Why Do We Still Care?

[erpowers]

This year will mark the 50th anniversary of the assassination of President Kennedy. As you may know many TV channels and networks will have special shows discussing President Kennedy's years in office and his assassination. One of the questions that keeps coming up is why do people still care about President Kennedy and his assassination? So, what do members of DU think has caused people to care about President Kennedy 50 years after his assassination?

Is it the media? I imagine many Republicans would claim the reason Kennedy is still remembered is because the "liberal media" keeps pushing him on the American people without any critical analysis (they refuse to talk about his many affairs). I realize the media always talks about President Kennedy's affairs, but Republicans make that point. Is it how young he was when he was elected and when he was assassinated? Is it the feeling that American innocence died that day? Is it the feeling of lost hope and lost promise? Is it all of the things mentioned?

I think the reason people still care about President Kennedy 50 years after his assassination is the feeling of lost hope and promise. There are some who believe the Vietnam War would not have happened if President Kennedy has been able to finish his first term and gain a second term. I guess some people think of what the world would have been if the Vietnam War had been avoided.

[Cirque du So-What]

1. I've always looked at JFK's assassination

from the standpoint of cui bono - who benefits? As far as I can tell, no group or entity benefited more from the assassination of JFK than the military-industrial complex, along with Capitalism's Invisible Army (CIA).

[WCGreen]

2. A potential like no other president...

A defining individual in an office that was changed by Roosevelt's compassion.

He was young, good looking and vital...

[tech3149]

3. I can only offer my own limited perspective

I was 10 when Kennedy was shot. I saw him as being the new FDR, another great step forward for the country.
All that has happened since then showed that that hope had been killed with him.

For me, it is that I cannot accept the cognitive dissonance needed to accept the "lone gunman" concept.

The powers that be need us to accept something that makes no sense when considering all the motives possible and evidence or historic record supporting whatever interpretation makes sense to you.

For me, the assassinations of that era were the beginning of our descent into hell. I can only hope that will change before I'm gone.

[shraby]

4. Because they put the info under lock and key for 75 years into the future. That allows

anyone involved to be dead and unassailable for what is in the documents.
When those documents come to light and lay to rest all the unanswered questions, people will be able to close the books in their minds, and not one minute before that.