Fifty Years Ago Today in Dallas

It is difficult for me to grasp the weight of President Kennedy's assassination in 1963.  Largely because I was not alive at the time.  As I get older, I can begin to think more seriously about the complexities surrounding such an event, but still... true understanding evades me.  A few things are helpful, though as I try to wrap my brain and heart around the shock, fear, and turmoil surrounding that time in America's history, not to mention the deep sadness that enveloped our nation following President Kennedy's death.  Today I read this recollection from a friend, Coach Bob in Virginia Beach:


"November 22, 1963. I was 9 years old, in 4th grade at St. Augustine Catholic School in Newport, R.I. – the same city in which John & Jackie Kennedy were married just ten years prior. Among the many indelible memories from that horrific weekend is the image of our teacher, Sister Mary Carmel - who most of us considered the meanest and most cold-hearted human being on the planet – sobbing and unable to speak as she came back into the classroom after receiving the news in the hallway. We were told by the Mother Superior moments later over the school’s PA system. The overwhelming grief we witnessed from Sister Carmel that afternoon, perhaps more than anything else, helped our young minds understand the enormity of the national tragedy our nation had just experienced. Hard to believe half a century has gone by since that day…"
- Bob Schniedwind

 
And I listened to THIS MEMORY from StoryCorps.  Simple, interesting...  This has me thinking of Jackie O as a young widow and single mother of two.

I was born 17 years after President Kennedy's assassination.  My childhood context for his death included these two images of his son.

The first, I was young and watched an old recording of this young boy saluting the flag which draped his father's coffin.  I clearly remember my dad telling me, "See that?  His dad taught him to salute the American flag every time he saw it, so there he is at this dad's funeral procession, saluting the flag as he was taught."

 In the late eighties and early nineties America was obsessed with JFK Jr.'s dark hair, strong jaw, and dashing good looks.  I remember, as a kid, being at my grandmother's house with my uncle, when I commented that People Magazine declared JFK Jr. "America's Sexiest Man."  He quipped back, "that's just because they haven't met me yet."  (How's that for confidence?)  Interesting though, President Kennedy's legacy, to me, were these images of his son, who died tragically due to an aviation incident when I was in high school.  The older I get, the more I come into the realization that his legacy perhaps has more to do with his symbolic election, one who championed minority rights, worshiped as a Catholic, and brought his young family into The White House.   I am left hoping that the current rancor in the American political system and the hotbed of ideological division plaguing us in these days won't erupt as terribly as it did in 1963.  I am also hoping that if we could navigate those divisions 1960's we can find a way to mend the fissures in our America of today.