John Kennedy Remembered
As happens with the death of everyone, as the years go by, the memories fade. Necessarily. Other people and other circumstances spend more time in the forefront of our minds, and those who have departed — those who are now merely memories — have to slip away. Funny though, because we find ourselves feeling guilty when we suddenly come across them in our minds, as though we valued them any less.
I think about John Kennedy, who was killed 36 years ago yesterday, and feel guilty that I publicly remember him a day late. I believe that his killing was a transformative point in our civilization. It was the time that we lost our innocence. It was also very personal: I saw President Kennedy only weeks before he died. He had come to nearby Amherst College to dedicate the Robert Frost Memorial Library.
The autumn fog was late in lifting that morning, and they helicoptered the president in to one of the athletic fields near the building where they were holding the ceremony. Then they drove him up the hill to the front entrance of the building. Back in those days, security was more casual, so I found myself all alone next to the road when the car drove by, just fifty yards from the open white Lincoln Continental convertible.
I had my little Brownie camera and snapped off a shot. Black and white, bad angle; but you can see Kennedy in the photo. A month later, he went to Dallas.
Whoever Kennedy really was -- whatever was his dark side in which the vultures find themselves now wallowing -- may only be important to posterity. What is more critical to so many Americans is the long-held image of him as a man, a war hero, and leader. We are loathe to give up this perception, because when he was killed, a piece of all of us -- our national soul -- also died.
John Kennedy was the first modern president of the United States; in terms of his youth, his family, and his public humanness. Remember the football games on the White House lawn, the yachting out of Hyannis Port, the rocking chair; Jacqueline, Caroline and John-John?
Those who followed Kennedy to the presidency didn't hold a candle to the shining torch of our memory of him. As folksinger Phil Ochs described John Kennedy, he was "A man so full of life Even Death was caught off guard."
Whether we are in denial about who he was is insignificant. What is important -- indeed, vital to our future -- is what John Kennedy represented. It was a spirit that embodied the greatness of America. It is in us, the people, and we need to rekindle that flame to light our way back to our destiny.
And that’s SetonnoteS...I’m Tony Seton.
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