It was one of the most important events of the 20th century, and there has never been resolution. The Bay of Pigs, the Cuban
missile crisis, Khruschev threatening to bury us (or so we all thought), bomb shelters, little kids practicing 'duck and cover'--and then the president gets shot, and we don't know if it's the commies, the Mob or who. And before we can figure anything out, the apparent assassin gets killed, too. It's like Tom Clancy, except that lots of people were afraid the world might really get fried over it. Pearl Harbor, the death camps, the atomic bomb, Britney Spears--this one's probably right up there.

I was joking with a 30 year-old last week that I bet she remembered exactly where she was when they announced that President Kennedy was shot. She didn't even realize I was kidding--she thought she might have just been a baby or something. It was sort of like Norman Invasion to her--something of apparently great importance that happened long, long ago.

The younger one is, the harder it is to see the thing in context. But trust me, if it had turned out the Soviets had had a hand in it, the world (if any) would likely be a very different place today. That's the significance, I think. We came so close to oblivion, and it may have been only our ignorance of the truth that saved us. As long as there's no closure with respect to what really happened, that remains a big story story.

Also, don't forget that many of the people who 'choose the news' today (Rather, Jennings and others) were right there in Dallas when it was unfolding. I'm sure to them it's like yesterday.