50th Anniversary of JFK's Death

50 years ago this Friday November 22, 1963 at 2pm east coast time, I was in home room at Harwich High, waiting to get dismissed for the weekend. We were all talking about the weekend and the senior play rehearsal we were going to have Friday night. Then our principal came over the loudspeaker system and said the president had been shot in Dallas and maybe a senator and governor too. We all looked at each other, not believing what we just heard.  We were all dismissed, some taking buses home and others like me, walking home.

I lived less than a 5 minute walk from the high school. When I walked into the house, my parents and sisters were watching the tv and Walter Cronkite announced  that the president was dead and Governor Connelly was seriously wounded. We were all stunned obviously. And shortly after it was announced that the police had captured a suspect, Lee Harvey Oswald. It was the first time I had seen my mother cry. And two days later, we were eating lunch, had the tv on and the announcer said, "here comes Oswald" and then we saw that hand and gun in the lower right hand corner, as Jack Ruby shot and killed Oswald.

When President Kennedy was elected it was such an exciting time. Our house in Harwich was only about 12 miles from the Kennedy compound in Hyannis. The local Cape Cod paper always had great pictures and stories of the president arriving on the helicopter, and Jackie and Caroline and John-John greeting him. And JFK talked about getting the country moving again, "vigor", landing a man on the moon by the end of the decade, everyone getting in shape and taking 50 mile hikes and playing touch football.

And all that was snuffed out by those shots in Dallas. I was so inspired that a friend  and myself did a 50 mile hike from the Cape to Boston, in February, mostly at night going up Route 3. I went off to college in 1964 and initially majored in broadcasting, but inspired by JFK and then RFK, changed my major to political science. JFK talked about helping others and giving back and that has always stayed with me. I have been retired now for 9 years and what I have tried to do is take my 35 years of business experience and 66 years of life experience, and give back to the community in many ways, and I have on my web site a quote that RFK used all the time "To tame the savages of man and to make gentle the life of this world." And so inspired by JFK and RFK I have tried to do that. So in some small way, some of their beliefs and values live on in my actions.

And I can't help but think "what if." What if JFK had lived? Would we have avoided the Vietnam war and 58,000 American deaths? Would the Cold War with Russia have been thawed? Would we have made more progress, sooner, on Civil Rights? And if he lived he probably would have been re-elected in 1964 and who would have been vice-president? There was talk of JFK removing LBJ from the ticket. And then who would have been president in 1968 and would we have had Watergate. So much hinged on those fateful shots in Dealey Plaza.

Years ago I was traveling on business in the Dallas area. I took a vacation day and stayed an extra day and went to Dealey Plaza. I walked down Main St., following the exact motorcade route, and then I turned right onto Houston and there in front of me was the Texas School Book Depository. I immediately looked up to the that 6th floor window and had chills up and down my spine. And then I turned left onto Elm St and went to the approximate spot where JFK was killed. And looked all around, taking it all in. Just haunting. And I went and stood behind the fence on the Grassy Knoll and went over to the underpass. I tried to go up to the 6th floor of the Depository but in those days it was blocked.  What happened here? Will we ever know?

And for me, we also lost a lot of the hope, the energy, the excitement, and the promise. I do not know if we have ever recovered from that horrible day. The decade of the 60's was full of assassinations, civil rights issues,  a raging war in Southeast Asia and tensions with Russia. We still feel the impact today. And JFK inspired many Americans to get involved in government service. With his death who did we lose? Another great president, a statesman, a great governor or cabinet member?

This Friday at about 1:30pm I will stop what I am doing and raise a toast to President Kennedy, and what was, and what could have been.