Of JFK, recollections, sadness, hope and a wish

I'm watching the "JFK, The Day that Changed America" special on MSNBC. The memories of "that day" came flooding back. It saddens me that November 22 ever happened but more than that it deeply saddens me that the country has slipped so much since those days.

I chose my avatar wisely. I was in the first grade when John F. Kennedy became President of the United States. My entire household was supporters of John F. Kennedy right down to the family dog. My father was a skilled tradesman and my mother did clerical work and each supported the election of JFK enthusiastically. Not long after JFK assumed the office of president there were, I guess what you would call today, collector’s plates hanging in my parent’s bedroom. On my fathers side was a plate with the likeness of President Kennedy and on my mothers side was the plate with the likeness of Jackie Kennedy.

I'll never forget the day President Kennedy came to town. First off, my parents were able to get me a half-day off of school, which was good. My father took me downtown to meet my mother, who left work early. We then walked to Fountain Square (in Cincinnati) where the president was to speak. When President Kennedy took to the podium I knew it couldn’t get any better than this. I was along side my parents who loved me and took care of me and we were seeing this bigger-than-life icon that was doing his best to take care of this country. It was very reassuring to me. I couldn’t actually tell you what President Kennedy talked about that day, but knew he was a powerful speaker and he left you full of hope and promise for the future.

The day President Kennedy was shot was another day I was able to leave school early but under much different circumstances. We had a nun that was principle of my school. She stood barely five foot tall, weighted scarcely more than 120 pounds and was well into her fifties. But she ruled that school like General Patten and wouldn’t hesitate for a moment to use the school’s PA system to tell the school of rules infractions by unnamed perpetrators. This particular day she unexpectedly came on the PA system around 1:30PM EST. She went on how someone did and unspeakable act and how despicable this coward was. My first though was “Wow, someone in school must have really screwed up this time.” But then she went on how unconscionable and Godless this act was. By this time I figured something was up. Then she said President Kennedy was shot. You could feel all the air leave the room at that instant. We prayed the Rosary from that time on, even while going from class to class. The principle came on the PA a little while later in a much somber tone to tell us the President was dead and that class was dismissed for the day. Somehow that news wasn’t quite as upsetting since I knew from her earlier announcement that this would probably be the outcome.

At home my father was quite distraught over the news. I don’t know if he ever slept much the whole weekend, but mostly stayed glued to the TV watching Walter Chronkite and the proceedings in Washington. He told me later one of his co-workers said the assassination was “good news”. My father told this co-worker if he wanted to talk about the “good news” in the parking lot he would certainly welcome a more in-depth “discussion”. The co-worker kept his mouth shut.

John F. Kennedy will always be the standard I will always set for a president. Sadly no president since has ever come up to that standard. Three years ago I learned the presidency can be bought by Rovian manipulation and help from the Supreme Court Five. Today it’s sad to see the office held in such high esteem in the JFK years being used for pre-emptive wars, gutting the environment, tax breaks for the wealthy, major negative cash flow, screwing veterans and hoodwinking senior citizens. It’s unthinkable that the dimwitted impostor still has an approval rating of around 50%. Maybe it is naive of me to think this but I really hope some of these gullible people watch some of these tribute shows to President Kennedy this week and figures out that we shouldn’t expect less than competence and should aspire to elect a man or woman as close to the standard of John F. Kennedy as possible.

I have one wish for the people on this board. There are nine candidates to challenge the dim son in 2004. PLEASE educate yourself on these candidates and pick who you feel would be the best person for the office. PLEASE DO NOT elevate your choice by denigrating the other candidates. You really are not elevating your candidate that way. Look at the big picture. We are trying to put a real president in charge once again.

that America would be different today if JFK was elected. Him and his brother both represented the strength of America. I wasn't born at the time, but I am almost certain that he would have a left an even greater legacy if he was given the chance.

Sometimes, I pray that someone as great as him would show up on the doorstep of America and share with us his/her vision for this land. I am not sure when it will happen, but we can all hope for that.

I was in the fifth grade when President Kennedy was elected, and he is still my hero. He is the reason I became interested in politics. America has just never been the same since his assassination, and then to lose Bobby and Martin Luther King, Jr., also. If you take the time to read their words, all three of them, you realize how great their loss was to us, and to the world. It just makes what we have now seem even more nightmarish.

I was moved by what 90% of the people had to say, but John McCain, Pat Robertson and William F Buckley, Jr. angered me to the point of sputtering obscenities at the screen simply by their inclusion and their subtle "if people had known the REAL JFK" storyline. Your post was 100% more eloquent than mine ever could be. Thanks.

I was 16 when JFK died, and I do remember some of the high points of his presidency. The man was human, not a god, but what a contrast between the presidency of JFK and the presidency of GWB.

I remember the great controversy during his presidential campaign because he and his family were (gasp) Roman Catholics. Would he let his religion influence his decisions and policies, or would he let the US Constitution be his guide regarding the separation of church and state? Would the Pope (a foreign ruler) have undue influence on him?

Kennedy had to publicly reassure the electorate on this matter. If he had so much as hinted he was going to impose his religious practices and beliefs on his cabinet and other employees of the White House there would have been hell to pay. What if JFK had his cabinet recite the Rosary before each meeting? Most Americans would have thought it extremely offensive. GWB has Bible study in the White House and prayers at Cabinet meetings. "Missed you at Bible study this morning" is considered an acceptable greeting. Appointees to government positions in Bush's world must pass a religious litmus test. And a large chunk of Americans today think this is proof that Bush is a "godly man."

I knew that JFK and his cabinet knew a lot about other countries and their cultures. The impression I got was that although he knew the US was strong, he also recognized that we are but one member in a family of nations. He supported the UN -- he certainly wanted the UN to agree with him, but he never tried to undermine or destroy it.

I --and many of my friends-- sent away for the Peace Corps packet. What a noble idea to offer to the nation and the world. We felt uplifted just thinking about it, and we knew that we were being told that the US and its individual citizens could be a force toward peaceful change, partly by our assistance to other countries and their people, and partly by modeling democracy.

We headed toward space.

Many of my classmates were military dependents from the nearby Marine Corps and Air Force bases. During the Cuban Missile Crisis we were all in an agony of fear: my friends because their fathers were on high alert, and all of us because we knew a nuclear war would destroy us. The Bay of Pigs invasion/fiasco was beyond most of us youngsters when it happened, but this we understood. We had been raised in the shadow of the Bomb.

The Civil Rights movement was well underway. President Eisenhower had already established that National Guardsmen could be used to enforce Brown vs. Board of Education and begin to desegregate public schools. Kennedy was perceived as a strong supporter of civil rights, desegregation, and voters' rights, and many African-Americans (Negroes at the time) loved him for that and were fiercely loyal. There is some question as to whether a living Kennedy could have gotten his civil rights legislation through the legislature, but in the strong feelings after his death it was Lyndon Baines Johnson who pushed it through.

Jack and Jackie Kennedy didn't just exude glamor. They exuded intelligence, as well. Somehow it was clear that they both valued their education. Need I say more...

It was about 9:30 in the morning in Hawaii and we were changing classes. Over the crush in the hallways I heard someone say that the president had been shot, and I thought, "That's a poor joke." But after my chemistry class got settled, our teacher Mr. Osaki confirmed it. We were stunned, but there was nothing more to go on so we had to continue with our classwork. It was not until later in the day that the word came from the principal's office: everyone assemble at the flagpole. We had no intercoms, no TV, no auditorium. The cafeteria was the biggest room in the school, but we still had to take lunch in shifts. Fortunately it was not raining as nearly 2,000 high schoolers jammed the open space.

By then we knew the grim truth as rumors swept the school, but it was still a shock to hear it from the principal. Some wept, absolutely. Some ditched school, and although one of my teachers was furious and told us it was "dastardly" I've never been able to judge too harshly those who did so, because we all have different reactions to monumentally bad news.

I spent four whole days glued to the TV thinking to myself: "Remember this, remember this; it will never happen again in my lifetime." But it did, again and again before the decade was over.

There was a lot of pain, but there was also a lot of optimism in that decade. Surely Kennedy's charisma, his youth and vigor (or "vigah") had something to do with it. He had a practical mind, combined with ideas like the Peace Corps that encouraged people's participation and their better nature. The economy was good, by which I mean there were enough jobs with middle-class wages and homes were affordable. And I think, somehow, that despite the opposition to it from some quarters, the African American success in the civil rights struggle gave others a sense of possibility as well.

As for your statement:
"I have one wish for the people on this board. There are nine candidates to challenge the dim son in 2004. PLEASE educate yourself on these candidates and pick who you feel would be the best person for the office. PLEASE DO NOT elevate your choice by denigrating the other candidates. You really are not elevating your candidate that way. Look at the big picture. We are trying to put a real president in charge once again"

I totally agree. It is very very painful to watch Democrats eat their own. Also incredibly stupid. Who does it serve to bloody and muddy everyone so that the last man standing looks like crap to the voters? Any One of The Nine would be better than Bush. I'm no fan of Al Sharpton's but even he comes off as having more compassion, more common sense, and more knowledge of the world than Bush or any member of his team. I'm working for Dean, I'm making small contributions to Dean as I go along (and not one nickel to the DNC), but you better believe I'll work for and vote for whoever the nominee turns out to be. I just don't want to have to hold my nose when I do so.

Hekate

JFK was the President who best used his power to make life better for us ALL.

When almost everyone in his Cabinet, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Washington leadership wanted him to bomb Cuba and the Soviet Union, Kennedy kept his cool and led the world away from World War III.

When the same people told him the dominoes would fall if the commies won in South Vietnam, he remembered why MacArthur told him it would be impossible to win a land war in Southeast Asia and determined war there would not be in the best interests of the United States.

When the Soviets sent Yuri Gagarin into space, JFK said "Let's go to the moon!" While he did not live to see the day, by stating this as a national priority, he showed the world the United States is where dreams can become reality.

He did all the above in about 1,000 days in office. Imagine what else he could have accomplished?

I was three-years old, and cried only because I couldn't see cartoons that weekend. I've shed wiser tears since.

Here's Kennedy's American University address. An audio file can be downloaded at the link. For what the United States and the world lost, it is to weep.

http://www.jfklibrary.org/j061063.htm

What kind of peace do I mean? What kind of peace do we seek? Not a Pax Americana enforced on the world by American weapons of war. Not the peace of the grave or the security of the slave. I am talking about genuine peace, the kind of peace that makes life on earth worth living, the kind that enables men and nations to grow and to hope and to build a better life for their children--not merely peace for Americans but peace for all men and women--not merely peace in our time but peace for all time.