Stop with the JFK assassination obsession

November 22 is the anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, and a pause to remember this tragic event is appropriate. However, I am more than tired of the obsession about his assassination, particularly by you young pups who were not even born or who were too young to remember it. Why do I say that? Let me explain.

I was a student in grade school when JFK was killed, and so I had years of being aware of politics and life in general. In other words, this was not an abstract event read about in a book or fantasized about in movies or new age types of searches for "meaning." I was there, alive, thinking, a citizen of a country that is greater than any one president. I was attending after school Catechism (Catholic children who did not go to Catholic schools would gather once a week in the church to receive faith instruction from the nuns). The priest came in and told us of the assassination. Unlike today's children who seem so context free (not their fault), as shocking as this way, we did not need special counseling from the priest, just the news, and then we would go home as normal. Kids in the 1960's understood life more than children today, despite how sophisticated the most recent generation thinks that they are. Our parents had all fought in World War II. As shocking and most certainly sad as the assassination was, kids back then understood that bad things happen. We didn't obsess about some bizarre inner meaning, or keep re-opening the wounds, over and over and over, as the moderns seem to do. We prayed with the priest for JFK's soul and for his family, and then went home at the end of the day like normal.

First I stopped by a friend's house, a short distance from the church on the way to my own further away house, so I could see with her and her parents what was on the TV. Thus I saw the coverage for myself. Remember this was before news shows, though obviously all normal programming was interrupted. TV and radio was the only "instant" news. I also knew that it was a safe bet that my mother, a traumatized World War II civilian, would not have the TV on, so I wisely figured to get the news that I could at my friend's house, and I did.

And that is it. What was the message that we received? Not the gore and the mystery over and over, but watching the greatest country that ever existed pass peacefully in power to President Lyndon Johnson. Life carried on the next day, and the next, even as we mourned such a tragedy. Back then people did not obsess over "anniversaries" any more than anyone today obsesses over anniversaries of great battles in the Revolution, the War of 1812, the Civil War, World War I or World War II when hundreds or thousands perished in a day. I have to this day a Catholic Memorial card with a picture of JFK and a prayer for remembrance of him in my Roman Catholic Missal. That's enough.

See, those of you who were too young to remember or who were not even born forget the great lesson of the day was not the tragedy, but the peaceful transition of power to the Vice President who became President. We remember LBJ being sworn in on the plane, with Jackie in her blood stained suit, standing next to him, and we went to work and we went to school the next day. Life went on. That is what my generation remembers because that's the truth of what it was like. That is why we do not constantly cast new astrology charts to "see why it happened" or sniff around like dogs behind every shrubbery looking for new bullet discards. For some reason many delusional moderns think that the generation that actually lived through the assassination not being obsessed with some abstract "why" is a sign that we are dummies or something. No, you are the dummies because you miss the entire point of what it "meant," which is that this great country rolled on without a pause, under honest leaders, even as we grieved one man and his family.

I totally rolled my eyes in the days before our recent Presidential election as people tried to stir the pot by predicting "unrest" and "riots" whether Mr. Obama won or not. That is the typical fears and perverse hopes of those who do not appreciate that the greatness of the United States is its sturdiness and trustworthiness during transitions of power, planned or unplanned, joyous or tragic. And, as I expected, there was not an inappropriate peep reported across the country from either side when President Elect Obama won. That's what mature and grown up folks expect, you know.


If I could I would scan and post an image of the front and back of my Catholic memorial card for JFK so you could see it and in a way, understand the simplicity of what I am describing to you that as great as he was, he was just another man who died, in this case, tragically and too young. And like every other man, a priest comforts and consoles, and then the family moves on, in this case the American family of the USA. But I lack working scanners, printers and bandwidth to actually utilize "the tech" to post an image. So I will, instead, type in a description and the content.

The front of the card is red, white and blue. The paper is white, the photo of JFK and the print is in muted blue, and the border of the card is red. Under the picture of JFK, a very nice picture, in a striped suit, head and shoulders full face pose, is lettered the following text:

John Fitzgerald Kennedy
Thirty-fifth President of the United States
Born May 29, 1917
Inaugurated January 20, 1961
Died November 22, 1963

The back of the card had no picture, but a simple cross at the top, with a prayer underneath.

+

LET US PRAY

Lend ear to our prayers,
O Lord, as we humbly en-
treat Thy mercy; and bring to
the place of light and peace,
into the company of Thy
saints, the soul of Thy servant
John, whom Thou hast called
to go forth from this world.
Through Christ our Lord.

Amen.

May he rest in peace.

_________________________
Printed in the U.S.A.
St. Anthony's Guild, Paterson, N.J.