At 03:57 PM 9/2/97 +0100, David Knowles wrote:
>I too heard from a friend in the 'States, who phoned me at 5:00 a.m. our
>time as the news broke on US TV. The Kennedy connection struck me too -
>I was just a kid in London on that fateful day in '63, but let me assure
>you that I can remember the grownups with tears in their eyes - and I
>mean English grown-ups. My father's company was having a party in London
>to celebrate their 125th anniversary, and when someone broke the news
>about Kennedy, the party just died too. Kennedy was admired by those of
>all political leanings as a young man of vision, passion and commitment.
>Never mind the problems which emerged later; at that time, he was seen
>as the man with the future of the world in his hands.There was similar
>sadness in this country in 1965 when Sir Winston Churchill died - but as
>he was an ailing old man, that wasn't too unexpected. Then there was
>Martin Luther King - the man whose most famous speech with the words
>`Free at Last' still makes the hairs tingle on the back of my neck.
>Diana styled herself as the `Queen of Peoples' Hearts'. It is surely no
>coincidence that it was another commoner - Elisabeth Bowes-Lyon - who
>assumed royal trappings when she married the man who would become King
>George VI when Edward VIII abdicated - and is now the (97 year old) H.
>M. The Queen Mother - or `The Queen Mum' as she is affectionately known.
>During the war, she toured the war-torn bomb sites in London which
>resulted from Hitler's Blitzkreig, met the people who had lost their
>homes and won the hearts of the people as an accessible royal; she too
>is a `Queen of Peoples' Hearts'. Princess Diana came from the same mould
>- and now I think that mould has been broken...
>
>
> ----------
David, your thoughts are so nicely expressed. Your feelings are very close
to mine on all those you mentioned.
Mike Lrckstein
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