Memories of JFK

Nov. 22, 1963 was a dark day in history for many. It has influenced much of where we are today as a country and as individuals. Here are a few memories and thoughts I have of that time.

John F. Kennedy certainly had his flaws, both personally and politically. Some would argue he was far more conservative on military and social issues then history shows. He was a product of the military industrial complex and of political expediency. His life and family experiences, like all of us, influenced how he thought, who he was and decisions that he made. Beyond all of that, he himself influenced a generation.

I was a sophomore in high school in 1960 when John Kennedy was elected President. That election cycle was my first real involvement or interest in politics. I followed the election closely, watched the debates, read articles and was engrossed in the news reporting and the national conventions held that year. I listened to his speeches and heard a message about governing differently, about social issues, etc. I, like many others, also watched and listened to the debate about his Catholicism. The issue was discussed openly. People were actually talking about discrimination and how being an Irish Catholic wouldn't bode well for this young Congressman from Massachusetts.

My family and I were vacationing on Cape Cod that summer before the election. We along with many others went to Hyannis to watch the Kennedys, Jack and Jackie, drive along a parade route to their family's summer retreat. We were close as they drove by waving, reaching out and smiling to the crowd. It was the first of many times that I would drive by the Kennedy complex in Hyannis, by land and by sea.

In the end he was elected. He began raising a nation's consciousness about social responsibility both here and abroad. He emphasized service for a greater good. He established the Peace Corps and started a process of young people becoming engaged with poor people around the world. He shook hands with common people, including the poor and working class Americans. He created a dream for a better world and a place that each of us could influence through political and/or direct action.

By 1963, I had graduated high school and had entered Maryknoll Seminary in Glen Ellyn   Illinois. There had been a Cuban Missile Crisis, Vietnam appeared as a shadow in the mist and the Civil Rights Movement was unraveling the long standing politics of the South. Martin Luther King, Jr. had delivered his I Have A Dream speech just a few months earlier. Most of the major civil rights legislation didn't exist yet. Things proved not to be so easy for President Kennedy. The world and our country proved to be much more complicated.

And then on Nov. 22, 1963, Kennedy was shot in Dallas, Texas and for a moment the world stood still. At Maryknoll as at every other place across the country, regular activities and business stopped. Everyone tried to keep up with the unfolding news. People tried to make sense of what had happened. The pictures and news footage tell the story better then I can. It wasn't just for a day either. The mourning, lying in state, the funeral and burial all went on with everyone watching, trying to understand. Where would we go from here.

As I said when I started this, Kennedy certainly had his flaws, both personally and politically. He most likely wasn't as progressive as many remember him. His history included involvement with Sen. Joe McCarthy and his notorious witch-hunt for communists and left leaning American citizens, the Constitution be damned. Even when he knew what was right, many times he chose the path of political expediency. But here's the thing that I learned from Jack Kennedy and his brother Bobby. People can evolve. Their ideas, ideals and beliefs can change. That was one of the greatest things Kennedy had to offer. We watched him change before our very eyes and that gave people hope. On that day in November 50 years ago that was some of my sadness. Some hope was gone. So we memorialize that day and think about the past and the future. But our image of Kennedy is frozen in time. His evolution stopped and all we have is our own and history's conjecture. Would he or wouldn't he have followed the path of every other US leader relative to Vietnam? Would more or less have happened with civil rights? All we have are dreams.

In the end we have what we were left with and that's our reality 50 years later.