America Desperately Needs To Go Back to it’s ‘Default Settings’.
The Incident Which Caused America Come To a Halt!
Nellie Connally, the First Lady of Texas, turned to Kennedy, who was sitting behind her, and commented, “Mr. President, you can’t say Dallas doesn’t love you”.
Kennedy’s reply — “No, you certainly can’t” — were his last words. From Houston Street, the limousine made the planned left turn onto Elm to provide access to the Stemmons Freeway exit. As it turned, it passed by the Texas School Book Depository, and as it continued down Elm Street shots were fired.
John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the 35th President of the United States, was assassinated on Friday, November 22, 1963, at 12:30 p.m. Central Standard Time in Dallas, Texas, while riding in a presidential motorcade through Dealey Plaza. Kennedy was riding with his wife Jacqueline, Texas Governor John Connally, and Connally’s wife Nellie when he was fatally shot.
I was 8 years old in 1963. My mother came out of the kitchen; crying… She was listening to the news on the radio. At the time, by the way, we were living in Ankara, Turkey as Turkish citizens in a house in the center of a vineyard. My mother was a gradute of the well known ACI-American Collegiate Institute Izmir for Girls, she was among the first graduates after it was established. She had many American friends and was presiding the ‘Go & See Group’; a group of Turkish and American ladies that were organising tours to visit institutions in Ankara.
She kept saying “They shot Kennedy…they just shot Kennedy.” Minutes later our neighbors started pouring in and they all had tears in their eyes. This was a scene of trauma taking over all the well educated, intellectual people thousands of miles away.
I remember, I was trying to figure out what was happening and searching for who had died that was so close to us all. Then I discovered that I also had tears in my eyes.
America’s founding fathers created a constitutional government to allow for a wide range of views and to encourage discourse to reach consensus. Their work has provided a blueprint for other democracies and shines particularly bright with the peaceful transition of power.
Arne Sorenson (RIP):
President and CEO at Marriott International
“In the U.S., we can use our voice and our vote to share our views. But what we can’t do is trample the Constitution; we can’t use violence and terror to force an agenda. It’s not who we are — and I would offer, it’s not what the vast majority of Americans want.
We have big challenges facing us — now is the time to focus on unity for our country, defeating the pandemic and building a fair economy. The best path forward to meet these challenges is for all Americans to defend our democracy by embracing its ideals. It’s something we’ve been devoted to since the founding of the United States. I have every confidence that we will move beyond this moment and restore our sense of community and shared values.”
Very well said!
Yes, Dear Americans, you desperately need to restore your sense of community and shared values. Simply go back to your ‘default settings’…
The middle class Americans, no matter how ethnocentric they may be. need to stand up, lead and reset America. The middle class Americans, neither the globally renown hi-tech companies nor the financial institutions..!
In the 60’s, America for us, was the land of happy and hard working honest people who mostly achieved what they dreamed of.
Look at the printed auto ads, packaged food ads, and some other retro stuff. There you will see the smiling confident faces, the scotch tape, the pop corn, the burger, the steak, the beer, the potato chips, the BBQ parties, Campbell’s soup, the coke can, the ice cream parlors, donuts, the milk man, the mail man, the convertibles, the muscle cars, the drive-in movies and happy farmers! I can go on for many, many more… i.e. please realise how rich the culture was although some of you may react that this is all popular culture. NO! Those were the binding elements, the cement of the middle class Americans.
My sisters were older than me. One 15 years and the other 11 years. We all were going to TED Ankara College and spoke English. And they were sharing a record player…
Each and everyday, I was enjoying listening to almost all the ‘great American songs’ of 60's. Sealed With a Kiss, Violets are Blue, It’s Now or Never, Fly me to the Moon, Autumn Leaves, Green Fields, California Dreamin.
That was ‘the America’ for me, for us… It is never the Silicon valley, neither the Wall Street. Even Hollywood was ‘the Hollywood’.
With the votes of the American people the politicians, whose campaigns are financed mostly by the ever growing Millitary Industrial Complex, are being elected, serving and…here we are now... This is a very SAD story; indeed.
Today I don’t have the slightest intention of going there. Now, it is far, far off what I always dreamed of, the land and the people I frequently envied; where did they go? The land of equality, justice, feedom of speech, best education in the world, the accelerating entrepreunership…Where did it all, one by one, go?
Reset America. Back to its default settings. Now… Please!
MMT-January 9, 2021-Çeşme