John-John, We Hardly Knew Ye

[kayak3]

Doug Henwood wrote:
> 
> Chris Burford wrote:
> 
> >Is there going to be national mourning in the US as big as that in the UK
> >with Diana? Will its meaning be the same?  The People's Prince???
> 
> It can't be the same, if only because they're different sexes in
> different countries (and he was killed - and took two others with him
> - because of his own stupidity and arrogance, unlike Diana, who was
> done in either by a reckless driver or British intelligence), but
> yes, they're invoking the royalty business heavily here. One of the
> admirable things about the otherwise dismal American political
> tradition is a professed antipathy to royalty and inherited privilege
> in general. But our media are playing up the whole dynasty angle
> again - CNN was heavy with phrases like "noblesse oblige" yesterday -
> and the vox pop interviews show the masses ritually genuflecting to
> their betters. And here in NYC, people are dropping flowers on the
> sidewalk in front of 20 North Moore St. How depressing.
> 
> Doug

Certainly the Kennedys felt they were in a class above the rest of us.
In the 1960's, Robert Kennedy and his family ran river trips with my
fathers river company. On one trip through the Grand Canyon, Bobby all
the sudden decided that he wanted to ride an air mattress through the
next rapid. My father told him to stay in the boat telling him it was
too dangerous. Bobby told my father "Don, your not going to tell me what
to do" and went a head and ran the rapid in the airmattress. No commoner
was going to tell him what to do, even if he was one of the countries
foremost experts on rivers and whitewater rafting.  My father dragged
him out of the water below the rapid. Bobby was spitting up water and
was exhausted. I think that this attitude of defiance and risk taking
has something to do the so called "Kennedy curse." 

I find it hard to get too upset about the loss of another Kennedy who
dies because he used poor judgement.

Brad Hatch