The JFK assassination was a shock to our nation as well as the world. And the news hit the peoples, on both side of the Atlantic, hard.
Our strongest ally overseas was the late Queen Elizabeth II. To pay her respects, the Queen bequeathed an acre of land of English soil near London in perpetuity to the American people:
The Kennedy Memorial.
This acre was in Runnymede Park where King John of England signed the Magna Carta over 800 years ago in 1215. That document was significant in that it limited the king's absolute power, establishing a precedent that even a king was not above the law. The act began a movement toward elected governments, universal rights, and freedom.
Later, England spawned America. Then in 1964, the longest reigning monarch, Queen Elizabeth II, signed the JFK Memorial Act, which expanded the US global territory by one acre. Now a piece of America is encompassed by England.
How far it from the UK to the US?
Technically, one step.
But that's one giant step in good Anglo-American relations.
Another bit of history that I didn't know. I learn something every day. And you are one of my sources. Queen Elizabeth II was a fine example of a working queen benefiting her country. I'm not sure that her son, Charles, can feel her shoes.
Unfortunately, our country is harkening back to more brutal times. We have already seen Cape Kennedy returned to Cape Canaveral and more recently, our would be king viciously putting his name on the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
I drove home from my junior year in college early that fateful Friday afternoon and must've heard it on the radio because I always had it tuned to an AM station listening to the latest pop tunes with intermittent news reports. And I must have seen it on television several times over that weekend. But I have forgotten it completely. I don't know why.
My first memory was waiting in the hospital for my spinal surgery watching TV in the lounge and shooting pool. Only to see, live, Jack Ruby shooting Oswald as though I were there.
Unfortunately, our country is harkening back to more brutal times. We have already seen Cape Kennedy returned to Cape Canaveral and more recently, our would be king viciously putting his name on the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
I drove home from my junior year in college early that fateful Friday afternoon and must've heard it on the radio because I always had it tuned to an AM station listening to the latest pop tunes with intermittent news reports. And I must have seen it on television several times over that weekend. But I have forgotten it completely. I don't know why.
My first memory was waiting in the hospital for my spinal surgery watching TV in the lounge and shooting pool. Only to see, live, Jack Ruby shooting Oswald as though I were there.
Ron