Everywhere signs beg the question, "could you" "would you" or "will you" get on the bus? They are big questions that seem like some throw away ad campaign-- at best catchy, at worst cheesy. Few care to understand the question in its depth and allow it to make a difference in how they view the history of the Civil Rights Movement or the future of their own engagement of an issue that merits involvement.
Either unfortunately or fortunately (I haven't decided), as a member of the Freedom Rides seminar, I do have to give an answer considering the breadth and depth with which the question was posed. Would I get on the bus today and why?
Well, I'm working on that.
In the meantime, as the world over (ha!) grows in excitement for the premiere of the Kennedy miniseries, I've been meandering through the website's links to Kennedy images. It's image searching that feels slightly more legitimate than usual seeing as how Jon Cassar is asking me to do it and it's not just something I one day decided would be fun to do with some down time. (though the nerdiness implied with the latter never kept me from my fascination before). (This fascination is apparently not a secret since Robyn Modly texted me earlier to ask if Jackie was buried at Arlington National Cemetery, fully expecting me to divulge the details such as the fact that she and John are buried next to their stillborn baby girl, rumored to be named Arabella, and baby Patrick. I did not disappoint).
Thinking about if I would "get on the bus" today has me thinking about if I would've gotten on the bus in 1961. I can't say for certain that I would not have. But I also can't emphatically say I would have.
What I can say with great certainty as I look through these Kennedy images is that there are some magazines I definitely would've had back in the day. I like to think Mom would've surprised me with them as a "happy" the same way she does with People magazines today. Although for $7 a year I could've just had my own subscription.
link
Yeah, I'd have totally bought into the Kennedy mystique.
And yet I spent the week focused on the Freedom Rides and fervently believing in their effort.
The Kennedy's had a complicated relationship with the Civil Rights Movement in general--specifically with James Farmer-- but I cannot discredit the effect of their celebrity on America.
It would be dishonest to consider the sixties without the Kennedys. It would also be dishonest to consider the sixties outside of the impact of events rarely remembered by the magazines.
Somewhere there is a balance. And I am so very thankful for a place where I am actively encouraged to find it.
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