Some people are saying that it is a wake up call. I say more like a rude
awakening. Like when you awaken from a deep sleep and are momentarily
disoriented. It takes a moment to figure out where you are. That is what
it is like, except it will take us a long time to figure out where we are.
Who would have guessed, on Nov 22, 1963, that we had just entered a new
period of political life that has been since labeled as "the sixties". We
had been brought up in a dream of America as a perfect land blessed by
G-d. Assassination of political leaders was something that happened in
underdeveloped countries. That day changed everyone, but who realized what
was happening? For years after the event, when we were making a connection
with a new person, and going through the period where we want to know
about each other, one of the first questions we always asked was "Where
were you when Kennedy was shot?" Something had happened. This was a
defining moment, but it wasn't clear what it defined.                     



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It will be a long time before we can really understand this new reality.
Some things will start to look different. Maybe we will need to see
ourselves from a broader perspective. Americans comprise about 4.5% of the
world population. We have much wealth, but there are centers of wealth in
many countries whose values are not only different than ours, but pretty
much unknown to us as a society. We value the concept of freedom, but when
it comes to a conflict between freedom and comfort, freedom comes second.
We don't value education; our life is increasingly dependent on
technology, but many high tech companies are staffed by foreigners because
our schools are not adequate. Most of us are ignorant of the outside
world, but we have the biggest military machine which we use to intimidate
other countries. We will have to come to grips with all this.