Seemed to me that the 50th anniversary of that terrible day in Dallas struck a nerve with most Americans (especially of my generation or older than my generation).
I was only 9 years old that day but I remember the tremendous sadness of my parents and brother that entire miserable weekend in ’63. If you happen to be younger than me, that feeling was similar to the 9/11/2001 week in American history. Miserable and shocking.
I was attempting to understand why I was so bummed on the 50th anniversary of the JFK shooting and I think I now know.
JFK was a leader who had the ability to make Americans feel that they could do great things with their lives. As a little kid I wanted to be like him and fantasized about the kind of President I would be someday. He had the audacity to say we were going to land a person on the moon in 10 years and we did. The idea of the Peace Corps was to get young people to be the solution to the big problems on earth. We had a swagger back then and he was a big reason for it. We were proud of being American but not in an arrogant way. We felt that we could do anything we put our mind to because our President believed in us and communicated that vision very well. The rich, middle class and poor, Democrats and Republicans. We were “all-in” as a nation.
November 22nd this year struck a nerve with me. We miss his leadership and vision to be the best people we can be not only for our country but as global citizens.
