It was a cool, overcast fall day in Evansville, Ind.  I was a junior in high school sitting in my advance composition class.  The class was interrupted with a message from our principal coming over the public address system: "President John F. Kennedy has been assassinated in Dallas."  My first recollection was seeing my instructor, Mrs. Pittman, take a deep sigh and literally almost fall back into her desk chair. 

At 16, I hardly understood the ramifications of such a horrible act.  To that point, most of my life had been spent concentrating on sports, and it was basketball season in Indiana.  Need I say more? It was years later before I began to comprehend the devastating results of a sitting president being murdered. 

So, what did it take for me to see the consequence of that brutality?

It took having spent only 24 days in basic training, and then supposedly ready to be sent to Viet Nam to support our troops. It took seeing body bags, stuffed with young bodies coming back from Viet Nam, and hearing the brutal truth about the drugs and insidious behavior perpetrated on our young men. 

It was after I witnessed another U.S. president look into a network television camera and lie to the American people, which led to his resignation from the presidency. Even after that, I still had not recognized, or made the connection, of how one moment in time can alter the heartbeat and growth of a young country.

The reality of that five to eight seconds in Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963, began to register with me when yet another president, again looked into a network camera and lied to the public. This president was my age, my generation. And this time it was accepted, not by all, but by many -- or enough that nothing changed and it was business as usual.

Now yet another president, from my generation, seemingly has taken it upon himself to involve this country in an action, which takes the lives of young men, (that just yesterday was me).  I do not know what is in this president's heart, nor am I privy to any inside information regarding the legitimacy of this conflict in Iraq.  I do know that this country continues to just move forward, and for most families they seemingly are unaffected.  And, with that I can not help but ask myself why. 

 The years since Kennedy’s assassination has slowly caused the public to accept an occasional arrhythmia of this country’s heart beat.

So, on this anniversary of John F. Kennedy’s assassination, I shall think of what it might have been like. 

Kennedy was a man of vision and, despite his human frailties, I believe he was a man who was on the brink of understanding human behavior. I suspect he would have grown to respect and revere the presidency and set a standard of effectiveness to follow; a president that would have represented the majority of the people, and not just corporate America.

 Had that happened, and had he been reelected, I believe he would have brought home most of our men from Viet Nam, despite the outcries of the corporate moneymakers of the war. He would have seen, and understood, that you can not demand people have a certain form of government; they must want it for themselves.

However, fate has taken a hand in the growth of our country. Regardless of whether Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone and was a lucky shot on that fateful day or there was truly a conspiracy, it does not alter the outcome. This country’s heart fluttered on that November day, and began to cause many to question the rhythm of this nation.

 As Americans we should believe wholeheartedly in democracy, and ultimately as Americans, we must be responsible for it.   Loyalty to your party is a noble thing, but if it clouds your judgment concerning what is best for democracy, it is but another shudder of this country’s heart.

 Kennedy’s death, as tragic as it was, should not be allowed to continue to erode what this country stands for. Democracy is predicated on involvement, with spirited debate and majority rule. 

 As a people, we should be more concerned about our president's policies understanding them thoroughly, than we are about Michael Jackson. 

   After all, on this day, I am not remembering a young man grabbing his crotch in front of 200,000 people, but remembering a young man standing before a crowd of people saying: "Ask not what your country can do for you--ask what you can do for your country." With that quote, we, the people, should have definition, not be defined by the fact we witnessed our president be assassinated.

                                             (c) 2005 by Mopam Publishing

L.O.V.E.    (Logic Overcomes Virtual Extremism)  Nov. 15, 2004 by Morris Heldt

So Why Us     Sept. 30, 2003    by Morris Heldt 

Another Perspective     Aug. 7, 2003  by Morris Heldt 

Is Time A Measurement, Or Symbol?  6/2/03    by Morris Heldt   

It's a New Concert    by Morris Heldt

Hypocrites  8/16/02   by Morris Heldt 

When Is Why The Answer To Who, What, Where and When?  7-22-02 by Morris Heldt

The Ultimate Battle April 12, 2002  by Morris Heldt