JFK: The End of Innocence

Cover of John F. Kennedy

At one p.m. Central Standard Time on November 22, 1963 in a Dallas hospital, President John F. Kennedy was pronounced dead of gunshot wounds.  An hour earlier he, with First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy riding alongside him in a motorcade, smiled and waved at the crowd gathered along the parade route.

Suddenly, this youthful-looking, forty-something President who had inspired a nation, saved the world from nuclear destruction, and projected an image of vitality and glamour was gone.  In his place was a much older man who could have been his father.  And the world faced a new reality.

Fifty years later, there are more questions than answers about what really happened that day in Dallas.  Lee Harvey Oswald may have been fingered as the trigger man, but did he really act alone or was there someone else behind it?  All of those involved are now either dead or sworn to secrecy.  Everybody seems to have their own theory, but it doesn't really matter who did it or why.  JFK is still dead.

Fifty years ago, America was a fat and happy country living on the edge of annihilation (but only if you ignored rumblings from the Civil Rights Movement), where everybody did the Twist, the Rat Pack was in full flower, and "The Beverly Hillbillies" was the number one show on TV.  After November 22, America became a scared, distrustful country.  In some ways, it still is.

Never again would people trust their government to have all the answers as they once did.  Wars, political scandals, economic decline, security breaches, etc., pretty much took care of that.

Never again would a President be allowed a scintilla of privacy.  We didn't know until years later that Kennedy allegedly had extramarital affairs, and that his poor health left him addicted to painkillers.

Never again would the news media be as docile, because by 'gentleman's agreement' Kennedy's private foibles weren't reported.  If this 'agreement' was still in place, Richard Nixon would have been President for eight years instead of six.  And we never would have heard of Oliver North or Monica Lewinsky.

Never again would we be surprised when another sniper or terrorist commits mass murder, whether it's in a place of business or a pillar of learning.  If there's one thing we've learned, this has made Americans more--not less--willing to lock and load, as if the Second Amendment gave them the God-given right to do so.

Most of all, never again would we have the confidence to go forward in our daily lives without watching our backs.  We lock our doors, keep the kids inside, make fortresses out of public buildings, and get searched at the airport before boarding a flight.  Being safe is not the same as being free.

That's why what happened on a parade route on the streets of Dallas, Texas on November 22, 1963 still matters in 2013.  John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the 35th President of the United States, wasn't the only one who died that day.  So did America's innocence.