In the decades and in the history books to come, 1968 will be remembered as the year the lights flickered out -- as a year of frustrations, regressions and shattered myths. These reversions to the past -- Prague, the Vatican, Chicago -- are the manifestations of political and economic forces seeking desperately to preserve situations of which they have long since lost control.
But the twilight descending upon the United States will have the gravest consequences of all, for it is America that sets the pace of the world, and often dictates its choices.
As the Sixties draw to a close, the peoples of the earth, left to themselves without gods and without leaders, are awaiting new decisions. The Man of November 5 cannot escape the confrontations before him. By refusing these choices, he will leave the problems unsolved.
Two Americans, John and Robert Kennedy, had the courage to meet these problems head on and break down the doors to the future. They were stopped by the frightened accomplices of the traditions on which they infringed.
When John Fitzgerald Kennedy's head exploded, it was for some the signal for toasts. One November morning the cannon boomed, the Panama Canal was closed, flags everywhere flew at half-mast, and it is said that even Andrei Gromyko wept. Adlai Stevenson declared that he would bear the sorrow of his death till the day of his own, and the Special Forces added a black band to their green berets.
Almost five years passed, and another bullet shattered the brain and stopped the heart of another Kennedy who had taken up the fight.
There was another funeral. Once again the Green Berets formed the Honor Guard; once again the Stars and Stripes flew at half-mast. One evening in June, Robert Kennedy joined his brother beneath the hill at Arlington, and those passing by can bring them flowers.
-James Hepburn (Pseudonym),
"Farewell America" (1968)
In the decades and in the history books to come, 1968 will be remembered as the year the lights flickered out -- as a year of frustrations, regressions and shattered myths. These reversions to the past -- Prague, the Vatican, Chicago -- are the manifestations of political and economic forces seeking desperately to preserve situations of which they have long since lost control.
But the twilight descending upon the United States will have the gravest consequences of all, for it is America that sets the pace of the world, and often dictates its choices.
As the Sixties draw to a close, the peoples of the earth, left to themselves without gods and without leaders, are awaiting new decisions. The Man of November 5 cannot escape the confrontations before him. By refusing these choices, he will leave the problems unsolved.
Two Americans, John and Robert Kennedy, had the courage to meet these problems head on and break down the doors to the future. They were stopped by the frightened accomplices of the traditions on which they infringed.
When John Fitzgerald Kennedy's head exploded, it was for some the signal for toasts. One November morning the cannon boomed, the Panama Canal was closed, flags everywhere flew at half-mast, and it is said that even Andrei Gromyko wept. Adlai Stevenson declared that he would bear the sorrow of his death till the day of his own, and the Special Forces added a black band to their green berets.
Almost five years passed, and another bullet shattered the brain and stopped the heart of another Kennedy who had taken up the fight.
There was another funeral. Once again the Green Berets formed the Honor Guard; once again the Stars and Stripes flew at half-mast. One evening in June, Robert Kennedy joined his brother beneath the hill at Arlington, and those passing by can bring them flowers.
-James Hepburn (Pseudonym),
"Farewell America" (1968)
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