A Future Lost

"Countless individuals have noted that the President's death affected them even more deeply than the death of their own parents. The reason, I believe, is that the latter situation most often represented a loss of the past - while the assassination of President Kennedy represented an incalculable loss of the future." - Ted Sorenson


John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the 35th President of the United States was assassinated 42 years ago today, on November 22, 1963. That day was a turning point on several levels: in my life, in the soul of the United States, and in the impact on world events, extending to even today.

I was 9 years old, attending Westmoreland Elementary School in Westmoreland, WV, near Huntington. I remember it was a cloudy, cold day. We had come in from lunch and recess, into the little portable classroom. The announcement that the President had been shot and killed in Dallas came over the loudspeaker and we were told classes were over for the day. We were all shocked beyond words and deeply saddened. I sat in the back of the class on the far left; on a blackboard on the far wall, directly facing me, was the picture you see above you. It was spooky, because it felt like the eyes of our President were looking into my soul. On the way home my friends and I, even at our tender age, were discussing the possibility of a nuclear attack from either Russia or Cuba...we vividly recalled the Cuba missile Crisis and instinctively knew that our leaderless country was vulnerable.

The rest of the weekend was dreamlike. It stayed cold and rainy, like the skies were weeping, too. Driving to Huntington, there was a florist shop on the right side of the street. In their window they had a large painting, of the picture above no less, in the window...illuminated and surrounded by black bunting. It is burned in my memory. On the night of the 23rd, I saw a blurry ghostlike image of the President's face in the corner by the ceiling...Although I was sure it was just a reflection from vehicles moving down the street, I wasn't so sure. I remember the extended family gathered at my Grandma's house for Sunday dinner...we were getting ready to eat and the TV had some horribly out of tune small-church choir rendering some baleful dirge. Grandma said "Let me get this junk off the TV" and she turned the channel...just in time for us all to witness the murder of Lee Harvey Oswald, right before our eyes! To this day, I recall the cadence played by the drums during the funeral procession.

America just wasn't the same after that. There were good things, but the spirit of America changed. War in Vietnam, riots, the Manson Murders, the Speck Killings in Chicago...the 60's...what I think Heinlein often meant when he wrote about 'the Crazy Years'. The Golden Age of Camelot was never realized, the dream would not become a reality, because a man who dared to stand up to a growing power was sacrificed on the altar of greed and power, an example for those of like mind to heed.

That power has matured and become sophisticated in it's techniques, with resources human and fiscal to an extent beyond imagination, with confidence arrogant and bold. That same system is alive and well today. You will not see the real power on TV or hear them on radio...only their minions, but those minions have strolled the halls of power and steered the ships of greed for all the generations of this, my life. I have known of them and felt them, for many years...through my personal investigation about the assassination of the man pictured above. It was only in early 2003, that my eyes were fully opened and I finally understood that America was now firmly in the grip of the forces that seized power that fateful day in 1963, the day a much brighter future was lost.

Can we ever regain that future?