No One Would Ever Attack the Gov't

The other day the city of Dallas, texas came up for some reason. Whenever there is a class with anyone over the age of 40, you can't mention dallas, FOR ANY REASON, sports, oil, hurricane, whatever, but if you mention Dallas someone will say "I remember that's where kennedy got shot."
Then everyone will murmur in agreement. "Mmm, dallas, kennedy, mm, mm, kill, mmm"
Then someone will say he was handsome, what a waste, then someone will ask me why he was shot, was it the mafia, was it about oil, boy his wife was glamorous.
Often we'll conclude 1 of 2 ways.
Everyone will settle into an uneasy silence, shaking their heads, kinda zoned out, which is Japanese group body language for "We think it's messed up but we're too polite to say anything about it."
Or if someone is in the group who's a little more ballsey, they're conclude with something like "We japanese are very sad for you american people. we feel sorry that so many of your presidents are killed. we can't understand."

So the other day I said "yeah, I was surprised when the Dietmember (like a parliamentarian) was stabbed to death outside of his house in the middle of the afternoon last year."
To which everyone continued to murmur. "Mm, mm, terrible. Lincoln, mm, helped black people, mmm"
So I said "yeah, some man cam eright up to his house, rang the doorbell and stabbed him at the gate. he died on the street."
No one really heard me because they had turned off and were in group concur mode. But something registered. maybe like if you shouted your friend's name who was swimming underwater.
someone said "Mm? Where? recently?"
"About a year ago, i htink."
"In America?"
"No, in Japan."
"Oh, I heard about this. A muslim killed him in amsterdam"
"Yeah, similar story, but in tokyo."
"Tokyo? Eh? Why was the muslim man in tokyo?"
"No, a japanese politician was stabbed outside his home last summer but a right wing man"
"Eh? In japan? no! How could we know?"
(It was in the newspaper.)

my constant refrain: I dont think Japan is a terrible place, I think it's just like others but I wish everyone here and outside would realize that and pack away the dried out myths of yore. I cite this as an example of ordinary worldly educated people who dwell on the troubles of other places and turn a blind eye here.

Ever see a movie where a nice couple had thier son die in a car crash... he was a good student, handsome, star quarterback, gave his mom nice mother's day presents, was gonna go to princeton and marry his high school sweetheart and become a young president and invade cuba, no wait... well anyway, the bereaved mom keeps the boy's room exactly as it was, cleans it twice a day, and still talks about him in the present tense. her husband, nice guy, loves his wife but sometimes grows weary of the charade says "Honey, he's not coming to dinner, no he's not late Elisabeth, he's not gonna come late to dinner" all the while raising his voice gradually... "dont you understand!? he's -NEVER-coming-back!" until finally the woman gets it and breaks down.

well that's what it's like sometimes trying to get my students to nitice that bad things happen here, like shady business deals, health officials that shirk their duty, and so on.