President Kennedy

I was eight years old when President John F. Kennedy was brutally murdered 47 years ago yesterday in Dallas, Texas. I was too young to get the full impact of his inspirational leadership but I clearly remember the day he died.

I was in third grade and, at some point during the school day, an announcement came from the principal's office over the PA system saying the President had been shot. Somewhat later, came the news that he had died. I remember going out at recess and seeing groups of girls standing around crying together. Naturally, some of the boys decided that mocking and ridiculing them would be a lot of fun. I hope I wasn't one of them but my memory isn't good enough to know for sure. What really shocked me though, was returning to class to see our young teacher, Mrs Fuller, in tears at her desk! Grownups, especially those in authority, never actually cried did they?

At home that evening I, in my innocence, asked my Father as he came in the door if he was glad Kennedy was dead since he had voted for Nixon. At that point, I got a lesson that I didn't forget. He said "Of course not" in a tone of voice implying that such a thing would be contemptible. I'm sure he said more about how if you disagree with someone you still don't rejoice in their death, but what has stayed with me is his attitude that decent people would never think or behave that way. My guess is that these days there are lots of people who don't meet that particular definition of decency (tea party anyone?).

In the next day or so, I saw Oswald being shot by Jack Ruby and the President's funeral on TV. I think those few days signified the first time that national events actually impinged on my conciousness in any meaningful way.

Bob Herbert has a great article on politics then and now in today's Times, which makes it very clear how dysfunctional this country has become over the last 30 years of mostly conservative rule.