It is now 60 years, six decades, three generations, since our youngest elected President, John F. Kennedy, was taken from us by the tragedy of political assassination.
No event has so affected American history as much as this horrifying bloodshed, since the Abraham Lincoln Assassination a century earlier.
The impact of this assassination changed the course of the future of American history, mostly in a negative fashion, including the assassination of his brother, Robert Kennedy, less than five years after the shocking event of November 22, 1963!
This author and blogger wrote on these assassinations in his book–ASSASSINATIONS, THREATS, AND THE AMERICAN PRESIDENCY: FROM ANDREW JACKSON TO BARACK OBAMA, Rowman Littlefield, 2015, Paperback Edition 2017–well recommended to all who read my blog and this entry!
A Day In November
By F. Wayne Johnson
I will always remember,
That day in November,
When a president was shot.
The tragic day in Dallas,
Sent a country into paralysis,
And the ultimate death of Camelot.
I was no more than a child,
My political views were mild,
In the South, Civil Rights were being fought.
Many violently disagreed,
With powers to be,
Because people’s values were being crossed.
We were just starting up a war,
On a foreign country’s Shores,
And Vietnam had not yet been lost.
Our leaders convinced us they were sure,
For our democracy to be secure,
A lot of weapons needed to be bought.
Young men were being sent away,
There was more and more each day,
But no one would realize the cost.
We were committed way too deep,
Lost Son’s mothers were sent to weep,
Too late the actual truth had been sought.
For that November’s day’s sin,
I often wondered how it might have been,
To hear the story from the man who was caught.
So the important lesson has to be,
For all of us to see,
Is the day must never be forgot.
Wayne, a great poem, thanks! 🙂