JFK Assassination Anniversary: Eternal Flame Flickers but Still Burns

I went to school that day -- age 8 -- and became ill. I had to call home and get my father out of bed (he had worked until 2am) to pick me up. That was a "first" for me. He went home and back to bed after "setting me up" with water, juice, playing cards, etc. Within an hour, the announcement by Walter Cronkite came over the TV. I went in to wake my father back up to tell him. He never went back to bed. I had never seen him look so "haggard" before. The memory of my tired, mourning father and Jack Kennedy's death are melded as a moment in time in my mind.

Very well written, JFK was Martered that day, And The US changed Forever. We need more, TO THE FACT Presidents, Like him, truman, and FDR. If we had one like them again, we most likely wouldn't be having the troubles we are having today. Those three turned over in their graves WHen the BIG O bowed to the Saudi King. These three NEVER would have done that!!!These three would have put their hands out to shake his. And would have let the KING know they were president of the MOST POWERFUL contry in the world, and they bow to nobody. That is What our SUPPOSED BELOVED ( NOT!!!) BIG O should have done. but instead showed a sign of weakness.Caroline is the last of them, and when she is gone, so id the DYNISTY, And Yes I am Aware the KENNEDY Clan still thrives, I am talking about that branch, and their impact on History

JFK was proud to be called a Liberal, the RICH were taxed at 90%, and neocons smeared him as a socialist foreigner Catholic.

I was a 6th grader in Washington, DC on Nov. 22, 1963. That afternoon I was in the Silver Movie Theater in Silver Spring. It was a day of teacher's meeting, so we had the afternoon off. As my friend and I left the theater, we saw another student who told us the news. In my minds eye, that was a cold and treary weekend and I couldn't wait for it to end.I knew, however, that nothing would ever be the same again. I view that day as the true beginning of the 60s with all the turbulance it brought. And for all these years, I still hold out hope that in my lifetime, there will be another John Kennedy to inspire our nation to greatness once more through detemination, spirit of will and shared sacrifice.

I am a native Bostonian and grew up in the suburb of Everett. It was 1:30 P.M. (EST) as senior in high school walking home from school, we began to hear these bizarre stories that the President had been shot. It was unbelievable, it made no sense, it was a lie. Not to be alone, I ran next door to be with my neighbors just as Walter Cronkite announced that the President was dead. It is so imbedded in my mind that it still seems as if it happened yesterday. Those of us that lived through it still will never accept the Warren Commission report no matter how they try to makes us believe that Oswald acted alone. There are just too many inconsistencies to be believed. In 1978 one of the greatest honors of my life occurred. I was the first Navy Nurse Corps Officer to serve aboard the USS JOHN F KENNEDY (CV-67). The Kennedy was also was my first ship. On the 27th anniversary on 22 November 1990 aboard USS Nassau (LHA-4), we had Thanksgiving Day Services with President George H. W. Bush and First Lady Barbara Bush. All of which have became a very emotional and memorable part of my life.

I was born on November 25, 1943. On November 25, 1963 I turned 20. It was also declared a national day of mourning for the sudden death of JFK. I graduated from high school in June of 1961 at the age of 17 and joined the Navy in August 1961. I was on duty communications on my base on November 22, 1963, a very busy day for a 19 year old. JFK was my Commander in Chief. In those days you had to be 21 to vote in any election. If I had been 21 in 1960, I would have voted for him. But, since you only had to be 18 to drink in the bar in those days, after my duty communications shift, I went out and had a few drinks just to relax and reflect on what had happened earlier that day in Dallas and the change it made in my life for the rest of my life. I will never forget that day, and can to this day, recall it minute by minute. 9/11 has the same effect on me. Neither day will I ever forget!

I and my entire Catholic School were at Mass. The pastor's secretary actually walked up to the altar and interrupted the Mass. Unheard of in those pre-Vatican II days. He listened to her intently and then walked in front of the altar and told us President Kennedy had been shot. He led us in prayers that the President would recover. It wasn't until we were back in our classrooms that the news came -President Kennedy was dead. We felt a special loss - he was one of us, the first Catholic President of the United States. We were told that we were being dismissed for the rest of day. I collected my younger brother and sister and walked out the school doors. Then was our Mom, eyes red from crying, waiting in the station wagon to drive us home. The parking lot was filled with Moms looking just like ours - devastated. Over the course of that long, sad weekend I grew up. I lost my belief that my parents could protect me from tragedy. President Kennedy and later his brother Robert, for whose Presidential campaign I volunteered, helped make me the person I am today. History will remember President Kennedy as the man who saved the world from nuclear war. As the poet Whittier wrote "For all sad words of tongue and pen, the saddest are these, 'It might have been.'

Oswald was a malcontent. Russia didn't want him. Cuba didn't want him. His wife in her own words said he was an abuser. Her fascination with the Kennedy clan and their lifestyle impressed her coming from Russia. She claimed that she would buy magazines etc on the Kennedy family and that her husband was extremely jealous about her priase and interest of them. I think he killed JFK out of jealousy as an ineffectual husband trying to show his wife that he was a man. I think it was as simple as that. Although one of the mobsters girlfriends had a lot to say about the mob and their interest in losing casinos in Cuba, who knows.

I am the same age as Caroline, so I only barely remember my family crying at the news. I didn't understand what it meant, I only knew that something terrible had happened. As an adult I now have many books and articles that I have collected about President Kennedy and his family. It seems that the face of America changed on that horrible day. Although we went on and accomplished many things that President Kennedy set as goals, landing on the moon and other things, over the last few years it seems that America has lost its hope and drive. As we remember JFK and what his life meant, perhaps we can gain back some of the spirit and hope that he stood for. Vickie

I was 4 and watching Quick Draw McGraw which was interrupted by the special news bulletin that president Kennedy had been shot, naturally, I threw a fit and screamed because my cartoon was interrupted. My mother came rushing into the living room since we only had 1 TV thinking something terrible had happened to me then realized that the President had been shot. She said that the president had been shot and that it was a very serious event, I screamed.....I dont care where's Quick Draw; I will never forget that day because that's the day that I thought they invented the evening news! Oh to be young and innocent. God Bless JFK even though he was a democrat.