[ bells tolling ] ♪ from sea to shining sea >> as his campaign song said, he had high hopes and so do we. and on we go. ♪ >> it's been 50 years since our world changed forever.

today the nation honors john fitzgerald kennedy. 50 years ago, this very moment the nation just learned that jfk was dead. >> a state of shock really is the only way i can describe the feeling that we have here in washington. it goes for me and david brinkley for all of the correspondents as well. it's so impossible for all of us to contemplate, to realize and understand that this young, so vital man, can be dead in this fashion. >> this hour lee harvey oswald had just been taken into custody, the so-called pristine bullet found on a stretcher inside dallas's parkland hospital. the president's casket was moved from the hospital and on to air force one. mrs. kennedy stayed by her husband's side and watched as the president security detail lifted the coffin on the plane. when an agent wrote, nowhere in any training or manual that the

width of the door on air force one was just a few inches too narrow for a casket. three shots have been fired in dealey plaza and the world stopped for four days. there's one question an entire generation knows the question to you, where were you the day jfk was shot? that's the focus of the two-hour documentary reported on by tom brokaw. he interviews dozens from celebrities to average middle class americans. take a look. >> i remember exactly where i was doing and where i was. >> i was a senior in high school right after lunch. >> i was in school. >> i was coming home from the studio. >> walking down the hall. >> i was on shuttle getting off on 42nd and lexington. >> i was on a bus going from kolvy to haven for the harvard

yale band. >> i was in school, i was in class. >> tom brokaw is here with us now. where were you? >> i was a reporter in omaha, i did the cut-ins for the "today" show on the noon news and an exhausting schedule, nine hours and i was in the newsroom kind of cleaning up and the bells on the wire machine, ap how we got the news in those days. not a tweet or anything online. it was a bulletin of some kind. i went over and merriman smith who became famous for dictating on the run, that shots were fired at the presidential motorcade the president perhaps fatally wounded. then of course it rolled out parkland and then the announcement of his death. we didn't have the network up because the nbc would give back a local station one hour of midday programming. i ran down -- there was a garden show on the i put it on

over the garden show and did that a couple of times. this was unusual but it was not unheard of. as i came running out of the announce booth the chief engineer, with whom i didn't get along very well, an old crumb uj on guy, what happened? kennedy was shot. he said about time somebody shot that sob. that was heard mostly in conservative states. that was reflecting his real feeling for him. >> that is not what you want to hear, striking as well. many historians written about the fact that jfk was in some ways the real first televised presidency. and of course his tragic assassination televised a communal event for the country. let's take a listen to that. >> white house press secretary has just announced that

president kennedy died at approximately 1:00 central standard time, about 35 minutes ago. >> after being shot at. >> after being shot. >> by an unknown assailant. >> unknown assailant. >> during a motorcade drive through downtown dallas. >> during a motorcade drive through downtown dallas. >> for so many americans who don't have a living memory, help us understand how the nation reacted? >> well, i was just as i was watching that, that was the first time the american people had heard the announcement that a president was dead and they were hearing it on television, not first time they heard the announcement, when fdr died it was on the radio. but what connected kennedy and made this such a memorable event is that people felt a familiarity with him as a person because he had been in their living room every night on television for the last three years, television was a phenomenon in america on a network basis.

i remember i didn't get the first television set until i was 15, 1955. by 1963 it was not that much longer, most homes had a black and white television set, bars were beginning to have them and people felt connected to him through television. he was perfectly cast for the media. he was great looking and knew how to use it. he had a wicked wit about him when he needed it. his dad was in the marketing business and he knew about marketing himself and what sold. there was a rea intersection between john f. kennedy, and person and president and television. >> one of the people you spoke with for the documentary andrew young, a friend of martin luther king jr. and mayor of atlanta, member of congress. let's listen to what he had to say. >> dr. king was coming there and he was -- i mean, he was really

shaken. and he said, if the hundreds of secret service can't protect the president, any time they want us, we got to be ready to go. because there is no protection. he took the president's death as a sign of his own assassination. >> and it just -- to hear that sound made me realize what a tense and tu multiuous time it was. >> it was just a few years later that dr. king was killed after giving that memorable speech, i've seen the mountaintop. it was a chaotic time in america. we had obviously john f. kennedy killed, we got much deeper in vietnam, 60,000 people, almost 6,000 death toll there. dr. king is killed, kennedy is killed there are other incidents

across america. judge jackson in california, black panthers, and abuse by the institutions, there was a chaotic time. but it didn't just all begin with athe assassination of john f. kennedy. even if he lived, a lot of those things probably would have happened. what would he have done about vietnam? i'm persuaded he would have stayed a while longer. as long as lyndon johnson? probably not. he had more courage in a way to shut down wars and a better political antenna about the consequences of that. he was beginning to come around on civil rights but it took a while. it was almost all focused on the south, not the urban north. there were pieces of america that were in play then. >> we remember jfk so fondly but in the short time he was in office, he was far from a perfect man.

and there certainly was a degree of shame associated with his death that allows us to forget his indiscretions but embrace them. it's interesting to see how he would fare today given the 24-hour media cycle. >> i'm not sure embracing is the right word. i think people were first a little surprised about just how promiscuous he was and how active he was with other women. it was true since he was a teenager and his father was well known as someone who was well outside the bounds of his marriage for most of that time. the other issue is his physical condition. he had add ison's disease, very bad back, on crutches a lot before he got elected president. the cautionary tale there, we should know more about these people when we elect them. but now, would any of that have disqualified him?

that's very hard to say. if people had known about addison's and womanizing, would they have said not going to go there? i don't know. he was running against richard nixon. barely beat him, under 100,000 votes. these are the what ifs. >> talk a little bit about how america has changed by a president being asassassinated, especially one with anne of those charisma. >> many say that was the beginning of the change of america. say he lived and stayed in vietnam and urban north had gone up and african-american and improfferished neighborhoods, there's not a lot he could have done to change that. he could have been much more aware of it. but i don't think it was just the assassination that triggered america to go in an entirely different direction. lyndon johnson came in very progressive, got the civil rights bill passed, war on

poverty, which went into those neighborhoods where there have been so much poverty. he couldn't turn it around because the outrage over what was going on in vietnam was far greater. this was the fickle finger of history, it's hard to know what might have happened. >> thank you very much. good luck with the show tonight on nbc as "the cycle" rolls in, we continue with the networkwide special coverage of jfk lasting legacy 50 years later. head to nbc.com where you can watch coverage as it happened. take a listen to that. >> they say they saw a man with a gun in the -- one said the second floor. another said a fourth floor window of that building. from either floor, he would be able to see over the low trees to about 100 yards away where the president's car was. >> unobstructed view? >> i was not able to go to

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folks, i'm getting out of this country and moving back to south carolina. here's why. >> breaking news tonight, democrats vote to approved the so-called nuclear option. >> four democrats voted a couple of hours ago to change the rules, needed 60 votes to overcome a filibuster. this nuclear option blew that up.

totally changed the rule. >> they changed filibuster rules to end the 60 vote threshold on all executive and judicial nominees except for those in the u.s. supreme court. >> they used the nuclear option. that will give congress radiation burns. too late. >> warns democrats they will regret eliminating filibusters against executive nominees but democrats are pushing three obama nominees after amending the chamber's rules yesterday. harry reid said he's ready to fast track 75 executive branch nominees who had been blocked on average four and a half months by republicans. noah feldman is a harvard constitutional law professor, former supreme court clerk and rhode's scholar and written a constitution or two in the middle east. >> yeah, well, those worked out.

it's good we can laugh about it. i know you did hard work and a lot of hard thinking about this issue. and i worked in the senate as i mentioned before. when i got there, you know, the norms were shifted. for most of american history the filibuster and ability to force a super majority to pass things was really reserved for fairly unusual or extraordinary circumstances. we had one big change where it began to be used for everything. now this week we have a new change which is when it comes to the president's appointees can't be used for everything. how important is that, that sort of relationship between the rule, which had allowed it for a while and the norm which changed a lot? >> this is a huge deal. as you point out, a big change is that once the majority is blocked all the time, on relatively ordinary things, it's not going to tolerate the protection of the minority, which is what the filibuster always was. the thing about democracy, we say it's majority rule but it isn't.

democracy is the majority rules subject to the minority being able to live with it. you need tricks and tools to make that work. the filibuster was one of them. when the minority abused it, the majority was going to say no more. that's where we are. >> and the issue seems less about the procedures in the senate and more about how complicated it is to get through a senate confirmation process and we're not getting people in office that we need to be serving and two, who's going to want to serve? if the process is that difficult, you won't get qualified people who want to go tloup the process. doesn't this tell us more, a bigger story around how complicated it is to get through a confirmation process when it shouldn't be? >> short answer yes. this is a good news, bad news situation. the good news is is that people will now be able to be confirmed. if you like to have judges with personalities and opinions who have done things in life, this is great, great news. it's actually great news even if

there's a republican president trying to get nominees through providing you're willing to accept that republicans will able to get people with big personalities, that's the part a little bit more of the bad news. this was played in both ways and pushed us towards the center and in the future we will be less pointed to the center when it comes to presidential -- especially judges. >> ari love it when i get random, but filibuster comes from a term from pirates, people who used to steal treasure or booty and now for people who steal time and power. it's been happening how much more frequently -- this is for cloture votes because we can't quantify because it's sometimes we're going to make 60 votes and sometimes we won't even bother. it doesn't explain how bad the use of filibusters has been. two questions to you, how far

does this go? would you support ending the legislative filibuster and when you wrote constitutions in the middle east, did you include a filibuster clause within those? >> definitely not. the reason is that all constitutions are on a continuum, one end is getting stuff done area other is consensus. in the middle east where countries were falling apart working on constitutions we went all the way over to the consensus side which means you build in checks and balances much more powerful even in the filibuster. you said you need super majority for all. when you have in the u.s. system, it is set up to be mostly majority tear yan with some protections for minorities and that wasn't enough. so they decided to take more. which goes back to your dutch word, which is the same word we use in english. it's a little old fashioned word free booter, the person stealing

stuff. what they are stealing is not just time but protection for the minority position. when you're in the majority as democrats are now and they think they'll be elected for president as democrats right now believe, there's nothing better than shutting down the free booters. when you're not in the majority anymore and realize you might be the minority, you think long and hard about it. >> what about the legislative filibuster? >> i think it probably should continue to exist as long as it's exacts a cost from the people doing it. the pirates have to risk their lives when they steal stuff. that remains probably a reasonable idea. someone will stand up there and keep talking. but you can't do that forever. >> crystal, these free booters sound kind of like takers to me. >> they are. >> just saying. >> that was what i was going to say. >> kind of to the point of what you're talking about, will we go further with getting rid of the legislative filibuster, it doesn't seem like the filibuster

is the only norm changing in this country. when we see the government being shut down and threats of default and see an inability to pass a budget and go forward with basic business, it seems to me a lot of norms have allowed this country to function are breaking down right now. >> that's absolutely right. >> civility is breaking down and goes both ways. the republican shut down the government and the democrats say okay, we're going to take away the filibuster. it's a clear -- >> doesn't same like both ways. that seems like republicans are breaking the norms essentially and democrats are responding to keep the government moving in some direction. >> that's right but they did respond by breaking the norm. you can say they are not equivalent because one is bad and one serves interest of majority and there is something to that. the reality is that the norms require both sides to agree. the norms of democracy do require one to play nice. nobody is playing nice right now. >> right. >> that means as krystal said before we can't have nice things

if people don't play nice. >> that's right. >> fact check. >> professor noah feldman, thanks very much. the real nuclear option allowing people to talk on their phones on a plane? mental note, i'm never flying with tour'e again. we'll spin next. [ boy ] there i was. another holiday stuck at the kids table, again. and then it happened. every boy's dream. i got called up to the big leagues. i was finally a man... on my way to shaving, driving and staying up past midnight. [ whoosh ] [ whoosh ] [ whoosh ] being an adult is overrated. [ male announcer ] holidays aren't the same without the real cream of reddi-wip. the sound of reddi-wip... [ whoosh ] ...is the sound of joy. to your first roll, pampers swaddlers was there. and now swaddlers are available through size 5, for many more firsts to come. ♪

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we're back with breaking weather news, shivering in 30 degree temperatures and rain, two of the scheduled events were canceled, including the missing man flyover. in california, flooding rain storms, car wrecks and car rescues. some areas switched over to a very rare november snow. there's dramatic video of people being rescued from the fast rising waters of the santa ana river and firefighters were able to get them all to safety, including one victim clinging on a tree to survive.

>> that's not the only wild weather. in vegas, misery is luck of the draw for a whole lot of people. heavy rain falling for a second straight day, flooded roads littered with car wrecks and airport had heavy delays. a lot of people don't have power. the average yearly rainfall for las vegas is just 4 inches, they'll get a quarter of that from this storm alone. now to the bitter cold, frigid temperatures are moving into the northeast and great lakes this weekend. we're talking highs in 20s and 30s, possibility of winter weather next wednesday expected to impact travel up and down the seaboard on the busiest travel day of the year. happy holidays. happy holidays to you, krystal. the fcc has announced it's considering allowing texts and phone calls in flight and a lot of people are unhappy. on thursday regulators called the current rules outdated and promised to review them.

in flight call and texts are allowed in some countries. weeks ago they were cheering the faa for allowing us to use devices on take offand landing. that was a relief to her and most of her colleagues. she said i hate being the police. some liberty is good, too much liberty can lead to chaos which is why some are groaning at the fcc now as they fear a future flight stuck listening to half of someone else's call because listening to other people's phone calls is cabin with devices and phone calls, i love a long flight where i can dig into a book and not have to listen to people at all. listening to somebody else's phone call is perhaps not as bad as the person next to you and bored and wants to talk to you for two or three hours and you can't get out of that conversation. >> that's how i got married, actually, literally. >> i do know that story.

>> i do know that story. >> i have sufficient faith in humanity that ultimately this is going to work out that most people will be sufficiently considerate enough to not super annoy other folks. we already have phone calls. >> the problem is you're wrong. >> phone calls on amtrak is it works out really well. >> the quiet car. it will take months before it goes up for a vote. ultimately it's up to the airlines to decide whether or not they want to allow cell phones on the flight. delta has said no. i had an experience when i was 7 when we were moving to singapore, remember when smoking was allowed on planes? >> no. >> tour'e remembers. i was young but i sat next to a man who smoked the entire way, 20, 21 hours. my mom was sitting anywhere else and my hair raz literally out to here and she was horrified. there are rules for a reason. you know, you hope that the airlines want to make it a

pleasant experience, the least they can do because the experience getting there is dreadful but reminded me from a scene from "family guy." take a listen. >> i always end up sitting next to a damned baby. >> what, say it to my face. the next five hours you're my [ bleep ]. wah! >> we've all had that experience, if i had to sit next to a baby, it would be walt. but sit next to a screaming baby than listen to any of you chatting on your phone. >> didn't know you hated listening to you. that has to be a job hazard. talk show that we have together, wow. >> but here's where i look at this issue. when you look at american society and culture right now, do we have too much cell phone or too little cell phone? i think the answer is too much

cell phone. when you look at the sanctuary for it. there are very few, maybe church and synagogue, maybe the airplane for a couple of months more, maybe a few other sacred places. everywhere else, out to dinner, at work, out to friends, the phones are everybody, the texting, the calls, it's extraordinarily ridiculous. of course, just for that context alone, i like and find myself feeling more relaxed even though flying is the most relaxing thing because that's one thing that's not in your face. let's listen. >> when you need -- the thing is you need to build an ability to just be yourself and not be doing something. that's what the phones are taking away, the ability to just sit there like this. that's being a person. right? no one can -- you got to check because -- underneath everything in your life, there's that thing, that empty forever empty, you know what i'm talking about?

>> yes, yes. >> knowledge that it's all for nothing and you're alone. >> so true. i feel the same way, our friend jonathan capehart has on the "washington post," talks about how awful it is getting to the plane, a combination obstacle course and striptease, but once you get there it's the only time when you can't do anything other than just hang out, read a book, just be bored. people complain about long flights. i look forward to long flights if my children are not with me. because it's so lovely and tranquil. >> i will say i would love to sit next to you guys, don't want to be rude -- >> ari, this is the sound of our voice -- >> this is televised, this is televised, what you said about

not wanting to -- >> we all heard it and have it recorded. >> it's too late. don't like the sound of our voices. are you offended snd. >> i'll a little hurt more than offended. >> i'm pretty sure it was directed at you, not me. >> not directed at krystal. >> i'm not angry, i'm just sad. >> the death of president kennedy changed forever politics in this country. you're looking at the live shot of the flag lowered over the white house as it is in state buildings across america. much more "cycle" straight ahead. the american dream is of a better future, a confident retirement. those dreams, there's just no way we're going to let them die. ♪ like they helped millions of others. by listening. planning. working one on one. that's what ameriprise financial does.

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at almost this exact moment 50 years ago the presidential power was being transferred to

john f. kennedy to lyndon b. johnson. it was not just his presidency laid to rest but the end of innocence in america. the conspiracy theories and fear stoked by the warren commission, their trust of government wasn't just pierced but shattered. fast forward to 2013, the president has never since had an approval rating as high as jfk's and 9% of americans have confidence in congress. we can never reclaim our innocence but can reclaim our faith in government maybe. joining us now, susan page, the trust that your government is truly looking for, people want to know that the government is out for their best interest. do you think it is possible to get back to that place? >> people want to think the government is out for the best interest and also want to think that the government can actually do things in a confident way. that's been -- that's another aspect that has made it so hard for americans to have the kind of faith and trust in their government that they had before the kennedy assassination.

certainly the landscape now looks so different and the kind of nature of the politics here in washington, it's just really contrasts with what was existing in 1963. >> and, susan, i wanted to get your thoughts on an editorial that ran in "the san francisco chronicle", the rhetoric of then versus now. jfk as they were landing said to jacqueline kennedy, we're heading into nut country. in 1963, nut country, both left and right wing, was confined to pockets like dallas around the country. now extreme speech like the kind heard in dallas 50 years ago has become mainstream particularly on the right, amplified by social media and encouraged by gridlocked political leaders looking too win the political minute. do you agree with that? >> i think it's certainly -- there's always been extreme voices in american politics. but now everybody can read them and they have a huge voice in

american politics because of twitter and facebook and pro fusion of blogs and ability of internet to give everybody a platform. it kind of permeates a culture in a way it didn't before. >> susan, take a listen to what president clinton said about that day. >> i was in my calculus class, fourth period advanced math class. i was a senior in high school, right after lunch that i heard my teacher was the assistant principal and called to the phone. and he came in, totally ashen faced and told ugs the president was shot. i remember it as if it was yesterday. >> what did you think? >> i was heart broken. i was hoping he would live. >> susan, as you know from covering politics, bill clinton modeled himself in many ways

after jfk, very proud of a photo he had when he was at the white house as a young student and appeared with the president, became campaign lorn for him. how many modern presidents looked to the example of jfk? >> i think every politician that followed jfk, even those who didn't agree on his ideology knew he captured something in americans and inspired americans. we talk about how it was a loss of american innocence, different era now. yet his words continue to inspire a lot of americans. a lot of american politicians. how many people have you heard in the past few days as we mark this anniversary how the words ask not what the country can do for you, how they resonate. >> the filibuster, all of the

rage talking about this right now, filibuster abuse starts in the late 50s and folks pushing back against the potential for civil rights legislation which jfk and lbj helped bring into reality which changed electoral map which led to a long period of republican presidencies and now the more recent democratic presidencies. but the same map we've been seeing pretty much since 1964. so barack obama is one of the results, long term results, of that civil rights legislation that began with battling back against filibuster reform. and now at the other end of the train, fighting against the filibuster, what does it make you think about? >> it illustrates the arc of history, doesn't it? john f. kennedy was slow to get behind the civil rights movement in the view of civil rights activists at the time and then took a more active role.

it was one of the things that was costing him some popularity at the time before his assassination, he was standing up against the segregationists in the south. it was his assassination that helped propel those landmark civil rights legislation through the congress with lbj backing them after his death. and now barack obama -- it has -- race has defined so much of american history and so much of american politics. even to this day. and now with our changing demography, changing it to affect politics that i'm sure would have astounded jfk if he were alive today. >> before we go, it's important you point out how you got on the show today. you defeated competitors on steve cornacki's up against the clock. >> they blocked the nomination to serve ondown. >> the d.c. circuit.

>> 300 points. susan, ends the game. what's the score? susan page, 1200 points. >> you're the reigning champion still. you get this mug. >> you should be extremely proud. you got the high school. the championship mug and the gift certificate but this weekend there is an interesting twist. the competitors on "up against the clock" are all msnbc talent, karen finney, alex witt and very own tour'e. all of us here on "the cycle" are rooting for -- >> alex witt. >> of course. >> tune in at 8:44ish eastern standard time. imagine your phone rings and you pick it up and it's a called from a loved one who died years ago. that is the premise of a new book on life, love, and power of redemption. he joins us here in the guest

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worldwide and turned into emmy award winning tv movies. the sky is the limit for the new novel, "the first phone call from heaven." mitch joins us now from detroit. we hear the book is debuting on the "new york timnew york times list. congratulations. >> it's if a fictional town and one day the phone starts ringing and it's phone calls from heaven and only in this town and to a handful of people. what happens when the news gets out and people want to be part of this miracle and the news media gets a hold of it and it turns into a big story. there's a guy who lives in the town, kind of a broken man, his wife has died and he doesn't believe in anything and 7-year-old comes home with a toy phone, when is mommy going to

call us because everyone else is getting these calls? he sets out to prove this whole thing has to be a hoax because it couldn't possibly be happening. as it's getting a to be a hoax, it's getting bigger and culminates with a live broadcast of an actual voice from heaven to the whole world just as he seems to have cracked the mystery. i'll stop there because i'll ruin the book. but the inspiration is -- has a lot to do with people's belief in miracles or live miracles in their lives and the preciousness of the human voice, which i heard you talking earlier about people on cell phones on planes. that's not exactly the most precious voice. but the idea of keeping people's voices alive is very integral to people. >> i wanted to read a little passage of one of phone calls from the book. jack zellers, police chief backed up toward his small office, cold water police,

sellers speaker, a young man's voice. dad, it's rob by. who in the hell is this? i'm happy dad, don't worry about me. jack felt his he saw his son, clean-shaven, disappearing through airport security en route to his third tour of duty, his last tour of duty. this is incredibly emotional stuff. even knowing that it's fiction, even know that, you know, this is just a story. >> well, first of all, thank you tore reading that. that was beautiful. would you come with me wherever i go and read the book? but that is kind of the conversation, i think, that we all wish we could have. from people who were gone. i'm okay. i'm all right. i'm safe. i think that would change the world if people actually believed it was true and that was the premise i explored in the book. >> mitch, i was excited to have you on today. my grandma who passed away at

100 this year, one of her favorite books was "tuesdays with mory," when i was young she asked me to read because she found it so meaningful. and so many people have. and yet these are some of the hardest thing to talk about, live about in life. mortality, god, what happens to us. what is your approach in trying to take things that i think humans have struggled with, since the dawn of time, and talk about and write about them in a way so accessible to so many people? >> well, you're right. i mean, they are big topics. but they also -- i have the benefit of them being the topics that i think people care the most about. and so i try -- first of all, i don't write anything that doesn't mean something to me because i don't think that would be honest and i don't think i could do it. so in this particular book, as i was sitting down to write it, unfortunately, my mother suffered a couple major strokes and lost the ability to speak. and i haven't heard her voice in, you know, three-and-a-half years. and she is still alive. i can hold her hand. but it's not the same.

you know, you're begging for her to say a word. you know, and she used to say to me, i remember, when e-mail came in, and i tried to get her to take e-mail. i said, you've got to start doing this e-mail thing, it's great, i can send messages. and she said i'm never going to do that, and she said if i do, you won't call me anymore. and she was right. we're losing that connection of the human voice. so i knew that feeling of wanting to hear from somebody when you can't hear from them anymore is something that's not just for me, it's got to be universal. because even in just hearing you through this earpiece, earring you go, m, m, we all agree on that, right? >> right. >> so i try to pick topics like that, and then i know at least i'm not just writing a book for my own entertainment, i'm writing on topics that matter to people. >> all right, mitch, you've convinced me. let the cell phones on the plane. thank you so much. >> just talk quietly and with a loved one and you'll be okay. >> there you go. up next, the way toure remembers jfk, and msnbc continues to mark this historic day by streaming actual coverage

from the day jfk died. >> church bells all over town are ringing. we are told that people are standing on street corners crying, openly, freely. nbc's robert abernathy reports from andrews base that the base commander says the president's buddy, again, arriving at 5:30. stick with innovation. stick with power. stick with technology. get the flexcare platinum. new from philips sonicare. i always wanted to design a bike that honored those who serve our country. and geico gave me that opportunity. now naturally, we wanted it to be powerful, innovative and we built this bike as a tribute to those who are serving, those who have served

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morrison and marilyn monroe, the epic and turbulent decade, who symbolize cool at a peak, and died prematurely and suddenly, giving them a mythological quality, making them forever young in the collective mind, freezing them at their zenith. jfk forever frozen as a young, dashing, first time president, still young father, still good looking, still cool. it almost seems like we could stroll on to the beach and find him wearing ray bans, his face still unlined, commitment to public service still undiminished. we all get older, he does not. his image was never sullied by unseemly scandals by the inevitable second-term blues by growing gray. he's like john lenin in the permanently cool and beautiful and all about peace and love as opposed to mick jagger and still cashing in a caricature of himself as leader of the world's "rolling stone's" cover bag.

what a drag it is getting old would be horrified. billy joel sang only the good die young. the halo on you fulfills a romantic image, a permanent purity and thus in a way makes you immortal. of those in that realm, to me, jfk shares the most with jane velez-mitchells dean, the iconic actor who died in a car crash, including a rebel without a cause. both dean and kennedy are the apathy owes of cool, handsomeness and guyness, appealing to women and men. >> i think that you can't just go around proving things and pretending like you're tough. and you can't, even though -- >> that's right. >> you look a certain way -- >> that's right. you're -- you're suit right. >> you're not listening to me! >> both dean and kennedy left their mark without breaking a sweat and left too early,

meaning their promises are never broken. if you're forever young, you never make a mockery of what it was we fell in love with. the canvas that was your life isn't ruined, it's forever unfinished. and if the first part is beautiful, we want to fill in the blank spaces ourselves and that freedom to bend their legacy to whatever we want is what the great writer says happened to elvis who after his death became a figure made of echos, growing out of artworks, books, movies, dreams, sometimes more than anything, cultural noise. so too for jfk, available for bill clinton to refashion in his way and for oliver stone to bend, and any number of conspiracy theorists to twist to their liking. they take the painting of jfk's life. there was a picture of jfk's wall alongside mlk and jesus. we saw kennedy as a civil rights hero, even though it was lbj who pushed through legislation. i visited the library in boston where the city of legacy and

come lot turned strong. jackie said it was raw even though it was her who pushed for its inclusion into the famous he is a for "life" magazine but i still to prefer to think about jfk in that light. a way i think of honoring him. that does it for "the cycle". >> it is friday, november the 22nd, 50 years on from that fateful day in dallas. >> only a matter of minutes. he's a wonderful man. >> something has happened in the motorcade. >> three shots were fired. >> a flash from the associated press "dateline" dallas. >> president kennedy died at 1:00 p.m. central standard time. some 38 minutes ago. >> a white man was seen at the window of the building. >> the texas school book