People have been bumping off one another since the beginning of time. I say this with puckish humor referencing the claim President Trump (I call him ‘President Goldfinger’) made about shooting someone on 5th Avenue and not losing any votes. I wonder if he’d lose any votes if someone shot him on 5th Avenue?
In the current atmosphere of a presidential impeachment, a schizophrenic White House, congressional mayhem, politics gone awry and an America gone gun crazy, I’m sure the Secret Service is not seeing any humor in this, you're probably not laughing either. It’s irreverent, I know, but I digress ...
Assassination is merely a political term for murder. And since murder is a serious issue it’s going to be a challenge writing humor into this piece, but I’ll try to strike a comforting balance between gravity and levity while maintaining continuity ...and at the same time not have the Secret Service knocking on my door.
Cain murdered Abel. It was personal. Abel never saw it coming. Jesus of Nazareth was assassinated, crucified. It was political. He knew it was coming, the writing was on the wall.
The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre in Chicago in 1929 was a combination of personal and political, but mainly it was about money (always follow the money) ...and booze.
The 9/11 terrorists ...religion.
So, it would seem there are five fundamental reasons for murder or assassination, even for world wars ...personal, political, money, religion ...booze.
...and then there’s just plain crazy.
In our lifetime there have been some widely publicized, infamous assassinations and I will focus on those. We’ll stick with the term ‘assassination‘ and leave ‘murder‘ behind. People are being murdered as I write this and it would be impossible to keep up.
Abraham Lincoln, John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr. and Bobby Kennedy are the big headliners for assassination. In fact, Dion DiMucci recorded the 1968 top 40 hit ‘Abraham, Martin and John‘. It’s a real tearjerker and a beautiful tribute to the assassinated heros. https://www.bing.com/search?q=dion+dimucci+abraham+martin+%26+john&form
We all know the story of actor John Wilkes Booth shooting President Lincoln in Ford’s Theatre in Washington DC, April 15, 1865. President Kennedy was shot by Lee Harvey Oswald in Dallas, Texas November 22, 1963. Martin Luther King was shot on the balcony of his Memphis, Tennessee motel by James Earl Ray on April 4, 1968. Robert Kennedy was shot and killed at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles on June 6, 1968.
There were two other assassinated U.S. presidents. James Garfield was shot and killed by Charles Guiteau in 1881, and William McKinley was shot by Leon Czolgosz in 1901. McKinnley died a week later from gangrene caused by the bullet wounds.
There have been attempted assassinations on several U.S. presidents. Andrew Jackson, Teddy Roosevelt, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan.
Reagan was leaving the Washington Hilton Hotel on March 30, 1981 when he was shot and wounded by John Hinkley Jr. Hinkley was obsessed with actress Jodie Foster and told authorities he was trying to impress her. Hinkley was recently released from the mental hospital where he spent the last 35 years. Three others were also shot and wounded including Reagan’s Press Secretary, James Brady. Brady sustained a head wound and substantial brain damage and was permanently disabled until his death in 2014 which was ruled a homicide caused by the gunshot wound. The Brady Hand Gun Violence Prevention Act was enacted in 1993. It mandated federal background checks on firearm purchases in the U.S. and a five-day waiting period, until the NCIC system was implemented in 1998. (NCIC is the National Crime Information Center, an electronic crime data clearinghouse for determining eligible buyers for firearms and explosives).
Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated by Nathuram Godse on June 30, 1948 in New Delhi, India. Godse was an advocate of hindu nationalism. He believed Gandhi was too accommodating to Muslims during the British partition (division) of India.
Democratic Congresswoman Gabby Giffords sustained a severe brain injury when she was shot at a political rally in Arizona on January 8, 2011.
Jamal Ahmad Khashoggi was a Saudi Arabian dissident, an author, and a columnist for the Washington Post. He was assassinated on October 2, 2018 in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul,Turkey by agents of the Saudi government.
On December 8, 1980 John Lennon was gunned down in front of his New York City home by Mark David Chapman, described as an obsessed fan. 'Help!' ...
I’m not going to review mass murder shootings which seem to be popular now here in the U.S. in schools, churches malls and movie theaters. They’re in a different category, that ‘crazy’ category I mentioned earlier, yet still, an assassin is an assassin and we should give a shout-out to them as well.
Actually, there is nothing funny about any of this (maybe a little regarding Jodie Foster). I thought some humor might lessen the pain and gravity of these tragedies but I was wrong. I should be shot for thinking that. However, If I left out any of your favorite assassinations or murderers, I apologize. If you are a fan of Jack the Ripper, Son of Sam or Charles Manson, again, I apologize.
But JFK was the most profound and memorable assassination in our time. Referencing the Secret Service again, there is a scene in the 1993 Clint Eastwood film ‘In the Line of Fire‘ where Eastwood plays an aging Secret Service agent charged with protecting the current president. Eastwood’s character, as a younger man, had been assigned to the JFK detail in Dallas in 1963 when Kennedy was killed and he feels responsible for letting the president down. The scene is both compelling and commemorative, it shows the dedication and personal responsibility these guys have for their job ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAiuiipD6Wo
In most of the above cases, whether it be a personal, political, financial, religious ...or a booze issue, or just plain crazy, it’s usually a gun (except for Abel and Jesus, and maybe Khashoggi) and it’s usually some right wing nutcase. You rarely ever see a liberal shooting a conservative. So, guns + right wing nutcase + crazy = ...well, you see the connection pattern.
If you are a President Donald ‘Goldfinger’ Trump fan and supporter, I’d say to you don’t worry, no liberal will be shooting at him on 5th Avenue, and all the right wing crazies are on his side. But I still worry about him shooting someone there.
John Kushma is a communication consultant and lives in Logan, Utah
https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-george-kushma-379a5762
Some past articles and op-eds
