Right As Usual

I was in 6th grade during the Cuban Missile Crisis.  I followed the news reports.  Later, I watched the TV movie about the crisis, in which the Kennedy brothers were portrayed as the heroes of the day for their efforts in dealing with the Soviet and Cuban governments. The main message I always heard was the surprise of the missiles arrival.  There was no forewarning.  There was no way to have known about the missiles, before that moment of crisis. B.S. That's what the American Spectator has on it's blog today, the true story about Homer Capeheart, and his fight to get the Kennedy administration to take his warnings about the menace seriously. You would think that, after the crisis was over, Capeheart would be a hero in the press. You would think. Instead, Capeheart's prescience was ignored, both by the media, and by the Kennedy administration. I never heard of him, until this post in the Spectator.   He lost his seat in the next election (to B...

The NY Times has an article about Barack Obama's early writing (from his Columbia days). In that article, he quotes Don Kent: Most people my age remember well the air-raid drills at school, under the desk with our heads tucked between our legs. Older people, they remember the Cuban Missile Crisis. I think these kinds of things left an indelible mark on our souls, so we're more apt to be concerned. OK. 1983, college age, but not old enough to remember the Cuban Missile Crisis. But, somehow old enough to remember air-raid drills? Not possible - the bomb drills (which, I believe, is what Kent is referencing) were in the 1950's. The Cuban Missile Crisis was October 1962. If he is in college in 1983, he is referencing a practice that he was too young to participate in. I know. I DO remember the bomb drills in grade (about once a year, same as the tornado drills). And, I was 11 during the Cuban Missile Crisis - I remember the grown-ups talking, and the principal of my s...