DECEMBER
11, 2005 --
In
1941, this was the day President Franklin D. Roosevelt told
Congress that we are at war with Japan, because of the attack
on Pearl Harbor.
In 1980, December 8 was the day John Lennon will killed in front of his apartment
building, the Dakota, at 72nd Street and Central Park West.
While the events of December, 64 years ago, are, perhaps, receding from official
memory, hundreds of people, and the media, came to the Dakota, and the Central
Park memorial to John Lennon in
Strawberry Fields, across Central Park West, to mark the 25th annniversary
of his murder.
Although not a Beatles fan, I clearly recall December 8, 1980. It was a Monday,
quite cold, and that evening, I had taken my consitutional law final exam,
as a student at New York Law School. When I got home, I turned on the radio
and heard that John Lennon had been shot and killed outside his residence.
Lennon and I are the same age -- born May 15, 1940 I was a few months older
-- and that was bond enough for me to go to Manhattan's west side the silver
anniversary of his death.
It is likely that those who came to Central
Park to honor the memory of John Lennon included young people who were born
after Lennon was killed.
People went to the entrance of the Dakota, and lighted candles to John Lennon's
memory in front of the building.
Candles were also lighted in Central Park,
at the Strawberry Fields memorial to Lennon, marked by a circular mosaic with
one word "Imagine" -- in the center.
As a picture held by a man near the Central Park memorial indicates: John Lennon
will forever be 40 years old -- his music, of course, will be forever.
I noticed a few people in Central Park holding a poster that I assumed marked
this tragic anniversary.
Leaving the park and walking up Central Park West to my car, I saw a man outside
an NBC TV van, speaking with a reporter inside.
As he walked away, in my direction, he stopped and showed me a poster -- and
said that he had given hundreds away. It was the poster I had seen people holding
in Strawberry Fields.
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Artist
Michael Albert celebrating the works of John Lennon
in his art.
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The artist (also
a businessman, selling organic fruit juice), Michael Albert signed
a poster and gave it to me. (His website is www.cerealism.com.)
Continuing to my car, a passerby struck up a conversation, telling me that he
had met John Lennon and that the neighborhood was a lot different 25 years
ago.
He also recalled that in those years, the inflation of the Macy's parade balloons
did not draw crowds or police presence. (The
Macy's parade starts five blocks north of the Dakota.)
As we were talking, I heard a voice inquire, "Is that Shana?" I had
taken Shana with me, and she had gotten
considerable attention from people at Strawberry Fields. But the question came
from the direction of the street. I looked towards a cab stopped at a red light
and saw theater publicist Carol Fineman smiling at seeing Shana.
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Shana,
enjoying the attention, and relaxing at Strawberry
Fields.
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