Check this out--J.F.K. Tribute--November 22,1963---It's Effect On Our Country, The World

[Rick Ryan]

I want to share this YouTube musical/visual presentation reflecting on the lasting effect that John F. Kennedy's assassination has had on our country over the past fifty years I co-wrote the song "Childhood's End" and assisted in its video production. By the way, this project was never intended in to be any kind of political statement. There is no sensationalism in this song or its visual production and it has nothing to do with ideological agendas, conspiracy theories or the like . It's simply a look back at that dark day in Dallas almost a half a century behind us and its far-reaching effects it's had on our nation and the world.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ssPibCd-1U


I've been a lyricist/songwriter all my life, having the good fortune of working with a number of talented and gifted artists over the past 30+ years. The songwriting credit I'm most proud of is providing the words for "Shadowland", a song co-written with Graham Nash and Joe Vitale that appeared on Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young's first reunion album, "American Dream", certified platinum in 1989.

Unfortunately, these days many young people today aren't fully aware of the lasting effect President Kennedy's assassination has had on our country and the world over the past fifty years. As the saying goes, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it". I think it's critical for our future that this moment from our nation's history is never swept under the carpet of the changing times. We owe that much to our children, our children's children and the future generations that are here long after we are gone...


Rick Ryan


http://childhoods-end.com/

[Peter Lemkin]

What's wrong with 'political'? Without involvement in it by most Sheeple, we are were we are....and please don't use the term 'conspiracy theory'....the JFK assassination was a conspiracy in fact!

[Charles Drago]

By the way, this project was never intended in to be any kind of political statement. There is no sensationalism in this song or its visual production and it has nothing to do with ideological agendas, conspiracy theories or the like . It's simply a look back at that dark day in Dallas almost a half a century behind us and its far-reaching effects it's had on our nation and the world.

As a writer of prose and dramatic fiction (and, FWIW, as a close friend of the late lyricist Sammy Cahn), my advocacy of the unique power of art to effect change -- positive and negative -- on scales from personal to global is second to none.

Your goal in creating the project is your business.

But I must ask for clarification: How exactly to you expect your project to inform "young people today [who] aren't fully aware of the lasting effect President Kennedy's assassination has had on our country and the world over the past fifty years" if you denude it of the style and content without which such awareness is impossible to stimulate?

Are you arguing that artistic expression can exist absent the artist's point of view?

Are you suggesting that your project is not informed by your point of view on the assassination?

How would that be possible, if you don't mind the question?

And please give serious thought to the greater meanings of Peter Lemkin's admonition regarding conspiracy "theory" and fact.

Thanks.

[Rick Ryan]

Dear Mr. Drago,


On November 22, 1963, I was an 11-year old Irish Catholic kid growing up in Belmont, Massachusetts.
I'll never forget that Friday afternoon when we were informed at school what had taken place. In the ensuing years, I've come to realize the loss of President Kennedy in such a senseless and brutal manner affected me more than I ever knew at the time. The words to this song were very difficult for me to write, bringing me to tears many times during it's composition. All the feelings that 11-year old boy experienced fifty years before...feelings he'd somehow tucked away into the deepest recesses of his psyche...were suddenly coming to the surface. It was a cathartic experience, to say the least.
I can understand your being critical of the choice of words in my post, but the lyric to the song "Childhood's End" is an altogether different matter. They were words that came directly from my heart...from somewhere deep inside myself...more from that little 11 year old kid in me who hadn't yet yet formed any political beliefs than from the 61 year old man who is sitting here writing this response to you. I certainly do believe there was a conspiracy behind the assassination of J.F.K. However, I truly believe that if my mind had been focused on a political agenda or conspiratorial theory instead of what I felt deep inside my being about that horrific moment in our history, I doubt that any song would have been written at all. As a writer and artist yourself, I hope you can understand.

Kind regards,

Rick Ryan

[Charles Drago]

Dear Mr. Drago,


On November 22, 1963, I was an 11-year old Irish Catholic kid growing up in Belmont, Massachusetts.
I'll never forget that Friday afternoon when we were informed at school what had taken place. In the ensuing years, I've come to realize the loss of President Kennedy in such a senseless and brutal manner affected me more than I ever knew at the time. The words to this song were very difficult for me to write, bringing me to tears many times during it's composition. All the feelings that 11-year old boy experienced fifty years before...feelings he'd somehow tucked away into the deepest recesses of his psyche...were suddenly coming to the surface. It was a cathartic experience, to say the least.
I can understand your being critical of the choice of words in my post, but the lyric to the song "Childhood's End" is an altogether different matter. They were words that came directly from my heart...from somewhere deep inside myself...more from that little 11 year old kid in me who hadn't yet yet formed any political beliefs than from the 61 year old man who is sitting here writing this response to you. I certainly do believe there was a conspiracy behind the assassination of J.F.K. However, I truly believe that if my mind had been focused on a political agenda or conspiratorial theory instead of what I felt deep inside my being about that horrific moment in our history, I doubt that any song would have been written at all. As a writer and artist yourself, I hope you can understand.

Kind regards,

Rick Ryan

I was an 11-year old Italian Catholic kid growing up in Providence, Rhode Island.

Here's hoping than your "belief in" conspiracy can metamorphose into the understanding that conspiracy in the case of JFK's murder is fact.

[Jim Hackett II]

Mr. Ryan,
This is quite powerful.
Thanks
Jim

[Keith Millea]

Nice song and Video Rick.I'm glad you added the lyrics at the link.I think I'll just post them up here.

CHILDHOOD'S END

The pain flashed like a headline
Thrown upon the magic screen
A thousand days, a single flame
One instant in between

A camera's prayer of silence
Frozen church to grassy knoll
One single act of violence
Robbed a country of its soul

We tuned in as the colors dropped
The day when all the laughter stopped

They change the guard
The decades bend
A dream dies hard at childhood's end
The children weep
Old men pretend
The tide runs deep at childhood's end

The future made its promise
But our youth was double-crossed
A war of fear, a failed Frontier
One dream forever lost

A destiny abandoned
And an innocence betrayed
A piece of every one of us
Died in that motorcade

A thousand days, ten thousand nights
We all were in the killer's sights

They change the guard
The decades bend
A dream dies hard at childhood's end
The children weep
Old men pretend
The tide runs deep at childhood's endWe search to find a symbol
That the ages can't dilute
A lifeless oath, a ruined dress
One tiny son's salute

Forgetful minds remember
Though the pictures peel and crack
The day our childhood went away
And never quite came back

A nation's fate in one blind shot
It closed the gates of Camelot
They change the guard
The decades bend
A dream dies hard at childhood's end
Our children weep
Old men pretend
The tide runs deep at childhood's end

Copyright 2013 Rick Ryan

[Charles Drago]

"One blind shot"?

Really?

[Phil Dragoo]

We all were in the killer's sights




The tone is tragedy
The deed[size=12][size=12][size=12] the act of "th[size=12]e killer"


Rated CP for Commission A[size=12]pproved


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[Jim Hackett II]

"Here's hoping than your "belief in" conspiracy can metamorphose into the understanding that conspiracy in the case of JFK's murder is fact."

A sincere move of one apostrophe, from "killer's" to "killers' " and I could agree - to a point.

The cover-up of realities that began even before the murder would be untouched by that small change, but it could be a touchstone to cast the Warren Commission and HSCA so called conclusions in the junk pile and open the door to ... doin' our own thinkin'.

An end of childhood. The revelation of Government complicity in both murder and obstruction of justice. Enough to end a childhood I would think. Crimes of State.