantee that the Nazi Republicans will never lose future elections
Why bother running on policy when you can just assure yourself that the Nazis will not have to worry about election losses? All because Cheeto has held a longstanding belief from his days with his mentor Roy Cohn that he should NEVER BE A LOSER Unfortunately for Cheeto he is and always will be a loser and the polls show it
Steve, yes I can remember EXACTLY where I was. What I was wearing. How I felt. And now just as then I am crying my eyes out!! One thing that has become so clear is that at this fucking moment in our history, we can’t lift these moments. We can only grieve them. May we one day come to the point where we can lift them and cry tears of gratitude and remembrance and not this grief that sometimes threatens to overwhelm me.
I was only 6 when he was killed. Don’t remember that but I do remember the solemn procession of horses, one sans rider, for his funeral.
Everything time I hear a comparison of Trump to Kennedy I wonder if Trump could have summoned the wisdom Kennedy had in holding back launching nukes against Cuba, or whether his viciousness and hatred would have had him “launch them all”.
I hesitate to speculate.
One of Steve’s best columns ever.
Thanks for a ray of hope in what seems like an increasingly hopeless situation.
I was 7 Jim, at a Catholic school. I think they sent us home early. Mom was crying watching the TV. I agree, I think this column is one of Steve’s best.
I would have had the same trust for every President since Nixon to make the same decision as him since, except Trump. Yes, even Nixon on his worst day would have been thoughtful. Bush I, Bush II, Clinton. Obama…but this guy…. I predict he will be tried before his term is out with a terribly difficult decision, probably by China. And he (and his butt-sniffing minions) will go down in history as having failed that test. Looking at you Hegseth.
Steve - I have followed you for years and am always impressed by your communication skills, integrity, compassion and selflessness. Why are YOU not running for office? Say...the PRESIDENCY?
Democrats must also abandon their crippling worries about appearances, abandon their impotent willingness to let cynical Republicans frame every discussion, and prosecute every crime now being committed, every criminal guilty of those crimes, starting at the top, not the bottom. In other words, an American Nuremberg. Failure to do so, failure to act quickly (see: Merrick Garland) will only serve to further institutionalize corruption in all branches of government.
At the same time, they must reverse every destructive influence and result of the “Reagan Revolution”, from taxation, to unions, to monopolies, to the Fairness Doctrine, to compassion, to the fundamental hollowing-out of the New Deal. All this sounds revolutionary because it is. A government of the people, by the people, and for the people demands nothing less.
11th grade English class. Dr. Lloyd Feisel, our teacher, came into the room with tears in his eyes. School was dismissed early. Now, when I hear the 'city on a hill' speech, and his inaugural address, I am saddened beyond tears. We had such promise then; to see it brought down by such a small, unworthy man is unbearable.
I would venture to say that he cannot remember where he was when JFK was shot. It probably didn't matter to him. I hope to live long enough to see his name removed from every edifice where it has been so obscenely applied, and the records of his crimes buried deep. He deserves no monument, not even a headstone.
"The baby boomers almost to a person can tell you exactly where they were and what they were doing when they learned the terrible news of November 22, 1963." I'm the same age as Donnie Diaper. We lived in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963 and my dad was one block away from the assassination site. A man ran into where Dad was lunching, shouted, "The President's been shot! Bow your heads and pray!" and then exited. I was in school and had planned to go see JFK but it rained that morning so the radio said he and Jackie would be under the bullet-proof bubble. But before noon the sun came out and the top was removed. I became a political scientist because of JFK and had my students read PROFILES IN COURAGE. You are so right! Donnie Dementia will always have JFK as yet another person who he could never, ever come near in any respect.
I was in my 7th grade Texas History class in Dallas at the same moment, Lynne. A classmate ran into the room and shouted, “Miss McAnally, the president’s been shot.” Someone turned on the tv, and we all watched Walter Cronkite deliver the horrible news. For me and many others, that was the day “the music died.”
Peggy, I was in 7th grade, too, in a school in Champaign, Illinois. We were in Music Class and we heard a kid running down the hall, screaming “The President is dead, the President is dead.”
We burst out laughing, not because we thought he was dead. We were laughing because the kid was going to be in bad trouble. We then went back to class, but no one said anything. I remember it was raining and my mother sent the cleaning lady to pick me up. When I got in the car, she was sobbing almost uncontrollably. All I could say was, “It’s true, isn’t it? All she could do was nod…
Wow, Peggy! This gave me goosebumps....
I was in third grade, and they cancelled school and bused us home. I don't think most of us understood how serious what had happened.
I actually had to correct a comment in a history book about that day. The book claimed children in Dallas cheered when they heard JFK was dead. Not true. Dallas cancelled school after the news without announcing to the children what happened. Parents were told to come pick up their children and tell them themselves. The kids cheered because who wouldn't be excited to have school cancelled for no reason?
3rd grade, unforgettable. All of us filed into the multipurpose room, were told the news and released to go home. Most of us walked or rode bikes. The school was “John Cabrillo”, much later de-Anglicized to “Juan Cabrillo”, with proper pronunciation. 😏
I was in the 4th grade, at a Lutheran Parochial school in Akron. Everything stopped and we prayed. The TV was on nonstop that wek, which was a rarity for our family. I'll never forget my Mom crying watching the funeral, and then seeing Oswald shot by Jack Ruby. So many assassinations in the Sixties. I realized in my 30s my deep seeded dislike for Dallas most likely could be tracked back to that day.
As I am 82 years old, the Kennedy assassination is a tragic event forever seared into my memory. I read a Stephen King novel, "11/22/63," that told the story of a man going back in time to undo that horrible occurrence. Two quotes from the book that reveal King's insights and help explain why he is so anti-Trump:
Both are on page 547: "But never underestimate the American bourgeoisie's capacity to embrace fascism under the name of populism."
"And never underestimate the terror white Americans feel at the idea of a society in which racial equality has become the law of the land."
I feel that the orange imbecile problem we are currently experiencing is a direct reaction to Obama’s election and eight years in office.
The thought of racial equality ( as you posted above ) terrifies them.
The orange imbecile speaks MAGANAZIs love language. All the dog whistles. The nudge, nudge, wink, winks they understand it all. They know where this is going and seemingly don’t care. MAGANAZIs cannot grasp “ Americanism “* if it bit them squarely on the ass and then slapped them in the face.
*Americanism:
Lead, follow or get out of the way.
The color of your skin, the country of your origin, the person you love, the God ( or not ) you believe in doesn’t matter one bit. You’re judged on your character. Nothing more nothing less. We’re Americans united together by ideas of freedom, liberty, compassion, opportunity and fairness under the law.
Exactly...
Everybody needs to remember for the future that when Trump is gone, we remove his name from everything, and that the history books record him as the worst and most corrupt President in U.S. history.
I think that because of what the next few years will bring he will be remembered for far worse than as only the worst or most corrupt president. I believe his evil is always underestimated.
If there was a singular event to set America on the wrong course, it was the assassination of JFK. I'm a boomer who remembers exactly where I was when it happened. I was home sick with the measles. My mom had set me up on a couch where I could watch TV with her as she did the ironing. When the soap was interrupted with the declaration that the president had been shot, my mom almost fainted. She sobbed as she held me.
The next event was SCROTUS giving the presidency to W. Gore would have been a much better president and definitely a smarter one.
Ew. Then Clarence Thomas was appointed. And then SCROTUS screwed us all by determining that corporations are people. And then came "Corporations United." Campaign Finance Reform DOA.
I urge everybody to read the outstanding book “Jack” by Francine mathews, which ggave me so much more understanding of John Kennedy.
The words I read, that he never spoke I could hear him saying as I read them…the speeches you included took me back to my childhood, and a different, but trying time in this country…. And I wept. You are right, we must take up this mantle and remember what should have been, and make it happen. I humbly thank you.
Yes, I remember where I was that day, even what I was wearing. I was in 8th grade and it was just after lunch. We were waiting outside the door of our history class waiting for the teacher to come and unlock the door. He got there and asked if anyone had a radio on them. Back in the day, being caught with a transistor radio was the crime of the century, so no one admitted to having one. But then the teacher said nobody would get in trouble, the president had been shot. Eight radios were produced from various pockets and purses. With those radios all on the same news station and placed around the room, we listened to the horror of the announcement that Kennedy had died. At that moment, the national anthem began playing and in silence we all stood up and faced the flag, many of us with tears running down our faces. Even the boys and the teacher were welling up. The vice principal came around to each room and dismissed us for the day. It was horrible and I tear up as I write this. The world changed forever that awful day.
Cheeto’s Nazi Republicans Subverting Elections
One basic value that Cheeto holds as number one importance is not to be a loser This underscores the Big Lie and all of the political machinations to try to reverse history as if it’s a time machine to go after anything that would state the obvious: he lost the 2020 election
Cheeto was so obsessed with the 2020 election loss that he even rigged the 2024(bit.ly/41UelTx) election with the help of vigilante challenges and with the help of his Nazi allies who love Der Fuhrer’s bravado But like almost everything Cheeto says, the use of the term “rigged” is nothing but a projection of what he himself has and wants to do in the future: Rig elections and his Nazi allies are complicit so that America never has a free and fair election again So once again the Nazi Republicans are experimenting like they did with the fallacious “trickle down economics”
Cheeto has tried to politically engineer mid decade gerrymandering but that become a bust The Nazis have been trying to get voter information so they can nationalize the vigilante challenge theme They created the SAVE act (and yet to pass) to disenfranchise the feminine vote Then he sent Gabbard to Georgia to confiscate 2020 ballots The Cheeto suggested that he’ll get control of voting equipment but his latest gambit is to have 15 GOP states(https://bit.ly/3NRxC4V) take over elections so that it will guarantee that the Nazi Republicans will never lose future elections
Why bother running on policy when you can just assure yourself that the Nazis will not have to worry about election losses? All because Cheeto has held a longstanding belief from his days with his mentor Roy Cohn that he should NEVER BE A LOSER Unfortunately for Cheeto he is and always will be a loser and the polls show it
It hurt hurts my ears to hear the “Trump Kennedy Center” 😢
Steve, yes I can remember EXACTLY where I was. What I was wearing. How I felt. And now just as then I am crying my eyes out!! One thing that has become so clear is that at this fucking moment in our history, we can’t lift these moments. We can only grieve them. May we one day come to the point where we can lift them and cry tears of gratitude and remembrance and not this grief that sometimes threatens to overwhelm me.
I was only 6 when he was killed. Don’t remember that but I do remember the solemn procession of horses, one sans rider, for his funeral.
Everything time I hear a comparison of Trump to Kennedy I wonder if Trump could have summoned the wisdom Kennedy had in holding back launching nukes against Cuba, or whether his viciousness and hatred would have had him “launch them all”.
I hesitate to speculate.
One of Steve’s best columns ever.
Thanks for a ray of hope in what seems like an increasingly hopeless situation.
I was 7 Jim, at a Catholic school. I think they sent us home early. Mom was crying watching the TV. I agree, I think this column is one of Steve’s best.
I would have had the same trust for every President since Nixon to make the same decision as him since, except Trump. Yes, even Nixon on his worst day would have been thoughtful. Bush I, Bush II, Clinton. Obama…but this guy…. I predict he will be tried before his term is out with a terribly difficult decision, probably by China. And he (and his butt-sniffing minions) will go down in history as having failed that test. Looking at you Hegseth.
Thanks for sharing the Kennedy speech. Great article, Steve.
Steve - I have followed you for years and am always impressed by your communication skills, integrity, compassion and selflessness. Why are YOU not running for office? Say...the PRESIDENCY?
Steve is smarter and more capable than to get into the current political scene!
Democrats must also abandon their crippling worries about appearances, abandon their impotent willingness to let cynical Republicans frame every discussion, and prosecute every crime now being committed, every criminal guilty of those crimes, starting at the top, not the bottom. In other words, an American Nuremberg. Failure to do so, failure to act quickly (see: Merrick Garland) will only serve to further institutionalize corruption in all branches of government.
At the same time, they must reverse every destructive influence and result of the “Reagan Revolution”, from taxation, to unions, to monopolies, to the Fairness Doctrine, to compassion, to the fundamental hollowing-out of the New Deal. All this sounds revolutionary because it is. A government of the people, by the people, and for the people demands nothing less.
Totally agree. Doubt it will happen though, unfortunately.
Right on! Protect the Vote!
11th grade English class. Dr. Lloyd Feisel, our teacher, came into the room with tears in his eyes. School was dismissed early. Now, when I hear the 'city on a hill' speech, and his inaugural address, I am saddened beyond tears. We had such promise then; to see it brought down by such a small, unworthy man is unbearable.
I would venture to say that he cannot remember where he was when JFK was shot. It probably didn't matter to him. I hope to live long enough to see his name removed from every edifice where it has been so obscenely applied, and the records of his crimes buried deep. He deserves no monument, not even a headstone.