When it comes to politics these days, if you ask me, I might give you a glare showing my lack of interest in it. However, you bring up events in American history (or any history for that matter), I’ll do the best I can to follow you. This is the day- November 22, 2008 that marks the 45th anniversary when America lost one of its greatest leaders ever. We lost our dear, beloved President John F. Kennedy. A lot of people who were around back in 1963, recall that exact moment of where they were, whether a child or an adult in school, or at work when they found out the horrible news that the 35th president of the United States had been assassinated. In more recent years, most of us can relate to where we were and what we were doing on September 11, 2001 when America had been attacked.
A lot of older people I had talked to who were around back in 1963 remember the assassination and said they felt they had lost one of their own family members or friends the day that Kennedy was killed. Anyone who recalls knew that it was a fateful day in Dallas on November 22, 1963. It was just before noon when Air Force One landed at Dallas’s Love Field after the short hop over from Fort Worth. Dallas News coverage surrounded the airplane, the people and the majority of the parade motorcade. The crowd cheered and applauded as the young president emerged out of Air Force One behind his wife, Jackie in her bright pink dress. Not a cloud was in the sky. It was sunny and beautiful all throughout that morning. And just like September 11, 2001 as cliché as it sounds, November 22, 1963 started out like any other ordinary day. President Kennedy and his wife were greeted by then, Texas governor, John Connally, and his wife, Nellie. But the president just couldn’t leave without first greeting people and shaking hands, which made the crowd at Love Field so grateful. Finally, the governor with his wife brought the president and his wife to the presidential limousine that would take them through downtown Dallas. As the parade progressed, the images you saw of the president were all positive. Friendly waves as he was patting down his hair from the breeze that went through it. Following behind was vice president Lyndon Johnson and his wife, Ladybird.
12:29- the limo turning onto Houston St. from Main St. around the entrance to historic Dealey Plaza. Nellie Connally remarks to President Kennedy, “Mr. President, you can’t say Dallas doesn’t love you!”
12:30- limo turning from Houston onto Elm St. Just a few seconds later, the man with a family, all the fame, all the fortune, and all the power was eliminated as bullets rang out all across the plaza.
12:31- the limo races 4.5 miles down to Parkland Memorial Hospital where the president is taken quickly into the trauma center.
1:00 pm- after blood transfusions are made in any effort to save the president, a priest administers last rights and President Kennedy is pronounced dead.
From that point on, history is made. VP LBJ takes the oath of office and is sworn in onboard Air Force One shortly before taking off back to Washington. The next days and week is grueling for the Kennedys and the nation.
The Assassination is controversial as to whether or not it was a conspiracy. I have studied it many times for my personal interest, but that’s not what this is about. This is to commemorate who I feel like to me was a friend whom many people knew.
I did not enter the world until the late 80s, but watching and hearing Kennedy speak, I feel like I knew him and would have probably met him if I would have been around back in his time. He could really bring himself down to the common man in his speeches and appearances. His family was the example of the American family that people wanted to have. There were your political parties, but that didn’t matter as much as the things that did matter that included what he did. The list is long, but a few that stand out:
President Kennedy was the creator of the Peace Core
He kept America from going to war after the Bay of Pigs Invasion in Cuba
He declared that America would one day venture to the moon before 1970
Supported Martin Luther King Jr. and the vision they shared to end civil discrimination
He came before America to tell people the way it was and that’s why there was a lot of admiration for him. It was just so sad and shocking to see his life come to an end at such a young age and for his wife and children who had lost their husband and father.
In a crowd of hundreds, I was overcome by silence and sacredness as I stood at Mr. Kennedy’s eternal flame gravesite at Arlington National Cemetery. Standing in Dealey Plaza on this day 45 years ago, I started shivering and trembling with tears during a ceremony when an eye witness to that day sang Amazing Grace and her voice was all you heard. You could have heard a pin drop!
Whether you were around during his time or not, I could feel it in me as I stood in silence on the cold day in Washington when I visited knowing that in that grave lays the remains of a great leader and someone who had acknowledged the presence and existence in God and had trusted in Him and made his peace with God. And I could feel it as I stood in Dealey Plaza this day to remember John F. Kennedy as a person while Amazing Grace captivated everyone on in the plaza.
Thanks Mr. President
In Loving Memory of John Fitzgerald Kennedy- loving Husband, Father, Son, Brother, and Friend
May 29, 1917- November 22, 1963
A lot of older people I had talked to who were around back in 1963 remember the assassination and said they felt they had lost one of their own family members or friends the day that Kennedy was killed. Anyone who recalls knew that it was a fateful day in Dallas on November 22, 1963. It was just before noon when Air Force One landed at Dallas’s Love Field after the short hop over from Fort Worth. Dallas News coverage surrounded the airplane, the people and the majority of the parade motorcade. The crowd cheered and applauded as the young president emerged out of Air Force One behind his wife, Jackie in her bright pink dress. Not a cloud was in the sky. It was sunny and beautiful all throughout that morning. And just like September 11, 2001 as cliché as it sounds, November 22, 1963 started out like any other ordinary day. President Kennedy and his wife were greeted by then, Texas governor, John Connally, and his wife, Nellie. But the president just couldn’t leave without first greeting people and shaking hands, which made the crowd at Love Field so grateful. Finally, the governor with his wife brought the president and his wife to the presidential limousine that would take them through downtown Dallas. As the parade progressed, the images you saw of the president were all positive. Friendly waves as he was patting down his hair from the breeze that went through it. Following behind was vice president Lyndon Johnson and his wife, Ladybird.
12:29- the limo turning onto Houston St. from Main St. around the entrance to historic Dealey Plaza. Nellie Connally remarks to President Kennedy, “Mr. President, you can’t say Dallas doesn’t love you!”
12:30- limo turning from Houston onto Elm St. Just a few seconds later, the man with a family, all the fame, all the fortune, and all the power was eliminated as bullets rang out all across the plaza.
12:31- the limo races 4.5 miles down to Parkland Memorial Hospital where the president is taken quickly into the trauma center.
1:00 pm- after blood transfusions are made in any effort to save the president, a priest administers last rights and President Kennedy is pronounced dead.
From that point on, history is made. VP LBJ takes the oath of office and is sworn in onboard Air Force One shortly before taking off back to Washington. The next days and week is grueling for the Kennedys and the nation.
The Assassination is controversial as to whether or not it was a conspiracy. I have studied it many times for my personal interest, but that’s not what this is about. This is to commemorate who I feel like to me was a friend whom many people knew.
I did not enter the world until the late 80s, but watching and hearing Kennedy speak, I feel like I knew him and would have probably met him if I would have been around back in his time. He could really bring himself down to the common man in his speeches and appearances. His family was the example of the American family that people wanted to have. There were your political parties, but that didn’t matter as much as the things that did matter that included what he did. The list is long, but a few that stand out:
President Kennedy was the creator of the Peace Core
He kept America from going to war after the Bay of Pigs Invasion in Cuba
He declared that America would one day venture to the moon before 1970
Supported Martin Luther King Jr. and the vision they shared to end civil discrimination
He came before America to tell people the way it was and that’s why there was a lot of admiration for him. It was just so sad and shocking to see his life come to an end at such a young age and for his wife and children who had lost their husband and father.
In a crowd of hundreds, I was overcome by silence and sacredness as I stood at Mr. Kennedy’s eternal flame gravesite at Arlington National Cemetery. Standing in Dealey Plaza on this day 45 years ago, I started shivering and trembling with tears during a ceremony when an eye witness to that day sang Amazing Grace and her voice was all you heard. You could have heard a pin drop!
Whether you were around during his time or not, I could feel it in me as I stood in silence on the cold day in Washington when I visited knowing that in that grave lays the remains of a great leader and someone who had acknowledged the presence and existence in God and had trusted in Him and made his peace with God. And I could feel it as I stood in Dealey Plaza this day to remember John F. Kennedy as a person while Amazing Grace captivated everyone on in the plaza.
Thanks Mr. President
In Loving Memory of John Fitzgerald Kennedy- loving Husband, Father, Son, Brother, and Friend
May 29, 1917- November 22, 1963
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