The Third Date Important for My Generation

 

Nov. 22, 1963, Assassination of President John F. Kennedy

 

 

This date came to represent far more than the shocking death of an exciting, popular president. As in all the dates I’ve mentioned, the single event that occurred eventually came to be a reference point to the era that followed.

 

Kennedy had just prevented WWIII by making the Soviet Union back down during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

 

In that era are many events I could have included like the Civil Rights movement with the assassinations of Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr., Medgar Evers, plus the deaths of the young victims of that movement, and the heroism of Rosa Parks. It was also a time of George Wallace and all that he represented. 

 

But, one must also consider the sexual revolution (I facetiously credit Elvis with that), the Hippies, the anti-Vietnam war demonstrations, the suspension of the Selection Service draft, the Kent State killings, and so on. It also marked a time when The Silent Generation founds its voice.

 

Larry Flynt and the US Supreme Court decision regarding pornography ushered in an inundation of soft porn in the entertainment industry and in society. Morals and ethics degraded from those we grew up with, and not always for the better.

 

Parents in TV programs began sleeping together. I mean, Ozzie and Harriet?   Can you imagine?

 

Also included in this era was the government fight against the Mafia and its eventual reduction in influence. Other entities joined in the corruption of drug-pushing, murder, bribing politicians, and all sorts of crime, not that any of them were new. We just became more aware.

 

I also include in JFK’s assassination era the Nixon time of presidential deceit and disgrace, and resignation, and the realization on the part of the public that their leaders can be corrupted.