1 Last night TCM honored the memory of John F. Kennedy with an evening dedicated to his humor, his vision, and his passing. In three short films we saw his quick wit and ability to silence a crowd with laughter during a run for the Presidency; we saw his vision of a better America in his fight to end racism in Alabama, and finally, we saw the loss of these dreams in his fatal trip to Dallas. Time stood still that cold November weekend, as thousands of Americans spent four dark days mourning the rainy end to a glimmering Camelot.
2 Last night TCM played in succession The Robert Drew Kennedy Films collection, including the three short pieces about JFK shot in cinéma vérité style: Primary (1960), Crisis: Behind a Presidential Commitment (1963), and Faces of November (1964).
4 Drew secured permission to enter Kennedy's world filming live events as they unfolded. This resulted in an interesting trilogy of three separate historical moments: one, an insider's view of the Wisconsin primary, the second an immense crisis when Kennedy and brother Bobby battle racist governor George Wallace to break the academic race barrier, and the third an attempt at capturing the aftermath of the assassination.
5 Faces of November is playing as I write. It is raining. Taps just played. A salute. End of film. It simply couldn't be filmed. There was that much pain, and that much mourning.
6 This was difficult to write last night.
7 Like him or not, Kennedy stands as one of the greatest presidents this nation has seen.
8 If my research throughout this week showed me anything, it showed me that John F. Kennedy had enormous visions of peace, and of seeing the potential for America finally moving to a vision, and to what seemed an enlightenment.
9 His assassination had an astonishing effect on where we have gone since. Or where we should have gone, and where we haven't gone. Not yet.
10 I'm mourning today. The rain continued to pour down in subsequent films that played last night. The wind howled outside my window last evening as I watched film of the nation's mourning. Here are some notes I jotted down while watching:
11 I see raindrops and soldiers' graves.
12 I see wet flags at half mast.
13 I see the dream.
14 I see John John saluting his fallen hero.
15 I sense everyone's loss.
16 Moving On, Part One: I won't go into the assassination anymore. The bad guys won. It takes too much out of me each year. I'll keep learning. I'll keep telling younger people what happened. But I won't bring it to the classroom ever again. It is too painful.
17 I'll never forget it. I'll never forget the lost look in people's eyes. I'll never forget what we could have become.
18 I'll leave you to consider things today. Earlier this week I read a passage from Jim Garrison's monumental work On the Trail of the Assassins to my classes. When I read the final paragraph, it caught me off guard, and I held back, like you do.
19 In his last paragraph, Garrison included these words from John F. Kennedy. He delivered them at American University in June of 1963. Take them with you this crisp November morning.
" ...if we cannot end now our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity. For, in the final analysis, our most common link is that we all inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children's future. And we are all mortal."
20 See you again.
21 Peace.
~H~
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