James Douglass's JFK and the Unspeakable is not only the greatest book ever written on John F. Kennedy's execution, but on his life and Presidency as well. Out of the darkness, Douglass creates a hymn of faith, hope, and transcendence. In Kennedy's murder by the forces of the Unspeakable, a contemporary crucifixion, Douglass sees meaning beyond the resulting Vietnam genocide, beyond the takeover of our society by back-stabbers, soul-crushers and corporate ghouls, beyond the shifting of cultural meaning toward something hideously empty and narcissistic -- meaning in the symbol of a man willing to die for his beliefs, for his (in Douglass's term) "turning." One can argue with this, for at the heart of Douglass's profoundly spiritual argument, there is something anti-political. Rather than viewing Jack Kennedy's murder as a political and economic act by men who saw themselves only in those terms, we experience it through Douglass's writing as a modern day Stations of the Cross. First Station: Kennedy refuses war with Laos. Second Station: Kennedy refuses invasion and air attacks during the Bay of Pigs; Third Station: Berlin Wall goes up, Kennedy lets it stand. Etc. It is an agony, as we follow Kennedy's turning and his movement toward the Golgotha of Dallas.
The very talented Seth Jacobson and Oliver Hine have been preparing a graphic novel adaptation of the Douglass masterpiece, with little interest shown -- despite the original book's popularity upon Simon & Schuster's paperback release -- by American publishers. Jacobson & Hine need your help. If you can assist, please head over to Kickstarter.
