Yearning for Camelot

I was in the fourth grade in late November of 1963 when the shots rang out in Dallas. Memories of President Kennedy are still powerful for me, although I was only in the fourth grade. The hope and faith everyone had in him during his brief Presidency is something I have not seen since that day. Everyone believed that things would be alright. He inspired confidence. And I remember my parents talking about their voting for him and later again for LBJ, even though they were Republicans from families who voted that way for a very long time. My parents never like Nixon, and Goldwater frightened them even more.

In late November when news of the assassination spread, I remember my fourth grade teacher crying, when she told our class the news. It shocked me, because she was the last person in the world I believed to be capable of showing compassion and sorrow. The school district sent everyone home early from school that day, and I remember the tragic images on our black and white television of the next few days--the blood-stained dress, the funeral procession, the little boy saluting his father.

For me personally, the vacuum left in American politics after that day will always be about what might have been, and after more shots fired leaving Bobby dead in the late 60's, I became less interested in politics for a long time. Hope appeared briefly with Bobby, and then it disappeared again. At least, that is how I felt about it.

It was the very late 70's before I really looked at issues before an election again. Although I never missed voting in an election, I never felt the same passion I sensed as a boy watching JFK. The recording of his voice with his responses to questions about his motivation to become president are important: they speak of a man wanting to make positive changes in society and believing that the Presidency was the only way to do it effectively.



The taped interview shows an incredible man interested in serving his country rather than merely seeking power or attempting self-promotion. He saw himself as an extrovert. I miss politicians like that. And given the character assassination that has attempted to destroy the image that many had of JFK, I believe it will be a very long time before someone emerges like that again.