producing twenty –nine grandchildren, there have been increased opportunities for tragedy. Observes Temple University mathematics professor John Allen Paulos (1999), “If we look at large families we can sometimes find more death, disease and tragedy than is generally expected.”
Still another factor is the common tendency to connect the unconnected. Much like the impulse that prompts us to see pictures in clouds or other random forms, there is the impetus to find dubious relationships between events—a sort of connect –the –dots tendency that the Times Record News (1999) observed “seems to be one characteristic of human nature.” Asks the editorial, “When traffic accidents cluster around one intersection, would we blame our luck on the curse of the car gods or would we recognize that congestion or some other factor might play the major role in the number of accidents occurring there?”
The News joined others in pointing out the evident Kennedy “propensity for risk –taking” (Paulos 1999). Although Sorensen (1999) insists that the family is characterized by an adventurous rather than foolhardyspirit, the line between the two often blurs. Michael Kennedy died as a result of the risky family pastime of “ski football”—a game the Aspen, Colorado, ski patrol had warned against (Thomas 1998,23). And a friend of JFK Jr. stated that the son of the thirty –fifth president “loved to dance on the edge” (Barlow 1999), a tendency that may have been involved in his chancing a nighttime flight. Apart from mere adventurousness, simply seeking political office obviously brings increased risk of assassination—a factor that belies the notion of a curse in the deaths of JFK and RFK.
And speaking of assassination, there is another factor that aids the perception of a curse: visibility. Paulos (1999) notes that “When a celebrity’s private life and death become public, news gets disseminated so rapidly and so thoroughly that we’re blinded to everyone else’s lives”—as happened with JFK’s assassination. Also, the Kennedy family’s involvement in various aspects of American society—an involvement that increases the family members’ visibility—can help foster “the perception of more misfortunes” (Paulos 1999).
Especially when taken together, these factors may help promote superstitious belief in a Kennedy curse, although it is never stated who or what has cursed them or why. But as presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin (1999) said of the cumulative tragedies, the family’s willingness to carry on demonstrated “a love of life that’s just the opposite of giving in to a curse.” And conservative columnist William Saffire concluded (1999), “There is no curse that hangs over anybody. It’s against our idea of free will, whether you buy the Hope diamond or enter King Tut’s tomb.”
References
Acquistapace, Fred. 1991. Miracles That Never Were: Natural Explanations of the Bible’s Supernatural Stories. Santa Rose, Calif.: Eye –Opener, 39 –79.
The American Heritage Desk Dictionary. 1981. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, s.v. “superstition.”
Anthony, Ted. 1999. Litany of Kennedy tragedies seen as product of risk –taking lifestyles, Buffalo News, July 18.
Asimov, Isaac. 1968. Asimov’s Guide to the Bible , vol. 1. New York: Avon.
Barlow, John Perry. 1999. Appearance on Larry King Live, July 19.
Beck, Melinda, et al. 1984. A Kennedy shadow legacy? Newsweek, July 2, 25.
Blackman, W. Haden. 1988. The Field Guide to North American Hauntings. New York: Three Rivers, 92 –94.
Bryant, Alice, and Phyllis Galde. 1991. The Message of the Crystal Skull St. Paul, Minn.: Llewellyn, 49 –63, 203 –07.
Curse or hubris—Europe’s press mourns JFK Jr. 1999. London: Reuters, July 19.
Davis, John H. 1984. The Kennedys: Dynasty and Disaster. New York: McGraw – Hill.
Diamond of doom. 1976. In Perrott Phillips, ed., Out of This World , vol. 1. n.p.: Phoebus, 47 –50.
Goodwin, Doris
Still another factor is the common tendency to connect the unconnected. Much like the impulse that prompts us to see pictures in clouds or other random forms, there is the impetus to find dubious relationships between events—a sort of connect –the –dots tendency that the Times Record News (1999) observed “seems to be one characteristic of human nature.” Asks the editorial, “When traffic accidents cluster around one intersection, would we blame our luck on the curse of the car gods or would we recognize that congestion or some other factor might play the major role in the number of accidents occurring there?”
The News joined others in pointing out the evident Kennedy “propensity for risk –taking” (Paulos 1999). Although Sorensen (1999) insists that the family is characterized by an adventurous rather than foolhardyspirit, the line between the two often blurs. Michael Kennedy died as a result of the risky family pastime of “ski football”—a game the Aspen, Colorado, ski patrol had warned against (Thomas 1998,23). And a friend of JFK Jr. stated that the son of the thirty –fifth president “loved to dance on the edge” (Barlow 1999), a tendency that may have been involved in his chancing a nighttime flight. Apart from mere adventurousness, simply seeking political office obviously brings increased risk of assassination—a factor that belies the notion of a curse in the deaths of JFK and RFK.
And speaking of assassination, there is another factor that aids the perception of a curse: visibility. Paulos (1999) notes that “When a celebrity’s private life and death become public, news gets disseminated so rapidly and so thoroughly that we’re blinded to everyone else’s lives”—as happened with JFK’s assassination. Also, the Kennedy family’s involvement in various aspects of American society—an involvement that increases the family members’ visibility—can help foster “the perception of more misfortunes” (Paulos 1999).
Especially when taken together, these factors may help promote superstitious belief in a Kennedy curse, although it is never stated who or what has cursed them or why. But as presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin (1999) said of the cumulative tragedies, the family’s willingness to carry on demonstrated “a love of life that’s just the opposite of giving in to a curse.” And conservative columnist William Saffire concluded (1999), “There is no curse that hangs over anybody. It’s against our idea of free will, whether you buy the Hope diamond or enter King Tut’s tomb.”
References
Acquistapace, Fred. 1991. Miracles That Never Were: Natural Explanations of the Bible’s Supernatural Stories. Santa Rose, Calif.: Eye –Opener, 39 –79.
The American Heritage Desk Dictionary. 1981. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, s.v. “superstition.”
Anthony, Ted. 1999. Litany of Kennedy tragedies seen as product of risk –taking lifestyles, Buffalo News, July 18.
Asimov, Isaac. 1968. Asimov’s Guide to the Bible , vol. 1. New York: Avon.
Barlow, John Perry. 1999. Appearance on Larry King Live, July 19.
Beck, Melinda, et al. 1984. A Kennedy shadow legacy? Newsweek, July 2, 25.
Blackman, W. Haden. 1988. The Field Guide to North American Hauntings. New York: Three Rivers, 92 –94.
Bryant, Alice, and Phyllis Galde. 1991. The Message of the Crystal Skull St. Paul, Minn.: Llewellyn, 49 –63, 203 –07.
Curse or hubris—Europe’s press mourns JFK Jr. 1999. London: Reuters, July 19.
Davis, John H. 1984. The Kennedys: Dynasty and Disaster. New York: McGraw – Hill.
Diamond of doom. 1976. In Perrott Phillips, ed., Out of This World , vol. 1. n.p.: Phoebus, 47 –50.
Goodwin, Doris
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