Tucson in mid-late morning. I’m thinking about a small bit of the movie Jackie I which I watched at the Loft this past week. I’m drinking coffee and browsing for mention of the wanted posters created by Kennedy opponents in Dallas before the assassination.
Trying to verify before publishing anything about it (Yep, I’m like that.) I ran across Joyce Carol Oates tweet about the mention in the movie Jackie of wanted posters of JFK in Dallas before the assassination. In the film Lady Bird asks her if she wants to change clothing, remove the now iconic pink suit, before landing in D.C. but Jackie says that she was going to deplane in the blood spattered Chanel suit so that his detractors who put up the wanted posted accusing JFK of treason to see what they’ve done.
Oates’ tweet sent a chill through me. The chill then reminded me that today is January 8th. It has been six years since the Tucson mass-shooting that killed 6 and wounded so many.
I went to twitter and created a moment, which are linked series of tweets to tell a story, and put Oates’ post with other posts about the call for targeting Giffords and the assassination attempt on her life.
I have been deeply moved and troubled lately by discussions of post-truth America where large swaths of our population believe Orwellian constructions of reality that fly in the face of logic and human memory, and that have gone unchallenged by the Fifth Estate.
We all frame events. Those who can afford it or have the sway to create public relations campaigns can change perception about events and how history is written as is shown in by the creation of “Camelot” through Jackie Kennedy’s efforts.
This has always been the case with pomp and circumstance to remind lowly commoners of the gulf between them and royals.
But the trend in America, and in other nations, to use media to straight out lie, subvert democracy, and incite violence against groups with different beliefs from yours as well as to incite attempted assassination of political leaders is a horse of an entirely different color. The horse is red. Soviet red. Nazi red. Conservative red. The red of blood shed six years ago by friends of mine after political vitriol helped motivate an unstable person to target a Congresswoman.