Yesterday was the 41st Anniversary of the assassinationi of President John F. Kennedy. Yet, if you Google the subject, there is little recognition of the horror of the actual event. Instead, headlines focus on the awful
….. new video game ….. called “JFK Reloaded.” The goal of the game: To assassinate John F. Kennedy just as it really happened. Shooting the ex-president in the right spots (according to the Warren Commission) earns you points, while shooting wrong “targets” such as Jacqueline Kennedy costs point deductions.
It all becomes a game, doesn’t it? Living, dying, voting. Everything becomes unimportant because when the game’s over, you’re still the same. You turn around and plug into another game. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, and nothing changes. You disconnect from life’s bloody messes and connect into the clean, flick-switch, walk-away game.
But I remember that day in 1963 when, half way up the hill, taking my toddler daughter for a walk, my neighbor stuck her head out her door and yelled “The President’s been shot!”
“The president of what?” I called back, never even beginning to think that it might be THE President.”
JFK was our hero. Our hope. We believed in his ability to lead us. He knew how to inspire us, stir our sense of pride in being Americans.
My daughter and I scuttled back home and turned on the television. And that’s pretty much where I sat for the next few days, watching real “reality” television.
It seems to me the good die young.
Or maybe too many of our young are forgetting what’s good in life in favor of playing the goodless game.