"Lee. Fifty years from now, they'll still be arguing about the grassy knoll, the Mafia, some Cuban crouched behind a stockade fence"

50 years now since the JFK assassination and it still holds a fascination for us ... quote above is from "November 22, 1963" by Stephen Sondheim and his play, Assassins.

OSWALD
I didn't come here to shoot the president.

BOOTH
He didn't come here to get shot...All your life you've been a victim, Lee. A victim of indifference and neglect. Of your mother's scorn, you're wife's contempt, of Soviet stupidity, American injustice. You've finally had enough, so how're you planning to get even? By becoming your own victim.

OSWALD
I am not a murderer.

BOOTH
Who said you were?

OSWALD
You just said I should kill the President.

BOOTH
Lee, when you kill a president, it isn't murder. Murder is a tawdry little crime; it's born of greed, or lust, or liquor. Adulterers and shopkeepers get murdered. But when a president gets killed, when Julius Caesar got killed -- he was assassinated. And the man who did it...

OSWALD
Brutus.

BOOTH
Ah! You know his name. Brutus assassinated Caesar -- what? -- two thousand years ago, and here's a high school drop-out with a dollar twenty-five an hour job in Dallas, Texas, who knows who he was. And they say fame is fleeting...

OSWALD
This is stupid. Up here on the sixth floor, what would I do? Throw school books at him?

BOOTH
What's in the package?

OSWALD
What package?

BOOTH
The package that you brought to work. What's in it?

OSWALD
Curtain rods.

BOOTH
You sure?

...

OSWALD
To who? To you?

(a chorus of "yes"s from the Assassins)

I'm responsible to me and no one else!

BOOTH
Not anymore, Lee. Fifty years from now, they'll still be arguing about the grassy knoll, the Mafia, some Cuban crouched behind a stockade fence, but this -- right here, right now -- this is the real conspiracy. And you're a part of it.

OSWALD
Get out of my way.

BOOTH
Listen to me, Lee. You have to do this. Now. You won't get another chance.

OSWALD
So what? So I'll do something else. I'll shoot my wife. I'll shoot my kids. I won't shoot anyone! Who cares?!

BOOTH
He wants to know who cares...I care, you stupid fool! We all care! Haven't you been listening, for Christ's sake?! Are you such a vapid, vacuous nonentity -

Previous posts:

• 11.22.2012
• 11.22.2011

QotD: "Ich bin ein Berliner" | "I am a Berliner" by John Fr. Kennedy

Today is the 50th anniversary of JFK's famous speech at the (now gone) Berlin Wall where he memorably stated, "Ich bin ein Berliner".

As a Freshman in collage, I had a witty friend who noted that a "Berliner" was also a sort of German pastry, so one could also say that JFK proclaimed that "I am a doughnut".

But of course he didn't ... the fuller quote is:

Two thousand years ago, the proudest boast was civis romanus sum ["I am a Roman citizen"]. Today, in the world of freedom, the proudest boast is "Ich bin ein Berliner!"... All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin, and therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the words "Ich bin ein Berliner!"

In 1987 (June 12), Ronald Reagan famously proclaimed in Berlin: "Tear down this wall!":

We welcome change and openness; for we believe that freedom and security go together, that the advance of human liberty can only strengthen the cause of world peace. There is one sign the Soviets can make that would be unmistakable, that would advance dramatically the cause of freedom and peace. General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization, come here to this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!

A visit to Berlin today (for instance my own in June 2012) is incomplete without seeing remnants of the Wall in various parts of the city. There are also bits of the Wall available for sale (one is assuming, of course, they're authentic!) in various touristic versions (in baggies, in snow globes, on magnets, etc.).

The Wall, as a symbol, still resonates with those of us of a certain generation, but I wonder how long that will last and when will The Wall be even more so, just another touristic attraction?

“President Kennedy has been shot.” – Walter Cronkite, November 22, 1963

View from the "grassy knoll" in Dallas, Texas, where President Kennedy was assassinated on 22 November 1961.

The full text of Cronkite's reporting of the events is here, but a short excerpt follows:

"Here is a bulletin from CBS News. Further details on an assassination attempt against President Kennedy in Dallas, Texas. President Kennedy was shot as he drove from Dallas Airport to downtown Dallas; Governor Connally of Texas, in the car with him, was also shot. It is reported that three bullets rang out. A Secret Service man has been...was heard to shout from the car, "He's dead." Whether he referred to President Kennedy or not is not yet known. The President, cradled in the arms of his wife Mrs. Kennedy, was carried to an ambulance and the car rushed to Parkland Hospital outside Dallas, the President was taken to an emergency room in the hospital. Other White House officials were in doubt in the corridors of the hospital as to the condition of President Kennedy. Repeating this bulletin: President Kennedy shot while driving in an open car from the airport in Dallas, Texas, to downtown Dallas."

I can't remember if I cried, when I read about his widowed bride ...

John F. Kennedy, 1917-1963