President John F. Kennedy's Inaugural Address
Kennedy delivered his inaugural speech on Jan. 20, 1961. Amid the sitz im leben of a virulent Cold War, a brewing Vietnam War, the shadow of nuclear proliferation, armament, and destruction, and swelling racial tensions, Kennedy delivered a message of hope and encouragement and a call to action to Americans and to people everywhere. Less than three years later, he would die by gunfire in Dallas' Dealey Plaza.
JFK Courtroom Scene: Multiple Shooters Theory
Director Oliver Stone crafted a masterful counter-myth to the Warren Report in his film, JFK. In this clip, prosecutor Jim Garrison (Kevin Costner) lays out his theory of multiple shooters. This clip helps to answer the question about the devices Stone used to recreate the assassination. The only device missing from this clip, I believe, is his use of plastic pieces and sets.
The Needs of the Many...
We read Ursula K. LeGuin's "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas." We learned that the Omelans owned a beautiful, futuristic, perfect city steeped in culture and pageantry... but at a price; for in their own way they followed in the bloody footsteps of the Celts, the Mayans, and other primitive, pagan cultures. They sacrificed somebody else for the benefit of the community. The deal the Omelans made with some unspecified party or entity required that they make a scapegoat out of a young boy, burdening him with their sins and guilt so they could live full, guilt-free, prosperous lives. They sacrificed him for their benefit, locking him away in a dark closet where they would kick, punch, or ridicule him. Though he cried for mercy and deliverance from his isolation, the Omelans' deal required they give none. In a video clip from Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan, we heard and saw Kirk and Spock speak of a different principle of sacrifice, one Spock has lived by - and now dies by. It might make you think of another person's idea of sacrifice, Jesus of Nazareth, who said, "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends."