JFK, Jr. Upholds the Family Tradition

"It was all very careless and confused. They were careless people, Tom and Daisy - they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they made…."
- F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

Call it bad karma or simply bad judgement. Either might answer the question that lies in the wake of the plane crash that claimed the life of John Kennedy, Jr., his wife and her sister - "Why?"

Why, indeed, did another tragedy befell this American family which, as President Clinton said yesterday, has given so much, yet, endured so much, too.

Amidst the spooky speculation that the Kennedys are "cursed" came an explanation which, for me, seemed to cut through all of that.

"They're reckless people; always have been and always will be, 'cause they think they can do anything they want."

That wasn't some bitter old-school Republican who said that. It wasn’t some new-age journalist with no reasons whatsoever to claim the Kennedys as friends. And it wasn't one of the millions of Americans whose infatuation with all things Kennedy borders on the unhealthy. This lone voice of reason had come simply from a single radio listener somewhere in the Midwest who had somehow figured it out a long time ago.

This is not to diminish or demonize the memory of John Jr. by any means. He was, as a person – as a mere human being – able to raise himself above that lousy bunch on his father's side he was forced to call "relatives." It's often been said that John Jr. inherited his mother's looks and his father's smarts (or lack thereof.) But another aspect of the Kennedy side that missed John Jr. was the out-and-out ruthless mindset possessed by the Kennedy clan. And they are a clan. It's their way or the highway, and anyone who treads in their path be damned. They have always been, in their own minds, above the law and in that respect, they are true villains in society, much in the way that Tom and Daisy Buchanan were the win-at-all-cost villains in The Great Gatsby.

It's been almost 75 years since Scott Fitzgerald gave us these two literary heathens - some three and a half decades before the election of John F. Kennedy - and still we haven't learned from the lesson Fitzgerald tried to teach us.

A prominent historian and Kennedy groupie attempted, via a New York Times editorial, to excuse the family's hi-jinks as an antidote for "useless boredom." But there's a big difference between “useless boredom” and “bad judgment.” And much like the string of his relatives who have made bad decisions, John Kennedy, Jr. made a bad decision. He was reckless and careless and confused; a victim of the hubris and subsequent bad judgment which has been inherently Kennedyesque for half a century. Which is bad enough; but worse when your own bad judgement is responsible for other victims, too. Just ask the family of Mary Jo Kopechne.

Speaking of Chappaquiddick, did anyone else find it strange that the disappearance of John Jr.'s plane took place 30 years to the day (the third Friday of July) that his Uncle Ted drove a car over a bridge near Martha's Vineyard, crawled out and swam to safety, left Mary Jo Kopechne to die, then decided to tell the police about it some nine hours later?

Careless and reckless - the stuff that Kennedys are made of.

For those who understand and trust in the strange powers of karma, it doesn't take much to recognize that these people have taken a whole lot more than they have given, and that from time to time, they must pay the piper.

The sentiment I will concede is that, if nothing else, this family has demonstrated amazing resiliency and I salute them for it. Though given their history of decision-making, they haven't given themselves much choice.

“So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”
- F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby