This year marks the anniversaries of the deaths of two prominent figureheads. One anniversary already passed on Aug. 31 with the death of Princess Diana last year in a car crash in Paris. The next big anniversary occurs on Nov. 22 at Dealey Plaza and The Sixth Floor Museum, formerly known as the Texas School Book Depository, where hundreds of spectators visit the site where President Kennedy was assassinated in downtown Dallas.
Of course, I can’t recall where I was 35 years ago as I wasn’t born yet. But I remember almost like it was yesterday where and what I was doing when Diana died. I was coming back from break shortly after 10 p.m. at work Dallas time over a year ago when one of my coworkers heard on the radio that the princess was in a car accident. At the time when the first reports came out, no one knew she was dead. What I did know for certain was that the coming week was going to be a huge field day for the press. She would be on the front covers of both Time and Newsweek.
What I and the world for that matter wasn’t expecting to hear was that she had died. It didn’t officially sink in for me until six days later listening to the live broadcast of the funeral at work that began around 2:30 a.m. the following Saturday morning. I’ll admit I shed a few tears that day but I don’t know why.
I guess I was like the thousands of people, some of whom were seen weeping back in November 1963 as they sat glued to their TV sets for three days watching JFK’s funeral. But why did they mourn for two people whom they never personally met or know but felt they knew through press coverage?
JFK advocated civil rights (legislation which President Lyndon B. Johnson later passed) as well as the space program promising that America would one day have an American walking on the moon before 1970.
It has now been a year since Diana passed away and the public, not to mention the press, still won’t let her rest. She has become our generation’s JFK. Despite the fact I grieved that day, I have since grown tired of seeing all the endless tell-all books and pictorials at the bookstores, the hundreds of Diana doll ads people can order and the consistent rumors and speculation that there might have been a plot to murder the princess.
As for JFK, most of the fifty plus books I had about America’s most prominent political first family and the assassination all sit in used bookstores now. All I have left are some actual reprints of newspaper articles on the subject.
Even if the information was true and Diana was the victim of some bizarre murder plot and JFK’s assassination wasn’t the act of a lone gunman, what good will come out of it? It’s not going to bring them back.
The editorial in the September issue of Life magazine this month that also covered an article on the infamous Zapruder film, said it is time to put the Kennedy Assassination to rest.
In the case of Princess Diana, on the week of the first anniversary of their mother’s death, Dallas’ KDFA channel 4 news reported her sons, Princes William and Harry, issued a statement from Buckingham Palace telling the public it is time for the grieving process to end. The family felt bad enough. They don’t need society and the press to keep bringing it up.
Perhaps it is time for the nation and the world to bring closure to these two national tragedies and get on with their lives.
©9/10/98
Of course, I can’t recall where I was 35 years ago as I wasn’t born yet. But I remember almost like it was yesterday where and what I was doing when Diana died. I was coming back from break shortly after 10 p.m. at work Dallas time over a year ago when one of my coworkers heard on the radio that the princess was in a car accident. At the time when the first reports came out, no one knew she was dead. What I did know for certain was that the coming week was going to be a huge field day for the press. She would be on the front covers of both Time and Newsweek.
What I and the world for that matter wasn’t expecting to hear was that she had died. It didn’t officially sink in for me until six days later listening to the live broadcast of the funeral at work that began around 2:30 a.m. the following Saturday morning. I’ll admit I shed a few tears that day but I don’t know why.
I guess I was like the thousands of people, some of whom were seen weeping back in November 1963 as they sat glued to their TV sets for three days watching JFK’s funeral. But why did they mourn for two people whom they never personally met or know but felt they knew through press coverage?
I suppose it was because both tragedies were so sudden that no one expected them to happen. Their lives were books whose chapters went unfinished but what was most tragic was that both didn’t live to see their children grow up.Diana and JFK were known for their radiant smiles, good looks, humor and outgoing personalities. Shortly before she died, “the People’s Princess” dedicated herself to such worthy causes as visiting the homeless, AIDS patients and victims of land mines.
JFK advocated civil rights (legislation which President Lyndon B. Johnson later passed) as well as the space program promising that America would one day have an American walking on the moon before 1970.
It has now been a year since Diana passed away and the public, not to mention the press, still won’t let her rest. She has become our generation’s JFK. Despite the fact I grieved that day, I have since grown tired of seeing all the endless tell-all books and pictorials at the bookstores, the hundreds of Diana doll ads people can order and the consistent rumors and speculation that there might have been a plot to murder the princess.
As for JFK, most of the fifty plus books I had about America’s most prominent political first family and the assassination all sit in used bookstores now. All I have left are some actual reprints of newspaper articles on the subject.
Even if the information was true and Diana was the victim of some bizarre murder plot and JFK’s assassination wasn’t the act of a lone gunman, what good will come out of it? It’s not going to bring them back.
The editorial in the September issue of Life magazine this month that also covered an article on the infamous Zapruder film, said it is time to put the Kennedy Assassination to rest.
In the case of Princess Diana, on the week of the first anniversary of their mother’s death, Dallas’ KDFA channel 4 news reported her sons, Princes William and Harry, issued a statement from Buckingham Palace telling the public it is time for the grieving process to end. The family felt bad enough. They don’t need society and the press to keep bringing it up.
Perhaps it is time for the nation and the world to bring closure to these two national tragedies and get on with their lives.
©9/10/98
