Nov 22, 1963 Flashback 50 Years

I just got a phone call this morning from my buddy, Peter, who I grew up. He said, “Man, can you believe it’s been 50 years?”

“No, I can’t believe it.” I answered.

“Do you remember what you were doing?” Peter asked.

“Yes, I remember. I was sitting in my history class.”

Peter and I talked for a while and then I flashed back to 50 years ago today:

I was in the 11th grade at Wilson High School in East LA and I wasn’t paying much attention to politics. I was more interested in hanging out with my buddies and checking out the girls when suddenly an obviously upset vice principal came into in my 5th period class and said, “The president has been shot.”

What’s she talking about? I wondered. The teacher went to the front of the class and said, “Class dismissed.” That seemed strange. We walked out of the classroom and everybody seemed to be lost in confusion and not sure what to do. The loud speakers announced, ”Please come to the assembly hall.” I started looking for my buddies when I noticed some students crying and I thought about what the vice principal said about the president being shot. “Can that be?” I wondered as I made my way into the assembly hall.

Where were you on that day?

Dallas, “The Big D”

Dealey Plaza

The Grassy Knoll

Jack Ruby

The Texas School Book Depository (Suppository)?

“The President Has Been Shot!”

“JFK is dead.”

The Parade in Dallas or the “Motorcade”

Camelot (Harmonious, perfect society)

Who Did It?

The Conspiracy theories.

The Mafia?

The Secret Service?

Castro?

LBJ?

The Military Industrial Complex?

Big Business? The Oil Industry?

The Soviet Union? The KGB?

The CIA? The FBI? (Hoover?)

It couldn’t possibly be that a nobody, a nothing like Lee Harvey Oswald could take down our glamorous , beloved president Kennedy. How could that possibly be?

More than 70% of people today believe that the Warren Commission was wrong and that there was a conspiracy of more than one shooter.

Hard to swallow The Magic Bullet: One bullet zig-zagged through both through JFK’s head and then into Gov. Connelly’s lung, his rib and through his wrist and then the bullet be practically unscathed.

Questions about the commission’s failure to interview some Dealey Plaza witnesses; review the discrepancies between the conclusions of the Parkland Hospital physicians’ examination and the Bethesda [Maryland] Naval Hospital’s autopsy photos; investigate the destruction of the presidential limousine, a vital piece of forensic evidence; evaluate the Dallas Police Department’s interrogation of Oswald; and other concerns,
have led many assassination researchers to reject the Warren Commission’s conclusions, either in whole or in part, and argue that
more than one person fired gunshots at President Kennedy that day as part of a conspiracy.

The Legend:

Very likable, charismatic personality with the promise and excitement of a young, 46 yr. old leader who was from a wealthy family but who was loved and admired by most everybody, including the well to do, the middle class and the underclass, including everybody I knew in East LA.

Even the Press loved him.

He was like a rock star, (but not like Michael Jackson).

Men and women loved him. Hell, he was apparently a Casanova. Marilyn Monroe and his romantic liaisons.

We all loved his relaxed, James Bond style. Sort of like how young people love today’s Hip Hop, Rap music stars. (P. Diddy, J-Z, Eminem, 50 Cent.) Except instead of saying he’s the baddest dude on the block, he was actually trying to make the world a better place.

Witty.

Poet.

Idealist.

Self-effacing.

He started The Peace Corps, began the government working with Civil Rights leaders. He defused the Cuban Missile Crisis which, in the wrong hands could have very easily been WWIII.

(Which really was the beginning of the end of the Soviet Union).

He was a great speaker and a WWII hero.

Besides, he was young, good looking, sexy and had a great smile.

Today he’d be 96 years old. And probably not as well thought of or loved.

The gruesome Zapuder film footage and our fascination with it.

Botched autopsy and all the unanswered questions.

The end of our innocence.

Soon after came Vietnam leading up to today’s mistrust of government and

Iraq and terrorism.

JFK represents to me what could have been

but for greedy, selfish people.

Sadly,  it seems that’s what our entire socio-economic system is still based upon greed and selfishness.

Enron, WorldCom, Wall Street scandals, the bank bailouts – and their cronies in The White House, Big Business, Big Oil, HMO’s.

That all got worse when JFK was assassinated.

And like vultures circling above, power hungry politicians and their big business special interests cronies went for the throat of our society and are still feasting today on the power vacuum created by JFK’s assassination.

dealey-plaza-2003-wikimedia-brodie319 Dealey Plaza

Grassy_Knoll_2003 The Grassy Knoll

MINOLTA DIGITAL CAMERA Texas School Book Depository

jfk-funeral-capitol-rotunda-1963-wikicommonsThe body of President John F. Kennedy lay in state in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 24, 1963.

About Sr Felipe

I grew up in East LA, was drafted into the army and sent to Vietnam as a medic with the 1st Cav from 1966-1967. I survived that, came back to LA, went to East LA College and Cal State LA, became a social worker in Ventura, CA and moved up to Chico, CA in 1975. I started Sr Felipe's Salsas making organic salsa, enchilada, BBQ and pasta sauce that was available in natural food stores nationwide from 1980-2005. I've been doing a radio show on KZFR, Chico, 90.1 FM every Tuesday from 7:30-10:00 PM streamed live on KZFR.org where I play oldies from the 50s & 60s, doo-wop, Latin, folk, country and Gospel music and interview interesting people in the community. For the past three years I've been teaching beginning guitar through the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute through Chico State University.
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One Response to Nov 22, 1963 Flashback 50 Years

  1. Kevin McCarthy says:

    The Zapruder film clearly shows the kill shot came from the front. Beyond that, your guess is as good as mine.

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