The end of innocence

Tomorrow, the anniversary of the JFK assassination, marks the end of innocence for my generation. The unthinkable happened in 1963. I learned that what history had to say about Realpolitik was more than just theory. Even in the good ol' USA, the most perfect of perfect countries, everything could change by killing the right person -- and the right people. I'll be seeing the new film "Bobby" the day after tomorrow, the day after the anniversary. Fitting. The five years of assassinations, 1963-8, changed America (and how I felt about political change) forever.

The recent book
Ultimate Sacrifice: John and Robert Kennedy, the Plan for a Coup in Cuba, and the Murder of JFK by Lamar Waldron and Thom Hartmann makes a convincing argument, as far as I'm concerned, about what really happened on that day. From Publishers Weekly:

It is Waldron and Hartmann's (The Edison Gene) contention—bolstered by access to many previously unavailable files, and interviews with little-known as well as prominent figures—that the CIA knew a great deal about the assassination. But the agency couldn't admit what it knew because that could uncover the existence of a U.S. plan for a coup in Cuba, run by JFK's brother, Attorney General Robert Kennedy. The assassination, say the authors, was carried out by hired gunmen on the orders of three noted Mafia dons whose lives were being made miserable by RFK's ruthless pursuit—and these Mafia men knew about the planned invasion because they had worked with the CIA on previous efforts to topple Castro. Oswald, long a hidden CIA agent, was set up as the patsy, and it had always been Jack Ruby's job to eliminate him if he wasn't killed at the scene of Kennedy's shooting. How do the authors make their case? With a relentless accumulation of detail, a very thorough knowledge of every political and forensic detail and the broad perspective of historians rather than assassination theorists.

I recommend the book. Read it and make up your own mind. They convinced me.

Only a few weeks after the assassination I wrote "The Ballad of JFK" to the tune of Woody Guthrie's "Dust Storm Disaster." There's more idealism in these verses than I embrace today. I wrote this 43 years ago.

THE BALLAD OF JFK
By Charles Deemer

On November 22nd of 1963
There struck in Dallas, Texas, a great calamity

It shocked our mighty nation and all beneath the sun
When U.S. President Kennedy was downed by a sniper’s gun

It happened on the Dallas streets as he rode in a car
And the streets were lined with people and some had traveled far

Yes, some had come from Waco, and some had come from Kent
And some had come from Fort Worth to see the President

Most of the crowd were happy, they cheered as the car drove by
But some were filled with hatred and held their banners high

One banner read as follows, “We hold you in contempt!
Because of your socialist policies, we hold you in contempt!”

The President ignored them, he let the car drive by
For he knew that they were sick in heart and in the minority

The car continued slowly, “They like you,” the governor’s wife said
When above that crowd of people, three shots rang overhead

The President slumped in his seat, the Governor he fell too
And the wives stared at their husbands in shock of what to do

The car rushed to the hospital and doctors to his side
But one shot had been fatal, and the President he died

They caught Lee Harvey Oswald and charged him with the crime
Of assassinating the President, the calamity of our time

Since Oswald had been to Russia, some said, “We told you so!
We gotta kill off all the Commies cause look what they will do!”

These were the same who held the signs against the President
Though their weapons weren’t as fatal, their hatred was as great

For hatred lurks in hearts that fear the unity of Man
Who fear the ultimate brotherhood of white man, black and tan

The President he knew this, he pledged Universal Law
Was a bullet took our leader, was Hatred was the cause

I sang this a hell of a lot from December, 1963, to the late 70s, when my folksinging activity became very restricted after my divorce, later resurrected by performing my Woody Guthrie show. But I stopped singing my own songs and to this day haven't sung them in many years.