Having delivered their prophesy, the witches leave Mac Bird and his Crony to consider the implications of their words. But not for long are the two left to contemplate before Robert arrives to inform Mac Bird that he's been chosen for the role of VP. He's been chosen for the mere "honorary position"--it's the one closes to the seat of power.
And, Mac Bird, in an aside, see that power: It's himself! His image as president that he sees!
Thank John. "I do accept with deep humility."
And the rest is history.
Or not quite.
It's a play, written in 1965 by Barbara Garson. It began with a slip of the tongue. At an anti-war rally in Berkeley, California, she accidentally referred to Lady Bird as Lady Mac Bird Johnson.
Last week, a friend in Philadelphia sent this slim volume she stumbled upon it while cleaning her bookshelves. I was reading Stephen Greenblatt's Tyrant: Shakespeare on Politics , the chapters of Richard III. The stay-at-home order during this Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has many of us thinking back to missed opportunities. What could have been prevented if only"
But we are here.
I missed this gem of a play, back in the day. I never heard of it before reading it. I would have been twelve at the time it's written. But I remember the Kennedys.
The day of JFK's assassination, I was sitting in a grammar school classroom and the crackling of the intercom made everyone look up at the dark brown box on the wall at the front of the classroom.
Kennedy" shot"
Our teacher sat down. I don't think that a word was uttered as we waited for Mother Superior to return to the intercom and give us further word on the condition of the president.
I remember the following days, a series of events, each more surreal than the previous event that weekend. First the president shot dead in broad daylight. With witnesses and cameras looking on and one special piece of film that becomes the definitive film, capturing the very moment JFK is fatally wounded. Then the supposed single gunman, with single rifle, is shot deadon television. With witnesses and cameras looking on as one special photo shows the moment Oswald is no longer eligible to testify anywhere.
Aboard Air Force One, Lyndon Baines Johnson is sworn in as president while Jacqueline Kennedy, still in blood-stained dress, looks on. Personal grief and national sorrow is on display and magnificently staged. I'll never forget the single restless horse carrying the single soldier's boot and the mournful bagpipes. At the top of the steps, there's the widow and the two children, little John John, saluting the coffin.
Like yesterday! Searing images you never forget.
In 1972, I was old enough to be drafted to serve in the Vietnam War, just as my uncle was drafted for the Korean War. I was certainly black enough to serve in combathad I been born a male. But I grew up hearing the chanting of young Americans saying, "Hey, hey, LBJ, How many kids did you kill today?"
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