It was a Monday night. I was still living at home. Everyone was in their rooms, I was in the living room. I had just came out, got something to eat and sat down to turn the television on. I remember hearing the end of the newscast, Angela Hill was talking about someone in New York being shot, his condition not known at the moment. Who it was I didn't catch.
M*A*S*H was coming on. I think somewhere everyday there is a rerun of M*A*S*H showing. About ten minutes into the show there was a special report breaking in. Now I found out who the person shot in New York had been. It was reported that ex-Beatle John Lennon has been shot and is dead in New York city.
There is simply no way I can put into words what this meant, what this still means to me. I have few real heroes, few people that I think of as people that just awe me. There are a lot of people I admire, that do things I think are heroic, but few that I just am in complete awe of, who I admire completely. John Lennon was one such.
The following days, listening to the news, to all the interviews he had been giving for his new album (and album it was, vinyl, this was before cds had taken over the form), it was heartbreaking. He was so happy, so ready to move into the new decade. He talked about how much a drag the seventies had been, but the eighties were here and we were all still here, still alive, with so much more to offer.
I collected most of the magazines, the newspaper accounts of those days. I have a box of all these clippings in my closet. I haven't looked at them since those days. I don't think I can. I can read about it all in a book, hear it on tv, but to see those clippings that I cut out of the paper, all those magazines I collected would just be too much for me. I taped his last interview that he gave, just hours before his death, it's like hours long and later ran on radio. I haven't listened to it since. I don't think I can, hearing him talk about what the future held for him, how much he looked forward to making new music. To me these items I personally cut out or taped are too personal for me, if I see them in a book or hear them on the radio they seem at least a step removed from me and my feelings at that time. I know it might not make a lot of sense but sometimes these things don't.
That it was twenty five years ago seems impossible. It can't have been that long ago, can it? I'm older now than he was when he was killed. To think of all the music we have lost in those twenty five years.
This was all brought home to me tonight when NBC ran a special on the man who killed John Lennon. They had tapes of Mark David Chapman, from years ago when a reporter intervewied him for a book he was writing about the murder. Chapman comes up with all these reasons why he killed Lennon, how crazy he was...that he had little people in his head...it's all crap as far as I'm concerned. He wanted to be famous and he found a way to accomplish that goal. Most of his reasons sound like what he thinks peole want to hear, what he's learned about how crazy people get off. I just don't buy it. But it doesn't really matter. He killed John Lennon, for whatever reason.
He's been in jail for twenty five years and in my heart I can't find the compassion to forgive him, to think he might deserve to be free. I think he deserves to be in jail till he dies, however many years it takes.
It actually hasn't been twenty five years yet. December 8 is the day he was shot and killed. It's a day I never forget.
M*A*S*H was coming on. I think somewhere everyday there is a rerun of M*A*S*H showing. About ten minutes into the show there was a special report breaking in. Now I found out who the person shot in New York had been. It was reported that ex-Beatle John Lennon has been shot and is dead in New York city.
There is simply no way I can put into words what this meant, what this still means to me. I have few real heroes, few people that I think of as people that just awe me. There are a lot of people I admire, that do things I think are heroic, but few that I just am in complete awe of, who I admire completely. John Lennon was one such.
The following days, listening to the news, to all the interviews he had been giving for his new album (and album it was, vinyl, this was before cds had taken over the form), it was heartbreaking. He was so happy, so ready to move into the new decade. He talked about how much a drag the seventies had been, but the eighties were here and we were all still here, still alive, with so much more to offer.
I collected most of the magazines, the newspaper accounts of those days. I have a box of all these clippings in my closet. I haven't looked at them since those days. I don't think I can. I can read about it all in a book, hear it on tv, but to see those clippings that I cut out of the paper, all those magazines I collected would just be too much for me. I taped his last interview that he gave, just hours before his death, it's like hours long and later ran on radio. I haven't listened to it since. I don't think I can, hearing him talk about what the future held for him, how much he looked forward to making new music. To me these items I personally cut out or taped are too personal for me, if I see them in a book or hear them on the radio they seem at least a step removed from me and my feelings at that time. I know it might not make a lot of sense but sometimes these things don't.
That it was twenty five years ago seems impossible. It can't have been that long ago, can it? I'm older now than he was when he was killed. To think of all the music we have lost in those twenty five years.
This was all brought home to me tonight when NBC ran a special on the man who killed John Lennon. They had tapes of Mark David Chapman, from years ago when a reporter intervewied him for a book he was writing about the murder. Chapman comes up with all these reasons why he killed Lennon, how crazy he was...that he had little people in his head...it's all crap as far as I'm concerned. He wanted to be famous and he found a way to accomplish that goal. Most of his reasons sound like what he thinks peole want to hear, what he's learned about how crazy people get off. I just don't buy it. But it doesn't really matter. He killed John Lennon, for whatever reason.
He's been in jail for twenty five years and in my heart I can't find the compassion to forgive him, to think he might deserve to be free. I think he deserves to be in jail till he dies, however many years it takes.
It actually hasn't been twenty five years yet. December 8 is the day he was shot and killed. It's a day I never forget.
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