Readers interested in culture from wide-ranging perspectives may find the new scholarly e-journal Open Inquiry Archive useful. We're publishing scholarly papers on related topics, hoping to help build bridges between different disciplinary perspectives with articles that raise questions and offer new insights into culture and the arts. Check it out here.

Errol Morris and Persisting Questions about the JFK Assassination

Almost a half century has passed since John F. Kennedy died one sunny day in Dallas, Texas. His assassination was a national trauma and left many people with lingering questions.

Distinguished filmmaker Errol Morris, whose The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons From the Life of Robert S. McNamara won an Academy Award, recently wrote about a new project in which he looks at the Kennedy assassination. In a New York Times piece entitled ‘The Umbrella Man’ (which includes a link to a short film), he explained his interest in the subject this way:

"I believe that by looking at the assassination, we can learn a lot about the nature of investigation and evidence. Why, after 48 years, are people still quarreling and quibbling about this case? What is it about this case that has led not to a solution, but to the endless proliferation of possible solutions?"

Widespread traumas have a way of not only persisting in cultural memory, but of morphing over time. Layers of intervening experience and shifting recollection can cloud our understanding of an event. This is best countered by going back to the source to understand not only the exact details of an event, but also the context in which the event occurred.

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Image (above): Public domain photograph, WikiCommons

The JFK assassination continues to fascinate

As the anniversary of John F. Kennedy's assassination on November 22, 1963 approaches, various news sources are reporting the "discovery" of an audio tape that was made on Air Force One immediately after that tragic event. Long thought to be lost, according to these reports, the tape recording reveals a few new details about circumstances right after the assassination. But the new revelations do not seem very dramatic and will not likely change very much of our understanding of history. The tape is apparently a longer version of a recording already known and in the collection of the Lyndon Johnson Presidential Library.

This "new" tape, which is up for sale by a firm in Philadelphia, is in private possession and not the property of the U.S. Government. The legal basis for this circumstance has not fully been explored in news accounts so far.

Regardless of any new details, it is doubtful that the tape will do much to dampen JFK assassination conspiracy theories, which are numerous and durable. 

You can read more about this story in USA Today here, or watch an Associated Press report via The Washington Post (below):

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Image (above): U.S. Government official presidential portrait of John F. Kennedy, painted by Aaron Shikler. Public domain.

A Modern Relic

A scarred section of steel girder was recently displayed in the center of my town. Unremarkable as a physical object, it nonetheless attracted the attention of passersby. Many people stopped and looked and pondered. There's a good reason because this is more than a piece of scrap metal. It is a remnant from the World Trade Center that was destroyed a decade ago on September 11, 2001.

Remnants of the towers, such as this piece of steel, are imbued with meaning. Like ancient relics, they serve as reminders not only of the the historical moment, but also of the emotion of that moment. For those old enough to remember that fateful day, this piece of steel can be enough to bring the feelings of that time rushing back. It is an object that causes us to reflect on how our perceptions of the world changed even as the towers fell. For those too young to remember first-hand, the object probably means something else. Perhaps it is a symbol of a trauma that helped create the world that they know.

Whatever meaning a person does or does not take from encountering reminders such as this, it is a humbling to realize that even mighty towers of steel and concrete can come tumbling down in an instant. Reflecting on the their impermanence  is a sobering reminder of our own fragility.

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Image (above): Recovered fragment of a steel girder from the World Trade Center, photographed in 2011

New York City, September 11, 2001, as seen from space. 

(NASA photo)

No Shelter

No Shelter from the Past


In the days of the Cold War, the pervasive anxieties that haunted Americans found many forms of expression. A common question was: How does one plan for a dangerous and uncertain future in which nuclear annihilation seemed a distinct possibility?

Building a bomb shelter was one way that people sometimes answered that question. The government gave advice about how best to accomplish this, and many people took advantage of it. But it was an ostrich-like approach, mostly just suggesting  that you should hide your head in the sand until the danger had passed. It was never very realistic.

We tend to think those days are over. Let’s hope so. But in the globalized world, it’s hard to know if we can ever really stow away the doomsday fears that were once more out in the open.

Modern life -- like life in an earlier era -- is filled with danger of all kinds. Certainly in the post-9/11 world, it is tempting to think about creating spaces to which we can withdraw and  can shut out the danger. This makes us feel better psychologically.

Yet, no amount of precaution and seclusion can keep up totally safe from some ill fate. Perhaps we can reduce the chances of calamity, but we can never completely eliminate the possibility, no matter how thick we build walls and no matter how many times we scan passengers at the airport.

That's not much comfort. But it's reality. As we go about our lives, the choices we make in how we live with that reality may sometimes tell us more about ourselves than we wish to acknowledge.

- G.A.

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Image (above):  A bomb shelter drawing distributed by the U.S. government in the late 1950s. 


This is an edited version of a previously published item.

For the Record

For the Record: Searching for Objectivity in Global Conflict is an exhibition that I co-curated with Rob Roy and Leonie Bradbury of Montserrat College of Art. It's on view from August 22 until October 22, 2011 in Beverly, Massachusetts. Featuring works from artists in the United States and Europe, it's a new look at what art tells us about our war-dominated era.

A catalogue for the exhibit, wonderfully designed by John Colan, is available from the college. It has images, plus essays --  one entitled "Art, War, and Meaning," which I wrote with Rob Roy, and another that was written by Leonie Bradbury.

More information about the exhibition, and background to it, is available here.