I hate to ask this. I know it’s controversial. But I want to find out what exactly this is. There’s something creepy about the frequency, severity and longevity of chaos, misfortune and scandal striking a certain family, every year, at least once a year, including relatives who don’t even bear the same last name but are just remotely related. I’m talking of course about the Kennedy’s. Just recently some man was going to be arrested on charges of some crime, and related to the Kennedy family. Now what’s the explanation?
Is it possible that there are a whole lot of people related to the Kennedys, and that any time anything bad happens to any of them, it’s news?
Did you know that there were less shark attacks last year than most years in the U.S.?
I guess, but it just seems like something has gotten right into their whole family structure and is flailing them around like the wrestler slinging his opponent. The Rockefellers, Reagans, and other families have lots of branches too but don’t experience what the Kennedy’s are experiencing. All the back to the 1960’s with of course the infamous assassination and the drowning of Mary Jo Kopekne to currently, about a month ago. Once a year or two, you say, ‘Oh, too bad!’ Twice every year, or two or three, you say ‘Boy what bad coincidences for that family!’ But three, four and five times every two to three years (a death in a plane, a lawsuit, a drug bust, etc in only the last two years, continuing a pattern spanning four decades, you say ‘My god…this is a curse.’
I would suggest it`s selective media coverage.
If the middle class Wilkinsons in Tucson lost two family members in a car crash, had their house burn down, and twenty years later a cousin was shot by a burglar while on the same day his girlfrend was diagnosed with diabetes, you`d never hear about it.
Feh. There are dozens of them and they have a somewhat casual attitude toward substance abuse. Putting aside Joe junior, John and Robert, all of whom died in war or were murdered, the rest of them seem to suffer from self-inflicted tragedy or accidents, none of which requires belief in astrology to explain. Take any 100 people (roughly equal to the original ten children and all their spouses, children, nieces and nephews), give them a fair amount of wealth and few controls and some will be killed, some will commmit suicide, some will commit violent crimes, and some will die in unusual accidents. Then wildly publicize each and every one of these incidents, and you give the public the impression that the 100 are cursed.
Even this website, claiming to list a “Timeline of Kennedy Tragedies” only cites 15 incidents (some of which aren’t really all that tragic for the Kennedys themselves) over a 58-year period. Any large group of people could record a similar number.
Incidentally, the founders of the Kennedy clan, Joe and Rose, lived to be 81 and 105, respectively. Hardly tragic at all.
It’s all because Joe, Sr. sold his soul.
Doesn’t everybody know that?
postcards just made his last post.
signed,
The illuminati—
Another nomination for the “They say please use descriptive thread titles, but I guess that doesn’t apply to me” awards.
Do these people have the same attitude to ‘Do not start bushfires’ or ‘Please do not drop litter’ signs?
dopetalker, I changed the title of this thread from It’s creepy to It’s creepy: explain the Kennedy curse. In the future, please try to choose more descriptive titles.
bibliophage
moderator GQ
Yep, that pretty much sums it up from a karma standpoint.
Exactly. The Kennedy’s are followed assiduously by the press and every skinned knee is reported. A woman high school classmate of mine had two children both of whom were killed while relatively young, in accidents. Her first husband had a stroke from which he recovered after a long struggle shortly after which he died of kidney failure. She then married the man with whom she had been a steady date in high school. He promptly developed breathing problems, went on oxygen and died within a year and a half. None of this appeared in national news outlites as any kind of “curse.” And why should it?
What the FUCK?
Could you possibly be ANY VAGUER???!!!
“Some man was going to be arrested on charges of some crime…”
Gee, that narrows it down to around 2.1 MILLION FUCKING PEOPLE.
Christ, just GO AWAY.
For a moment there, I thought this was the Pit…
Agree With Bryan Ekers, Dr. Hermes and David Simmons
So much is what you would logically expect from a group of +50 some-odd rich people over 60 years. I’d add that since they were “nephew of the President or brother/son of the Senator” their foibles were easily televised and spread as well.
Two of the “Curse” tragedies seems to be especially silly: of the 10 kids of Rose and Joe: 1 Child dies in WWII combat (with a few 100 of millions of his contemporaries) and one child is born mentally challenged.
The next generation of 30 (some odd people) includes the drug addicts and by my count 3 accidental deaths, but also: Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, next Governor of Maryland and the oldest of this generation at 48, Joe Kennedy II, U.S. Congressman and Patrick Kennedy, youngest member of the U.S. House of Representatives. And circa 20 people positioning themselves to run i.e. in the Statehouse, being DA’s, running non-profits etc.
Also their fortune is intact: IIRC Each of these kids are worth +/- $20 Million, (tho they can’t break the trust until two of Joe & Roses’ Kids are left alive and have to live on interest).
All of this argues against a true “curse”.
Me, too.
WSLer, that is not how we act in General Questions. Do not do that again.
Me, too.
WSLer, that is not how we act in General Questions. Do not do that again.
I’d like to add that the Kennedys tend to engage in reckless and/or unethical behaviour, or in the case of some of them, they are just willing to take a lot of risks, even for good causes.
Joe Jr. died while engaged in an extremely hazardous volunteer mission in WWII. Had he lived, he would probably have been President instead of John.
John Kennedy was shot, but by all accounts he took a rather cavalier attitude towards his presidential safety. The vehicle he was shot in, for example, had an available bulletproof hardtop, but he elected not to use it in order to let the people see him better and so he wouldn’t look so imperial. Good for him - he was willing to stick his neck out for what he thought was the proper thing to do. But it cost him.
Robert Kennedy was shot by an assassin, but Robert made lots of enemies and stuck his neck out a mile on more than one occasion. Again, I’m not faulting him for that, and I think it was rather courageous.
It should be pointed out that statistically, being president is one of the most dangerous jobs you can have. Robert was enough of a polarizing figure that the risks he took were probably as great as his big brother’s.
One of the Kennedy sisters died when her airplane hit a mountain in bad weather, if I recall. Risky behaviour.
John Jr. died flying a plane he was barely comfortable in, in weather he was not qualified to be flying in. By all accounts he was a good, careful pilot, but inexperienced and not rated to fly instruments. His death that night was the result of multiple errors in judgement, not the hand of fate. It happens.
Ted Kennedy killed a girl because he was driving drunk at night and lost control of his vehicle.
Bottom line: Risky behaviour leads to bad consequences if you do it long enough, and in the case of the Kennedys when many of them engage in said behavour, then over a period of 50 years you can expect some tragedies.
I knew a family like this in Saskatchewan. They flew airplanes recklessly, drove fast cars, did a lot of target shooting with a casual attitude towards firearms safety, didn’t take care around their farm implements, etc. That family had three vehicle rollover accidents, two airplane crashes, and one accidental shooting during the ten years in which I really knew them well. As well as a series of farm injuries leading to loss of minor appendages. Through some miracle of fate, none of them died during that time. But jeez, if they’d been even slightly unlucky, half that family could have been killed in the space of a few years.
I think you have this all backwards.
What is your definition of a ‘family curse’?
Which members do you include?
(in-laws, third cousins - how far out?)
What do you define as the curse in action?
(premature deaths obviously - but a drug bust? Hardly. 
)
What do you think is the cause of the curse?
(I don’t believe in the Devil myself, but do let us know if you do. :eek: )
Now if you study the families of various Presidents, I’m sure you would find a range of incidents.
This is statistically normal.
The only significance is if you somehow predict the family.
I’m sure if I studied the families of UK Prime Ministers, there would be some with more tragedies than others.
And this would mean … absolutely nothing.
So I agree with WSLer a little (though I am much politer).
There is no curse, and it’s vaguely creepy that you think there is.
WSL’er or whatever the hell your name is, if you’ve been paying attention to the news like I have (which you obviously haven’t) you wouldn’t need me to go into detail but would in fact remember who I’m talking about and that it is in fact a going thing that was still important just recently. And your saying to me “Christ just go away” really says that some views are capable of causing you consternation like this, either because a) you know that what I’m saying is correct and no matter how much you beat around the bush and say 'yes but other families also…" you know damn well no one is getting what the Kennedy’s are getting or b) you’re too involved in you self-absorbed secure little world to even care about making an effort to maybe accept something that you think might be a threat and make you have to …gasp…change your viewsl, so YOU’RE the one who needs to go away and who obviously should never have been here. christ…just shut your insignificant mouth.
And ianzin, if you really don’t think that sometimes in life you can run into something or someone like bad luck or something to mow you down you might be unprepared for a little bush fire of your own you’ll have to put out. And you’re right! I respect “don’t drop litter” signs. So can you remove yours please? Thanks.
POST NO BILLS