I have become very behind in my blog reading and today I decided to pick one that I follow and get really up to date. My hovering fingers landed on Patricia’s Today I Think Blog.
I really enjoy Patricia thoughts on many things and love Teddy the stay at home cat. He manages to get into adventures even within the apartment and on the balcony.
Photo copyright Patricia Tracy
However, one post that Patricia wrote really set my blood boiling. Have you read “Monday, not really a book review”? Living on the other side of the world I wasn’t aware the interview talked about in the comments and have never heard of this woman. While we all thought or perhaps knew in some cases, that JFK was a philanderer I wasn’t aware just how blatant and abusive the man was. Please understand that I haven’t read the book so I am relying on my good friend Patricia and other reviews of the book.
All that said, I now get onto my rant for the day.
Firstly, the President and all his sycophantic helpers must bear the most blame for these happenings. How did these people think it was OK to treat a young woman this way? How was it kept from Jackie or did she know and turn a blind eye to the abuse of this 19-year-old? And what a seemingly innocent 19-year-old she was.
But the girl must bear some of the blame. At the time she describes I was a 22-year-old so not that much older than she. I knew that it wasn’t acceptable to sleep with some other woman’s husband. She must have known this.
I knew if I was invited to view somebody’s bedroom without the wife being there, there was likely to be some ulterior motive. She must have known this.
I knew that if anything unacceptable to me, or something with which I was not comfortable occurred that I should tell somebody else. She must have known this, But I now come to the realisation that this wasn’t unacceptable to her. This has obviously been a secret that she kept and fed upon for the past 50 plus years.
And according to Janet Maslin‘s report in the New York Times it appears that this woman sees nothing wrong in what she did.
Several questions jumped immediately into my mind:
- How would she react if it happened to her daughter or granddaughter now?
- Was this only allowed to happen because of the age of Camelot and the public’s adoration of the first couple?
- Did the President think he was above normal standards of human behaviour?
- How did the aides and the others in the know satisfy their own consciences?
- Did none of them have daughters of their own?
And of course the big one. How are her family reacting to this unveiling, telling of a secret now? Did she consider their feelings before writing this book or did she simply write it for the money it would generate?
I have since watched part of the interview on NBC’s Rock Centre and it seems to me that this woman is totally self-absorbed and I wouldn’t be surprised if she didn’t even consider the ramifications on her family and indeed the rest of her life, before going public. My thoughts re with her family at this time.
And of course the big one for me – Am I being unnecessarily hard on this poor woman? Maybe if I read the book I might have some more sympathy for her, both as she was then and as she is now. But for now, I am leaving it as it is.
What are your thoughts?
End of today’s rant.
“Through pride we are ever deceiving ourselves.
But deep down below the surface of the average conscience a still, small voice says to us, something is out of tune.”
Carl Jung
I choose how I will spend the rest of my life 