I was seven years old when JFK was assassinated. Clearly too young for it to have had any real impact in my life. Like all who were alive then, I remember exactly where I was when I heard the news. My brother and I were in second grade at Mt Carmel elementary school in Newport News Virginia. A radio was being played over the intercom and they said the President and the Texas governor had been shot. The school let us go home, and our mother picked us up.
The frontline of death that day was felt when we got home and found our riverine turtle dead. Perhaps it was the chlorine water in his little tank that did him in. Anyway, TV was now on wall to wall coverage that would last for days. I've always believed the geniuses of 24 he cable news was born then. Millions were watching.
I remember playing in a refrigerator box from the unit that had been delivered that week when someone started yelling "Oswald beens shot." Oswald went from nobody to household name overnight. You can do that today with YouTube and a blog. All you need is a keyboard and an internet connection and they can't stop you. No need to kill anyone.
I'm glad the media today is not focused on conspiracy theories. The evidence against Oswald was overwhelming. They had the gun, the ammunition, witnesses, he had killed a cop. Without the internet back then to fuel conspiracy, he would have been convicted of both murders and executed. I could not imagine any other outcome.
JFK did more for the poor and minority groups then any president since. He believed in precipitation in democracy and service. He never required poor taxi drivers to spend food money on health insurance they cannot afford. That's going to solve my poverty, right? He supported labor and those that had been delt a bad hand. He was also a virulent anti-communist. That's what got him killed. A Marxist did him in...a silly little communist.
Kennedy seemed to care for people and was on his way to real change. The Great Society was meant to help folks. In the absence of the man himself, America lost its way and became a handout nation. JFK only wanted to get us going again. What can you do for you country and all that.
"Jack, we hardly knew ya'' and that was the real tragedy. Fifty years is a long time and only us old folks remember him but people will gather tomorrow to light candles and pay respect to a man they never knew.
Perhaps this final act of mourning will help us move on. So long pal. Just so you know...you were missed.
At the University of Tampa is a memorial to the fallen president. JFK visited Tampa four days before his assassination and his motorcade went down Grand Central Blvd. The street was later renamed John F Kennedy Blvd, in his honor.
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