Editorial: JFK urged America to be its best
Senator John F. Kennedy in Seattle on the first day of his presidential campaign in 1959. Credit: CORBIS
At 1:30 p.m. 50 years ago Friday, President John F. Kennedy was murdered in a Dallas motorcade, and for many of us, the memory lives on like an unhealed wound on the soul. On Nov. 22, 1963, we lost more than a popular young president. We lost a vital part of the bold, confident vision he challenged us to embrace.
"The torch has been passed to a new generation," JFK said at his inauguration in 1961. He asked us to join him in a struggle against tyranny, poverty, disease and war -- the "common enemies" of humankind. He was that rare magnetic leader -- both politician and visionary -- whose call to action stirred the nation.
We can argue forever about what might have been.
Had he served a second term, perhaps he would not have escalated the Vietnam War. Or maybe he would have. Perhaps national crises over civil rights, the sexual revolution and the counterculture might have played out with more dialogue and less acrimony. Or maybe not.
We do know that JFK advanced Medicare, pushed the civil rights movement ahead and played a key role in averting nuclear war during the Cuban missile crisis. And we know that his loss was like little that Long Island and the nation had seen in modern times.
On the afternoon of Nov. 22, Nassau County sent all its workers home, except for hospital personnel and police. Students sat dazed at their desks, listening to radio reports from Dallas on the public address system or to beleaguered teachers who struggled to control their own emotions as they led their classes in discussions and sometimes prayer.
Churches and temples on the Island were packed that weekend for special services. And the Long Island Rail Road halted trains for 30 minutes during the president's state funeral on Nov. 25.
JFK was able to make us strive to be better than we'd ever thought possible, and we loved him for it. What happened on that awful day so long ago leaves us painfully diminished -- even now.