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Editor in edle-k- Tim Pyle
W (541) 3466511
Room 300, Etb Metmkial Union
P.0· Box 3159. Zugs-z OR 97403
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old-time otlitiom Wändme
in the Dark?
Has John Kennedy Jr. ’s death revealed a profound gap between our generation and older ones?
Why, I was recently asked, do we, as young
adults, not feel the same degree of emotion
concerning John F. Kennedy Jr.’s death as do
our parents and even their parents?
Is it simply because we weren’t around when his
beloved father, JFK, was president and, thus, weren’t
shocked by his tragic assassination?
Or are we, in general, an apathetic bunch, emotionally
numb from growing up in an era when violence consumes
the daily news?
As is often the case, there is no single answer. But our
lack of experience in years and lack of innocence in world
ly ways probably both have something to do with the rea
sons why we have been less mournful than older genera
tions.
When John, then just 3, saluted his father’s coffin in
1963, we weren’t among the teary-eyed viewers.
And, no, we didn’t grow up believing
the Kennedys to be the ideal all-Ameri
can family.
That designation was reserved for
made-by-TV clans like the Cosbys
and the Simpsons.
To us, the Kennedys are largely a
well-to-do family from the East Coast
that has suffered a string of
tragedies. JFK is a man revered in
our history textbooks as a forward-minded, classy presi
dent who died too young in perhaps the most-famous — or
at least most-chronicled — assassination
ever.
Besides those characteristics, most of our
generation probably recalls JFK’s alleged af
fair with Marilyn Monroe when remember
ing the late president.
That’s something we can better relate
with.
. And his son is simply that—JFK’s son.
He may have started and run a magazine,
George, but since when do deceased jour
nalists get eulogized on the front page of
every major publication in the country for
up to a week after an unfortunate demise?
Not even Joseph Pulitzer himself comman ded
such after-life coverage.
Maybe we aren’t deeply pained with JFK
Jr.’s death because he grew up in the lap
of luxury and really didn’t do any
thing outstanding with the bound
less opportunities he no doubt
was presented.
Many of us are trying desper
ately to escape our parents’
shadows.
Thus, we are unlikely to sympathize with a man who lived
and died in the public eye because of his father’s legacy.
Our generation seems less inclined to worship some
body just because of the family he or she comes from.
Maybe we’re trying to reverse the old adage from “It’s who
you know” to “It’s what you know.”
Regardless, most of us are still immersed in those whirl
wind years when we’re hying to figure out just who we
are, fighting many of the traditional powers that be along
the way.
The Kennedys, judging from their historical and current
connotations, are traditionally a power that has been, is
and assuredly still will be.
A lot of our apathy may have to do with the fact that we
weren’t held captive by the ongoings in the capital during
those apparently unforgettable Camelot years. Or maybe
tragedies like those at Thurston and Columbine are sim
ply more tangible to us.
Perhaps, like mutch of the Kennedy-loving media
implies, we just don’t get it.
Do you?
Tim Pyle is the Emerald's editor in chief. He can be
reached via e-mail at ode@oregon.uoregon.edu.
Editorial Cartoons
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Lmetäld
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moval or use of papers is prosecutable by law.
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