Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’s radio magazine in SpecialEnglish.
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This is Doug Johnson. On our program today:
We tell about a rap musician who was killed recently …
Answer a listener’s question about the assassination of PresidentJohn Kennedy …
And report about the anniversary of an American memorial.
Vietnam Memorial Anniversary
HOST:
On Monday, November eleventh, a ceremony was held at the VietnamVeterans Memorial in Washington, D-C. It observed the twentiethanniversary of what has become known as “The Wall.” The memorialrecognizes and honors the American men and women who served in theRepublic of Vietnam. Shep O’Neal tells us more.
ANNCR:
The Vietnam Veterans Memorial is not like most memorials thathonor soldiers. It has no swords, no horses, no statues of famousgenerals. It is a very simple design. It is two black stone wallsthat are built into the ground. The two walls form a letter “V” withthe arms of the letter spread wide. The gold names offifty-eight-thousand-two-hundred-twenty-nine soldiers are cut intothe black stone. These are the names of the soldiers who died or whoare still missing as a result of their service in Vietnam.
The Wall has the power to createstrong feelings. The shiny black stone acts like a mirror. Thismirror effect seems to draw in visitors so that they too are part ofthe Wall. This is especially emotional for those visitors who servedin Vietnam and for the family members of those killed there.
A former soldier named Jan Scruggs thought of the idea for theVietnam Veterans Memorial. He formed an organization to raise themoney to build the project.
A competition was held to choose the design of the memorial. Thejudges considered more than one-thousand designs. They chose thedesign of a twenty-one-year-old Yale University student named MayaYing Lin. Mizz Lin’s family members had come to the United Statesfrom China. Maya Lin’s design for the Vietnam Veterans Memorialcaused great debate. Many people criticized her design. They said itwas too simple and did not show the heroic efforts of the soldiers.Some said the competition should be held over. But it was not.
Today, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial designed by Maya Lin is themost visited memorial in the nation’s capital. The National ParkService is responsible for it. Officials say almost four-millionpeople visit the Wall each year.
Mister Scruggs says the Wall makes people feel the price of war.It makes them understand that the price has to be paid in humanlives. The message of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial can beunderstood by all –veterans, families of veterans, internationalvisitors, young people and those who will visit the memorial formany, many years to come.
Kennedy Murder
HOST:
Our VOA listener question this week comes from Iran. BabakRoshani asks about the murder of America’s thirty-fifth President,John Fitzgerald Kennedy.
That is a good question to answerone week before the thirty-ninth anniversary of the assassination.President Kennedy was shot and killed in Dallas, Texas on Novembertwenty-second, nineteen-sixty-three.
The news of the killing shocked millions of Americans. Almost allolder Americans remember what they were doing when they heard thenews.
John F. Kennedy was elected president in nineteen-sixty. He wasthe youngest man ever elected president. He went to Texas in aneffort to end a split in the state’s Democratic Party.
Large, friendly crowds greeted the President’s open car as itdrove through the streets of Dallas. Mister Kennedy’s wife,Jacqueline, was sitting next to him. Suddenly, there were gunshots.President Kennedy was wounded in the neck and head. He was taken toa nearby hospital, where he soon died.
Television and radio reported the news of the shooting to ashocked world. Vice President Lyndon Johnson met Missus Kennedy atthe airport. Mister Johnson was sworn in as President on thepresidential airplane.
Several people who saw the shooting said the shots that killedMister Kennedy came from a building where schoolbooks were stored.Police raced to the Dallas Schoolbook Depository, but could not findthe killer. Then they began searching for an employee of thebuilding who had left the area a few minutes after the shooting.Police arrested the employee, Lee Harvey Oswald, a short time later.
Oswald is said to have shot and killed a policeman whileresisting arrest. He was charged with the murders of PresidentKennedy and the policeman. Police questioned Oswald for two days,but he denied the charges. The murder weapon was found hidden in thebuilding where Oswald worked. He owned the gun and his handprintswere found on the weapon.
Two days later, police decided to move Oswald from the Dallascity jail to another jail. As he was being moved, a man named JackRuby shot and killed the suspect. Ruby died in prison three yearslater. President Johnson appointed a special committee toinvestigate the murder of President Kennedy. The committee’s finalreport found that Oswald had acted alone. However, many people didnot agree with that finding. Many still do not.
Jam Master Jay
HOST:
Rap music lost a popular artist last month. Jam Master Jay of therap group Run-D-M-C was shot and killed at a recording studio in NewYork City. Mary Tillotson tells about the man and his music.
ANNCR:
Jam Master Jay’s real name was Jason Mizell. He served as D-J inthe rap group Run-D-M-C. The D-J uses records in a special way toprovide different sounds for the rappers. He finds drumbeats andother sounds he wants to use on a record. Then he uses his hands tomove the record back and forth at different speeds under the needleof the record player. This creates different noises. The process iscalled scratching. Listen to Jam Master Jay scratch on the Run-D-M-Csong, “Down with the King.”
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Run-D-M-C formed in nineteen-eighty-two. Jam Master Jay helpedthe group become one of the most important hip-hop groups ever. Itsmusic was popular with many different kinds of people. Run-D-M-Calso mixed rap and rock music for the first time. Here is Run-D-M-Cand the rock group Aerosmith performing the Aerosmith song “WalkThis Way.”
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Jam Master Jay was opposed to messages of violence in rap music.He said such violence represented everything rap was against. JamMaster Jay was thirty-seven years old when he died. The twosurviving members of Run-D-M-C said they will no longer perform inhonor of their former D-J.
We leave you now with the Run-D-M-C song, “Jam Master Jay.”
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HOST:
This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And Ihope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC — VOA’sradio magazine in Special English.
This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by George Grow, Paul Thompson and Caty Weaver. Our studio engineer was Glen Matlock. Andour producer was Paul Thompson.