November 22

A couple of weeks ago I taught a class about the assassination of President Kennedy.  The room was filled with over sixty men and women who ranged in age from 75 to nearly 100.  When I asked what they remembered about that day in 1963, nearly every one of them wanted to share their recollections of precisely where they were and what they were doing.  Age hadn't dimmed their memories.  Some even remembered Kennedy's visits to Eugene, Oregon as he was campaigning for president, in minute detail.

There's little that can be said about the death of President Kennedy that hasn't been said before.  Over the last couple of weeks, we've heard every conceivable remembrance, theory, account and speculation.  We're reminded that, of all of the events in the last 100 years, it's the assassination of John F. Kennedy that seems to have captured the imagination of our nation.  As the World War II generation fades, fewer and fewer people can recall Pearl Harbor or the death of Franklin Roosevelt.  And, truth be told, even for them it was Kennedy's passing that had the strongest lingering impact.  In my own age group, one would expect the death of Princess Diana or, even more shocking, the events of September 11, 2001 to be foremost in terms of historical landmarks.  Yet, even though I was born a full decade after that day in Dallas, it's still the images from Dealey Plaza that strike the deepest chord.

I won't try to figure out "why".  There are as many explanations as there are conspiracy theories.  What I think is most remarkable is that Kennedy's passing truly brought the world together in mourning.  Genuine grief for a man who had touched so many more lives than he could have ever anticipated was displayed virtually everywhere.  And, it wasn't just the president himself, but his wife, Jacqueline, and his family, near and extended.  For some reason, the nation took them to heart.  While in later years this fascination has manifested itself in our consumption of the tawdriest tabloids, the Kennedy family of Camelot bears little resemblance to those skewed impressions.  Truth be told, whenever we view the images from those four days in November, we see John and Jacqueline Kennedy as they were then, without all of the noise of more recent, and often unreliable, revelations.

Anyone who thinks that the 1950's and 60's were a simpler time need only remember the crisis that could have occurred in the shadow of the president's death.  The Cold War was at full tilt, nuclear war had only been averted by the slimmest of chances during the recent Cuban Missile Crisis.  The situation in Berlin continued to threaten world peace.  The bloodbath of Vietnam was on the horizon and the violence that characterized southern reaction to the Civil Rights movement continued.  There was also the concern that the assassination might be part of a much larger attempt to unseat the government of the United States.  Somehow, in spite of all of these threats, the world still seemed a safe enough place for the President of the United States to ride through an American city, in full view and only feet away from thousands of citizens.  The reality of the world was frightening, but the perception was still one of peace and tranquility.

In recalling the events of that long weekend before Thanksgiving, 1963, it's important to focus not just on the heinous act committed in Dealey Plaza which lasted only moments, but also on the days of ceremonies that followed.  Jacqueline Kennedy and the government and military of the United States presented a far different picture than those dreadful minutes in Dallas.  Dignity, solemnity and order were the overriding impressions that remain from the funeral of the president.  The transition of the presidency was, when studies anew, a model of all that is good about about the democratic system.  It showed that, in spite of the seeming chaos of recent events, that our system of government worked, and those at the helm of state were capable and trustworthy.

Today, as we stop to consider the death of a man many of us were not alive to recall personally, we might also mourn, not just the man himself, not for a simpler time, but a period where Americans were, by and large, proud of their nation.  Filled with hope and optimism and a sense that we had the vitality and imagination necessary to make a mark for good in the world.  Of course there were all the problems that we see today and, probably, more.  It was not the absence of challenges that marked the age, but the idea that, in spite of these difficulties, we might prevail.  John F. Kennedy was not only remarkable for what he might have achieved, but also for the inspiration he was, and continues to be, for his country.  November 22 is not just a day to look back, but also a day to look forward and to commit ourselves anew to those values that so inspired us.