Remembering an Influencer

John Fitzgerald Kennedy was the 35th President of the United States. He served as the President from January 1961 until he was assassinated in November 1963. President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas on Friday November 22, 1963.

He was there on a political trip when he was assassinated. He was only 46 and was the youngest of all the President’s to die so young. Lee Harvey Oswald, an employee of the Texas School Book Depository from which the shots were suspected to have been fired, was arrested for the murder of a local police officer, and was then charged with the assassination of President Kennedy. Lee Harvey Oswald was later murdered by Jack Ruby on November 24 and, of course, was arrested and charged for the murder of Lee Harvey Oswald. On January 3, 1967, Jack Ruby became ill and died.

In 2004, Fox News hosted a poll and found that 66% of Americans thought there had been a conspiracy to kill President Kennedy, while 74% thought there had been a cover-up. A Gallup Poll in November of 2013 showed 61% believed in a conspiracy, and only 30% thought Oswald did it alone, but don’t remember this wonderful President by his death, but from what he did while he was alive. President Kennedy once described himself as an “idealist without illusions.” We should remember how great of a leader and how great of a friend he was to people. He was not only an amazing leader; he was friends with almost everyone.

President Kennedy described the time wonderfully in his inaugural speech when he spoke of “a new generation of Americans-born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage, and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this nation has always been committed.” When President Kennedy was shot on that November day in 1963, Martha Minow (only 8 years old at the time), wrote a poem to Jacqueline Kennedy: Slowly but surely a willow branch fell down,While rain spread ‘round the town. A sad day it was for me For the willow is my favorite tree…But if I take the branch right in,The roots might then begin.By spring I will know whether it will grow. My little tree will grow againI guess that’s the same way with men.

When Presidents Day comes around, take a moment and think of President John F. Kennedy by remembering this lovely poem.