Day 2 - 325 -- The Power of Television

It happened 52  years ago -- the death of John F Kennedy in Dallas. As a child, I'm not sure I fully grasped the implications, yet I did see him die. The grainy black and white images on the television screen showed it over and over and over. It was the first time we all saw death happen via that big box in the living room. Some say innocence left that day, and in many ways this is true, though the Cold War had taken much of the complacency away with the addition of air raid sirens and nuclear drills in the schools. We had air raid siren tests during supper times, since we lived in a city with a NATO pilot training centre. It was difficult to understand that, too. I don't recall my parents being able to explain things well, either.

I do think about the television images often and particularly on this day. As I've said before, I expect this was the beginning of my interest in television content, which has led to my media content analysis research career. The song chosen for today is about the events of that day decades ago. There are many songs about this, but this one seemed right for today. Enjoy!

He was a friend of mine -- The Byrds