Remembering John Lennon

I just heard John Lennon's "Woman" on the radio, and, as always, it brought a tear to my eyes and soul.

It's impossible, on one level, to compare assassinations, the murders of public figures. They are all horrendous. But the murder of John Lennon on this date in 1980 is in some ways the worst for me, and I can't speak for my generation.

John was a singer, a songwriter, for God's sake, not a President or someone running for office. His murder was fueled by a sick thirst for fame, pure and simple. That's why I never mention the sicko monster's name.

But this day - and public murders in the quest for fame - also makes me think about gun control. The killer in Omaha this week was looking for fame, too.

I know about the Second Amendment. And as an absolutist on the First Amendment, which I think should be followed literally, with no government restrictions on speech or press, all of the time, I want to do the same for Second Amendment.

But I can't help thinking that John Lennon might have survived a knife attack, and fewer people might have succumbed to the killer in Omaha had he been armed with only a knife.

I'll think more about those issues tomorrow.

Today, let me just say, John, I always loved your music and always will. It brings me joy to this day to hear anything you wrote or sang - from "Dr. Robert" to "Jealous Guy," just two of my all-time favorites.

And Yoko - thank you, too, for being so strong and dignified and unswerving in your commitment to peace all of these years. John would have been very proud of you.

I write about time travel in my fiction. If only it were real, and I could employ it, I think the first thing I would do is go back and save John, and warn him not to go into that alley....

I can't do that, but at least his music doesn't need saving. It will be here forever on CDs and MP3s and whatever new forms of music media invented by our species.