THEN CAME ALL THOSE TOMORROWS!

By Edwin Cooney

It’s almost impossible to grasp that fifty years have passed since the afternoon of Friday, November 22^nd, 1963!  By now, you’ve doubtless read and heard countless accounts of where people were, what they thought and how they felt, when they learned that President John F. Kennedy had been shot to death in Dallas, Texas.

For those of us too young to remember the Depression or either world war, Friday, November 22^nd, 1963 was our equivalent of the day the stock market crashed, the day Japan attacked Pearl Harbor and the day Franklin Delano Roosevelt died all rolled into one life altering instant.  On that day, practically every American became a victim of the assassin’s bullets along with the president and his family. Almost everyone old enough to have a grasp of national affairs remembers where they were, what they were doing, and who and what was important to them on that day.  Even today, fifty years later, I have a need to tell you what happened and what it all was like for me.  Exactly what makes me want to do that is hard to articulate.  I suppose it is a measure of the shock and pain I felt –- and to some degree still feel -- at the loss of a man I’d come to depend upon as part of my sense of national identification.

My personal concerns that pre-Thanksgiving weekend included the state of my love relationship with my then sweetheart Doris, the celebration of my eighteenth birthday just six days away, how much I would enjoy the on-campus smoking privileges my eighteenth birthday would bring me and, finally, what the Yankees might do at the upcoming baseball winter meetings under their new General Manager Ralph Houk and new Field Manager Yogi Berra.  Where the president was and what was on his mind, I hadn’t a clue!

Jack Kennedy, as much as being our president, was an attractive, energetic and knowledgeable young mentor who was suddenly and literally snatched from our midst.  Almost every aspect of him that most of us were aware of at that time -- his handsomeness, his Harvard/Boston accent, his intellect, his wealth, his Catholic faith, his large family, his beautiful wife and young children, his quick wit -- gave him the aura of a young, athletic, contemporary adult authority figure.  Even if we didn’t really know him, we thought we did.

Had he been killed while sailing or perhaps in an automobile accident, as shocking and heartrending as that would have been, it might have been more comprehendible!  However, to most of us, his murder was nearly impossible to fathom.  “Why,” we demanded to know, “would any American want to kill Jack Kennedy?”

(According to longtime speechwriter and friend Ted Sorensen, the possibility of Jack Kennedy having an automobile accident was almost likely if he were behind the wheel. In his 1965 book “Kennedy,” Sorenson reported that if you were riding in a car with Kennedy driving, it was better to sit next to him rather than behind him because JFK would invariably turn and face you to talk instead of heeding the road and the speed limit.)

With all of the theories and explanations of his murder (the Warren Report included), many of us who lived while he governed were not able to reach a sense of finality or completeness about it all. 

Shortly after 2:30 p.m. on that fateful Friday, I was sitting in a typing class at the residential school for the blind I was attending in Batavia, New York.  Suddenly our typing teacher was called out of class by our science teacher.  She came back and told us that the president had been shot and was apparently dead.  “Ah! Tell us another one,” I remember responding.  “No, kids,” she responded, “I wouldn’t kid about a thing like that.” In the next few minutes, we heard rumors that Vice President Johnson had suffered a heart attack as he entered the Dallas hospital to which JFK had been taken.

News of the shooting came at the close of the seventh period class and we still had a 46 minute eighth period class to get through before the close of school.  Our typing teacher was our teacher for business law as well, which meant that we didn’t have to change classrooms.  It’s unlikely that any of us really focused much on the 46-minute lecture on business law which our teacher obviously felt obligated to present.  It’s more likely that her heart really wasn’t in it, but that the topic served as a coping mechanism for her own feelings.  Suddenly, the school day ended and the weekend of watching, listening, and grieving began.

School let out at 3:36 pm.  Irrational as it was, as the plane carrying Mrs. Kennedy, the president’s body and LBJ approached Washington, D.C. some three hours later, I imagined President Kennedy holding a news conference reassuring us that he hadn’t been hurt during the shooting incident.

In my mind’s ear, I could hear his crisp Harvard accent saying:

“Ladies and Gentleman, as all of you know, a shooting incident occurred here in Dallas a couple of hours ago as I was riding through the city to speak at a luncheon at the Trade Mart which was being hosted by local Democrats.  Rumors that I was injured during the shooting are obviously untrue as you can tell.” (A nervous chuckle of relief would be heard from the assembled news people at that point.) The president would continue, “As I’m sure you’re all aware, an official investigation of the incident is already under way and, as I am something of a witness, circumstances don’t permit me to comment on it any further.  All I’ll say at this point is that incidents like this are invariably a part of serving in the presidency as the experiences of Presidents Lincoln, Garfield, McKinley and even President Truman all tell us. I’ll leave it there for now, but as I did some twenty years ago when a Japanese destroyer caused my PT boat to dump me and my crew into the South Pacific, I’ll certainly continue to meet my ongoing responsibilities.  Meanwhile, Jackie and I will spend the night at the ranch of Vice President and Mrs. Johnson and tomorrow I’ll head back to Washington to celebrate my little boy’s third birthday on Monday and my little girl’s sixth birthday on Wednesday. In closing, I want to express my appreciation to Governor Connelly, Senator Yarborough, and Mayor Cavell, as well as to Vice President and Mrs. Johnson, for their very generous hospitality to Jackie and to me during our stay here in Texas.” More laughter mixed with applause would come from the news media as the press conference closed and we would all feel better.

Alas, such wasn’t the case; it was only my illusion. However, throughout that whole weekend, reality seemed as much an illusion as illusion itself!  Instead, over the airwaves came the southern drawl of President Lyndon Baines Johnson over the drone of jet engines at Andrews Air Force Base as he said:

“This is a sad time for all people.  We have suffered a loss that cannot be weighed.  For me, it is a deep personal tragedy.  I know the world shares the sorrow that Mrs. Kennedy and her family bear.  I will do my best.  That is all I can do.  I ask for your help and God’s!”

So, there was no getting away from it!  The unthinkable was too real!

That sunny Friday was followed by a rainy Saturday in Washington D.C. and, back in Dallas on that Sunday, by violence to the suspected gunman by a distressed nightclub owner. It was a weekend filled with regrets and tears, by the dignity of a grief-stricken widow, and by a salute to a daddy by his little boy.

Most of all, as was observed in one commentary on the morning of Saturday, November 23^rd, 1963: “America the Beautiful awakened that morning stripped of her innocence!”

Friday, November 22^nd, 1963 permanently left its mark on most of our hearts.

Then, for you and for me, came all those tomorrows!

RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,

EDWIN COONEY

THE SOULS OF OUR DOMAINS

By Edwin Cooney

As regular readers of these weekly wonderings and wanderings know, for some time now I’ve been searching for ways out of the social, political and spiritual culture war in which America has been engaged since the late 1970s -- and the way out hasn’t been easy to find.  Even more disheartening is the possibility that most Americans have come to really and truly enjoy quarreling with and berating their fellow citizens even as they sing “God bless America.”

The soul of our national discontent can, I believe, be found in the establishment of a myriad of intellectual and emotional domains from which we tend to view the rest of this imperfect society.

These domains I define as lofty bastions of intellectual, emotional and spiritual realms of superiority from which we tend to look down on most of our fellow citizens as we either take pride in our separateness or rue the lack of appreciation people at large extend to us.

Politicians, whom we both abhor and depend upon to do our bidding, invariably appeal to us as rulers of various domains for it is likely that you and I reside in more than one domain.

First, there’s the domain of the taxpayer.  Never mind fifth grade civics, everyone knows that every person should get his or her own way as a “taxpayer.”  Taxpayers are more knowledgeable than educated professionals, wiser than conscientious public servants, more worthy of consideration than our mothers, and more patriotic than any national leader – especially the president.  Once you’re a “taxpayer,” you are endowed with wisdom far beyond that of King Solomon of Old Testament fame!

Next, there’s the domain of the patriot whose view and assessment of other nations is always objective even as he or she asks God to bless America and to comparatively damn the rest of His created domain!

One of the most popular domains is that of the victim.  This domain was originally blessed by Marxists and radical liberals, but alas, conservatives who have traditionally whined about “victimhood” when it was linked to the poor now insist that affirmative action has created a level of soul-destroying victimhood borne by white Anglo-Saxon Americans – a victimhood far worse, of course, than any ever visited on a minority of any kind.

Domains of the oppressed inevitably dot the landscape of 21^st Century America.  There’s the domain of the beleaguered gun owner who has little to sustain him or her except a trusty gun. There’s the domain of frustrated parents whose children are being educated by teachers who know less about teaching than they do. These parents would homeschool the kiddies except they’re too busy making quite a comfortable living. 

A really fascinating domain is hosted by a prominent talk show host.  It’s actually a sovereign entity known as “The Savage Nation,” a nation fierce enough to do the bidding of one “mighty Mike” (excuse me!): Michael Savage.

Almost as fierce as “Savage Nation” is Raider Nation of football fame.  Hmmm! A game between Raider Nation and Savage Nation might not only be entertaining, it would be downright compelling.  That game, without a doubt, would immediately make an Oakland Raiders football fan out of me.

Throughout that game I would stuff myself with more goodies and beer than Dr. Oz would advise. In addition to the “nations” or domains mentioned above, there’s both Cardinal and Red Sox “Nation.”  We’ve just recently enjoyed the ultimate contest between those two harmless but nevertheless expensive “nations” which was quite entertaining.

There’s also consumer domain in which the users of products and services have more weight than the inventors or providers of all goods and services.

Wisdom demands that I not forget the domain of the realist in which the dreamer is the “village idiot.”

The domain of the cynic is a must visit for the gullible believer who is convinced that there’s more good than bad in this nation or in the world itself!

Yes indeed, this is the era of the personal domain.  Under our republican (notice the small r) form of government, the people are sovereign and if domains are nothing else, they are invariably sovereign.  They inevitably form our individual dream worlds in which you and I are absolute ruler.

Every hope or fear, whether material, political or spiritual, invites you and me to create a domain that masters that fear or hope.  My personal bastion of righteous superiority is my weekly visit with you.  Here I’m the “lord and master,” the renderer of all praise, the pronouncer of all wisdom -- that is, until you stop reading these weekly wonderings.

Wait a minute! Is the world changing?  What’s happening to my dream…to my little domain of exclusive reality? Ah nuts! My domain is crumbling even as I write these words! Someone I’ve never met is being born.  Some opportunity I’ve never had is in the process of being created.  The nature of both peace and war are changing just as it would for our Founding Fathers if they were still living among us.  Somewhere out there is another Galileo, another Da Vinci, perhaps another Lincoln.

Oh, my God! Is that another Bill Mazeroski being born?  From the lofty heart of my New York Yankee domain I devoutly hope not!

I wonder, is your lofty domain real or is it merely a mirage just like mine?

RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,

EDWIN COONEY

VETERANS DAY – WHAT’S IT ALL ABOUT?

By Edwin Cooney

I get it, I really do, but I’m uncomfortable with it.  That we should be grateful to those who rendered us their service during wartime and, in some cases, forfeited their good health and even their lives, is beyond debate.  For me, however, whether we really and truly demonstrate our understanding of their experience with all of the patriotic public parading and praying which we do on days like the third Monday in April, the fourth Monday in May, the fourth of July and the eleventh of November is questionable.

Every year on the third Monday in April (April 15^th in 2013), especially throughout New England, we celebrate Patriots' Day.  In some ways, that is the most legitimate celebration of battlefield sacrifice in which we indulge. I am suggesting that because Patriots' Day along with the Battle of Bunker Hill (Breed's Hill if you insist) are the only two battles not sanctioned by government, but simultaneously engaged in by men and women determined to protect their own personal freedom.  These two battles occurred more than a year before the thirteen colonies established our national government.

The War of 1812 was essential for war hawks such as Henry Clay of Kentucky, Andrew Jackson of Tennessee, and John C. Calhoun of South Carolina if young America was to be free of British harassment on the Great Lakes, the Mississippi River and the high seas.  To New Englanders whose commerce depended on foreign trade, the view of that war was very, very different indeed.  This was New Hampshire Congressman Daniel Webster’s response to a proposal to create a national draft put forward by President James Madison and his Secretary of War James Monroe:

 “The administration asserts the right to fill the ranks of the regular army by compulsion...Is this, sir, consistent, with the character of a free government? Is this civil liberty? Is this the real character of our constitution? No sir, indeed, it is not...Where in the Constitution is it written, in what article or section is it contained that you may take children from their parents and parents from their children and compel them to fight the battles  of any war in which the folly or wickedness of any government may engage it? Under what concealment has this power lain hidden which now comes forth for the first time with a tremendous and baleful aspect to trample down and destroy the dearest rights of personal liberty?”

Memorial Day, established to celebrate the sacrifices made during the Civil War (particularly by the Union) came about as a result of the failure of our founders to deal adequately with the moral issue of chattel slavery.

The Spanish-American War, World Wars I, II, Korea, Vietnam, Gulf War I and Gulf War II, Iraq and Afghanistan were brought about due to the economic greed and lack of diplomatic foresight and failures of our elected leaders.  (This was especially true of the War of 1812 and the Mexican War. The latter was fought to realize our “Manifest Destiny.”)

Some insist that the only legitimate reason for the existence of government is to protect us from the aggression and oppression of other governments.  However, a mere thumbnail view of history shows how seldom we’ve genuinely needed our national government to protect us.

No one has ever suggested that Spain’s effort to maintain Cuba as a colony was a threat to our ultimate safety. The blowing up of the USS Maine, even if it actually was Spain’s doing as advertised, may have been in defiance of our support for the Cuban rebels, but no one thinks that Washington D.C. was ever in danger of being occupied by the King of Spain.

World War I, in the wake of imperial Germany’s proposal to support Mexico’s regaining of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California and perhaps Colorado, may well have compelled our decision to fight the “war to end all wars,” but even that is debatable.

As for World War II, America’s most popular war, conservative commentator Patrick Buchanan asserts in his book Churchill, Hitler, and  "The Unnecessary War” that World War II was only inevitable due to the follies engaged in by us and our allies during and immediately after World

War I.

From the time we’re very young, we are almost indoctrinated to be sympathetic to the idea of engaging in war.

Our national “hymns” with the notable exception of “America the Beautiful" (which truly reflects the best of our land and culture) invariably glorify war. To read the lyrics of much of our literature almost causes one to believe that our freedom was born on the battlefield rather than in the councils of men who had studied the writings of history’s great philosophers and teachers including those of Christ.

Sadly, today President Obama will no doubt join with every other President since FDR in paying tribute to the heroism of our veterans.  Bravery, courage, and patriotism will be ascribed to those who achieved victory in war, rather than being ascribed to those on all sides who were forced to endure war’s special hell.  All that is good and moral once again will be ascribed to the victor.  Hence, the very tragedy of that which has brought so much pain and loss to every veteran and veteran’s family and their posterity will be virtually ignored.

So long as Veterans Day is about war, I’ll let others celebrate it.

As for my gratitude, I’ll politically support all possible activities that may alter the conditions that create war and that seek to heal the wounds of war!

 

How about you?

RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,

EDWIN COONEY

 

A TRIP TO THE WOODSHED

By Edwin Cooney

It was bound to happen. After all, by holding the Republicans (excuse me!) conservatives, responsible for the recent government shut down, hadn’t I just scolded a group of Americans who see themselves as being on a moral mission?  Their only weakness, it seems, has to do with the degree of their purity!  No one is as pure as Mark Levin or Sean Hannity—unless maybe it’s Glenn Beck!  Michael Savage has little regard for Rush Limbaugh, and some of the newly-elected conservative congressional Turks are absolutely certain they’re purer than is Speaker Boehner—but I’m in danger of getting off the topic.  Yes indeed, I was taken to the proverbial woodshed!  As for the actual spanking, more about that later.  I can’t say the spanking didn’t hurt, because one of the most frustrating experiences in life is the lack of substantial acknowledgment of one’s most disheartening concerns.

Three Mondays ago I wrote that the shutdown of the government, a movement conceived and led by Republicans, was pushing me toward the edge of anger.  I likened my mood to that of the late conservative commentator Paul Harvey back in the fall of 1966.

Throughout the column I gave the reasons for my state of mind.  In so doing, I sought to demonstrate how, from time to time, I’ve given credit to conservative administrations and even asserted that there’s value in conservative thinking when it’s applicable to problem solving.  I went on to say however that I discern two major causes for the GOP led government shutdown.  The most immediate is deep seated Republican opposition to “Obama care.”  Ongoing personal dislike for the person of President Obama is, obviously, the central cause for the current national crisis.

The most vigorous objection to what I wrote came from a “proud conservative” who, rather than addressing himself to the causes of the shutdown and the ideological differences that brought about the political stalemate on Capitol Hill, chose to simply charge me with “knocking down straw men.”  Concerned about the possible accuracy of his assertion, I researched the practice of setting up and knocking down straw men during the course of discussion or debate, so that I might assess my own guilt. This is what I’ve discovered.

First, I have indeed been guilty of that practice on numerous occasions, although my October 14^th column clearly wasn’t such an occasion.  Second, I discovered that my “proud conservative” reader practiced exactly that strategy in his response to my “ad hominem attack on conservatives.”

One sets up a straw man when one makes a counter argument to an issue without addressing the argument being made.  Here’s an example.

Andy says he’s glad that the sun is shining so brightly today.  Randy responds by asserting that Andy obviously and foolishly hates rain, because rain is as essential to our well being as is sunshine.  Randy’s argument is a straw man because Andy didn’t address himself one way or the other to rain.

My “proud conservative” friend spent most of his response repeating to me why Jimmy Carter was a terrible president.  He listed inflation as being 13%—he was right about that.  Unemployment he stated was 21% (that wasn’t even close—unemployment under President Carter never went above 7.5%).  What he should have referred to was the rate of stagflation—a combination of inflation and unemployment that was 21%.  He complained about the Olympics—I guess he believes that President Ronald Reagan, who considered the Soviets “evil,” would have delighted in the Soviet Olympics in the wake of their recent invasion of Afghanistan!  Jimmy Carter bungled the hostage crisis and Ronald Reagan brought the hostages home.  Thus, Jimmy Carter became his straw man!

Here, briefly, is a list of the complaints or “straw men” I made or set up.

First, for as far back as I can remember, conservatives have longed to roll back FDR’s “New Deal.”  FDR’s taxing and regulation of the rich and powerful for the benefit of the poor, they’ve always insisted, is the root of all evil.

Second, the social welfare of the American people has never been and is not the legitimate business of the federal government.

Third, the main reason for this is just plain greed.  Their money is simply too valuable to be spent on you. (Clearly, that was my most petulant argument!)

Fourth, conservatives find it convenient not to understand the fundamental difference between the functions of business and government.  The legitimate function of business is to make a profit.  The legitimate function of government is the management of national affairs—both foreign and domestic—in patriotic service of us all.

Fifth, I wrote that conservatives somehow believe they can spend four or eight years in personal attacks and impeachment proceedings against “liberal” presidents without doing the slightest damage to the credibility of the office once one of their own is elected to it.

As for my attack on conservatives being ad hominem, in order to rate that evaluation the attack would have to be reckless and false.  Arguable as any of my points may be, in order for them to be false, conservatives must be the most seriously misunderstood political group since the Dixiecrats of Strom Thurmond’s day!  Of course my big sin in that column was when I asserted, “...the way conservatives are currently behaving is downright unpatriotic!”  You might note, as my “proud conservative” reader apparently fails to grasp, I was writing about conservative behavior as opposed to the legitimacy or application of conservative doctrine.

As for the spanking, sure it stung, as it was administered by a “straw man”!  Still, I’d rather bear the pain of the spanking than the shame of not having properly identified self-serving irresponsible behavior when it occurs!

Sorry reader, Jimmy Carter’s imperfections are no excuse for 2013 conservative complicity in unpatriotic behavior!

RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,

EDWIN COONEY