Yesterday was our annual - and final- fall drive to Syracuse to take Emily back to school.  We took two cars since Emily keeps one up here, and also because she has 3,000 pairs of shoes that won't fit in one trunk.   The girls drove together and I went solo, which I relished.  I could keep my windows and sun roof open, and listen to whatever I wanted to, as loud as I wanted to, which was back and forth between Sirius 50's on 5, 60's on 6, and the Grateful Dead channel.   Having just finished a biography of Eisenhower, and deciding on whether to start one of FDR, JFK, or LBJ, I was in a historical kind of mood and started to wonder about all sorts of things.

First, I thought that Eisenhower never would have gotten us involved in Iraq.  He was counseled and pressured many times to engage our troops, in China, at the Suez Canal, and other places, and he refused.  He knew war better than anyone.  His eight years saw not a single US troop killed in battle.  Compare him to the dope who did invade Iraq - you can't.

Then I started to wonder, listening to "Dizzy," a great song, what would have happened if Joe Kennedy was not shot down in WWII.   Would he have been elected president?  Good chance.  He was the oldest brother.  What if RFK had lived, would he had beaten Nixon in 1968?  Humphrey was awful close.   How would Nixon have felt losing to two Kennedys?  I think he would have lost his mind and lived in a dark closet.

The thought that bothered me the most was who killed Kennedy.  Why don't we know for sure?   It seems that everything that is written about it takes one side or the other.   Is there anything out there that just lays out the facts on either side?  I saw a video of a secret service agent who was running alongside the presidential limo and who was called off.  He stands there extending his arms, as if asking why?  What does that mean?   It is a travesty that we don't have clear answers to this and it bothered me while I was passing Binghamton.

All questions we will never know the answer to.  But life moves on, and the wind rushing through my windows and the sun through my sunroof felt great, and it is good to be alive.