The tragic assassination of the President of the United States – John F. Kennedy – dominates recorded history for November 22. However, another dramatic historical moment was born out of view of the mainstream media and the American people.
On this day in 1963, President John F. Kennedy was shot and killed during a motorcade through downtown Dallas, TX. Even in 1963, the idea of the assassination of a sitting president was simply incomprehensible to Americans.
A year earlier, in October of 1962, the Cuban Missile Crisis brought Americans to the threshold of a nuclear war with Russia. President Kennedy’s staunch position tested the will of the Russians, who eventually blinked and backed down. Talk of nuclear war was prominent across America and students regularly went through emergency drills in school in the event the Russians dropped a nuke on America. A few families in my neighborhood installed bomb shelters in their backyards. The booming population in America also faced the daily threat of a nuclear war.
An open dialogue about top news stories between adults and their kids did not exist in most homes in the 1960s. Parents assumed their kids were not aware of what was going on in the news and did not feel compelled to talk to their kids about war and tragedy – but that doesn’t mean a young generation was not listening; and, at least subconsciously, they were aware of grave consequences of nuclear war.
November 22 is the anniversary of the assassination of President Kennedy – but it is also the anniversary of the birth of the anti-establishment generation of the 60s. The assassination of President Kennedy was the beginning of the rebellious, counter-culture generation of the 60s, and that young rebellious generation has become today’s new establishment in America.
As I look back - I have gained a better understanding of the collective impact the Kennedy assassination had on a young generation during the impressionable coming-of-age years. Today’s Boomer generation were raised by an establishment that did not consider how cognizant their children were of the fragile nature of security in America.
Upon the foundation of subconscious insecurity, the assassination of the President of the United States sent an unnoticed shock wave through an entire young generation. This was the day a young generation unknowingly lost faith in the establishment, and it sparked the urge to rebel against the establishment.
Less than 3 months after President Kennedy was assassinated – The Beatles arrived in America with a sound and style that defied the establishment - their parents. As a young generation was vulnerable to adopting an image and an attitude that challenged the establishment – The Beatles – and soon other bands in the British Invasion of the 60s – provided the opportunity and the physical ways to distinguish their generation from their parents’ generation.
Every year when the anniversary of the Kennedy assassination comes up – I think back on how significant that day was to a young Boomer generation that was affected beyond their consciousness.
This was the day the anti-establishment rock generation of the 60s was born.
Today - the Boomer generation and the generations that followed are much more likely to talk to their kids about the news stories that penetrate the social media that is an integral part of their lives.
The open approach to talking to children about big news stories is a subtle admission that the Boomer generation was greatly impacted by the assassination of President Kennedy, and they do not want to leave their kids to struggle with understanding in silent.