JFK - 60 Years later

 

Sixty years ago today JFK was gunned down in a Dallas motorcade.

The anniversary seems to have generated much less attention than the 50^th, as to be expected, but anecdotally it seems to be slipping further from the forefront of the American consciousness with each passing year.

Its grip on the American subconscious though – our disillusionment, our distrust of the government and what it tells us – remains as sharp as ever.

Long ago, in 1983, the  20^th anniversary garnered a tremendous amount of media attention. It was, realistically, a turning point in the retelling of Camelot. 20 years on, JFK would no longer be the young husband and father people remembered. He would have been 66, had he escaped harm, and I remember a magazine age-progressing his photo for shock value. If the post Dallas America still longed for “what might have been,” they now also had to deal with the idea that even in an ideal world, that utopian moment they longed for would have already passed into memory.

Nerd that I was, I collected as many of the JFK magazines and newspapers as I could, and along with some contemporary pieces sent to me by Dave Powers, a JFK aide who then worked for the JFK library. I showed this collection off to my very disinterested 4^th grade classmates with the permission of Sr. Dorothy.

(30 years hence, I offered to do the same for my kids classroom on the 50^th anniversary. Their middle school history teacher demurred; by 2013, JFK apparently wasn’t worth taking up class time)

I imagine for the 75^th anniversary the media attention will briefly spike, then subside until the centennial. In between, it was be an event recalled by fewer and fewer people. 

None of that reduces the shock, and horror, of a few minutes in Dallas in the fall of 1963.

JFK's boyhood heroics

In 1927, at 10, JFK helped save a drowning boater.

JFK would be 100 today

John Fitzgerald Francis Kennedy, 35th President of the United States, was born 100 years ago today.

By law, all existing JFK assassination related documents will be released to the public by October of this year. 40,000 documents are still not fully available, and among them, 3,000 have never been seen by the public. So, if nothing else, make sure you stick around until October.

What an Odd Refusal!

I offered to take in my JFK memorabilia to Lu's class - original newspapers, contemporary magazines, LP's, photographs, books, a plaster bust, etc - to tie in with today's anniversary, but my offer was rejected by her social studies teacher.

"Maybe next year," he wrote.

Yes, yes. Because the *51st* anniversary is the perfect time to use media attention to generate interest in a historical event.

JFK - 50 years later

50 years ago today John F. Kennedy was gunned down in Dallas, an event no Baby Boomer will ever forget.

My own connection to the event began twenty years later, in 1983. I was nine years old that year and had just started the fourth grade when my Grandfather, a man I loved and idolized, passed away. To say that his death put me in a tailspin is almost an understatement, but sometime in the weeks that followed my Mom gave me a book on JFK. It was just a thin children’s book, full of more myth than fact – I particularly remember one scene where Jack fell in love with Jackie when he first saw her over a dinner table – but it hooked me.

I began to read everything I could about JFK. In retrospect it’s easy to see I was simply substituting one fallen hero (my Grandpa) for another (JFK), but in those dark months it was just about the only joy I remember. Somewhere around that time, and I don’t remember if it was with my knowledge or not – my Mom mailed out two letters about my newfound passion. Just before Christmas, two packages arrived in response.

The first, from Senator Edward Kennedy, included a short mimeographed note of thanks and contained information about both JFK and RFK, as well as two 8x10 black and white photographs, one of Jack, the other of Jackie and his children.

The second package was incredible. It came from the Kennedy Library, and included the following handwritten note from William Johnson, the Chief Archivist.

Inside was more information on JFK and his library, and some items I’ve now forgotten. Here’s one I never have: an original copy of Life Magazine dated November 29, 1963 that chronicled the horrific events of Dallas and its aftermath.

 Remember, this was on the cusp of the 20^th anniversary of his death. There were books and magazines and television specials galore, and I collected whatever I could. I accumulated a scrapbook of articles from the Milwaukee Journal’s Green Sheet, a few record albums of his speeches, a plaster bust of JFK, book upon book – you name it.

So on the actual anniversary of his assassination (in 1983 it was a Tuesday, if I’m not mistaken) I took this little collection into my school for show and tell, passing it among my classmates. I’d like to say someone was inspired, or even that it was met with boos – either one makes a great story – but I don’t remember, so odds are it was met with quiet tolerance.

Over the years my adoration of JFK waned. The reality didn't quite match up with the legend, and that’s a hard pill to swallow when it was the legend you fell in love with. My politics changed too, and suddenly a New Frontier that mocked Eisenhower’s admirable time in office held much less appeal.

The pendulum has begun to swing full circle, tho’ it will never reach the zeal I had as a child. JFK and I would disagree politically, but not as much as I once thought; his reputation was pushed to the Left by nostalgia and the far more liberal records of his brothers. He was a fiscal conservative and a cautious Hawk, two qualities I find appealing in a candidate. And even if he was as liberal as some people work hard to believe, it would carry a lesson all its own: that you can disagree with someone’s politics while still admiring them as a human being.

Even 50 years on, JFK’s memory continues to inspire this nation.  Rest in Peace sir; you earned it.