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John Fitzgerald Kennedy
ine loss ot nigreat national figure, even
by natural dcwgfo.always comparable to
the death of a imfiBrarof the family, because
/through the instant, intimate communica
tions of our time such national figures come
directly into our home; as the voice of
(Franklin Delano Roosevelt- and the vibrant
youthful vigor of John Fitzgerald Kennedy,
So when a nu^^^|jnatches such a family
figure from our midst there is the first pain
ful blow of real personal loss; even as with
members of the family it may be one with
Whom we have argued and disagreed, but
nonetheless there is that intimacy our age
has with its famous, and even at times with
its infamous.
The death of a Will Rogers, the kidnap
ping of the Lindberg Baby, the silence of
FDR’s golden voice, the cruel murder of
JFK; somehow the fate of these “members
of the family” grieved us, and, We believe,
the nation more than anythingjin this cen
tury. . -t 'A.
men suier we swanow mat personal lump
in our throat from the loss of such a “mem
ber of the family" there is the shocked
realization that the loss has wider ramifica
tions.
As with the kidnap-murder of The Lind
berg Baby,, there is now the angry outrage
we all must feel'that a demented individual
could be guilty of attacking and destroying
such precious symbols.
President Kennedy was the first-president
bom in the 20th century. Now he is suc
ceeded by another, Lyndon B. Johnson. This
paper did not share a great many of his
views, but no sane person ever believes that
political ends can be attained by the assas
sain’s bullet.’
Perhaps those of us who opposed Ken
nedy’s political views grieved most over his
wasteful, insane, sad murder by an inverted.
two small children have lost their father
and a young wife has lost her husband.
That is why the grief was so real, the
shock so deep and the loss so great; because
'it was not just the loss of an energetic young
man.
President Kennedy’s death also represents
•another loss; perhaps less significant for
most, but still something to be reckoned with
in the long, long pages of history.
And that is the loss, even so remotely
vicariously of some of our self-confidence;
some of our smugness; some of our'Super
ficial sophistication because it reminded us,
so cruelly, that man at best is just an-animal
with a thin—very thin veneer of civilization.
Everyday the news wires carry stories of
demented murders, who seek. some release i
for their tortured reasonings in an outburst
of violence. Fortunately these outbursts
rarely penetrate to the top echelons of our i
society, and rarely strike down a “member
of the family”. j
But in the lifetime of those who served
in World War II we have had the attack
on President-Elect Roosevelt in Miami, the
wild attack on President Truman, the shoot
ings from the gallery in the United States
House of Representatives which wounded
several congressmen and now the ultimate
mad terror; the assassination of John Fitz
gerald Kennedy, the 35th President of the
United States of America. ., v f
There is no solace to be found so soon in
the analysis of this most recent tragedy,
nor m reviewing the past presidential asssas
me man cnoae Dy
Accepting these ti
that tw*
chance of nominating
has greatly enhanced 1
Rockefeller. •
Almost one fourth of the nation,
tion lives in the tiny corner of the
called the northeast. It is impossible to con
ceive a slate for national pffice that does
rtot take this hard fact, of population and
electoral vote into consideration.
Can the Democrats fjnd a No. 2 candidate
in this area who coultHlo
don Johnson did in 1960. for their party?
Possible, of' coursebut who? Muskie of
Maine? Ribicoff of Connecticut!? The Magic
of the Kennedy name from Massachusetts?
Pastore of Rhode Island f Can anyone of
these carry the votes of his area into the
Democratic Party that Johnson brought in
.— .
1960?
Finally, and perhaps most rniportant: Will
the northeast accept a /Southerner, who
speaks, with a slow drawl, and whose grand
parents on both sides fought for the Con
federacy in 1861 ? The South has been held
up to the world as the cradle of all that is
bigoted and prejudiced in politics and human
relations, but a look at the religious vote in
1960 should convince all who doubt that
prejudice is not the fee simple property of
The South. - . '• 7vAf.- y ; -
the death of President Kennedy Irom
bullets fired in a $12 rifle bought from a mail
order house has again raised the hue and
cry1 for stricter controls on the sale of deadly
weapons.
Reasonable people ought to realise that
such regulations are only additional red tape
and expense to'the law-abiding citizen and
offer no real barrier to the criminally intent
among us.
Outlawing the sale of whisky did not lessen
the sale of whisky, and outlawing the sale
af firearms will not lessen the sale of fire
arms, but merely channel such sales from
legal to illegal hands,
Aside from the fact that the Constitution
af the United State*-'giktaiitees all citizens
the right tn-bear arms'there is the historical
fact that the first step toward the police
state is the banning of weapons- among the
:itizenry.
The fact that millions of American homes
lave' rifles, shotguns and pistols/ is not a
threat to the people, but, it is a constant
:heck on the ambitions of potential then
an horseback who might prefer/a dictatorship
tb a republic. /. <. .• '. ; . :
Registration ol firearms oft the. p surface
seems perfectly logical and proper but lit
Western Europe—in France, Belgium and
Holland where such files existed they were
the first files to be used by the Germans
when those countries were occupied in World
War II. .'•* ' v-'V / 'V
Remote as file idea may be at this day
and date in history and outraged as the
nation certainly is over the untimely death
if its chief officer; is there anyone foolish
enough to believe that such an assassip
:ould not have gotten a gun whether they
were sold by a mail order house or by a
aootlegger of weapons? •
Let us not compound our misery by acti
•gain since 1:35 last Friday afternoon.
- ■ - ■ - Vs.i" y..-’ •' ■'L'
. And then as President Kennedy’s casket
was being moved to the Capitol rotund? -*•*»
fantastic took one more unbelievable
with the murder of the man charged __
the presidential assassination.
-■T-r:—:•
.. The nation sat transfixed at television sets
watching the first “live murder on television”.
T8e wild rumor became standard conversa
tion. Madame Nhu was seeking revenge and
had hired the assassination. Oswald was a
Russian agent. Ruby was an accomplice.
Dallas police set up the murder of Oswald.
Even Monday as the cortege mournfully crept
toward'-Arlington the rumor, swept the na
tion that President Kennedy’s father had
died, and the rumor mills have only begun '
to turn.
_'
aW
Now, 98 years after the assassination of
President Lincoln historians still are sifting
the ashes of that era and are still widely
divided on the motive behind his cruel death.
It is hot too far from reason to suggest that
a hundred years from now the assassination
of President Kennedy will also be under de
bate.
The murders of Presidents Garfield' and
McKinley have been filed and largely for
gotten because the men who killed them were
tried in an open court and, it is to be sup
posed, all their motives were exposed to
the world, and accepted by the world.
But now the man charged with Kennedy’s
murder, just as the man charged with Lin
coln’s murder has been silenced by death.
So history will have to make its guesses of
motive as it still is doing with John Wilkes
Booth.
- Certainly, «o far as the public knows there
was none of the bitter discord in the Ken
nedy administration that some believe tore
Lincoln’s cabinet asunder and led to Lin
coln’s murder. If there is a “Stanton” in the ‘
Kennedy administration he is the best kept
secret in public life today. Obviously, there
is no "Stanton”.
As an outspoken racial segregationist my
first fear after the President was shot Fri
day .was that some lunatic from the segrega
tionist front had committed the act, and I
hoped against fear that I was wrong; and
perhaps the only good news that came out
of this horrible weekend was that the man
who almost certainly did murder the Presi
dent, was from the exact opposite end of the
political rainbow. '
But I- believe that politics-, really had very
little to do with the act of Lee Oswald. From
my distant seaj by the TV he struck me as
being a complete egomaniac, who was will
ing to sacrifice his life just for a fleeting
moment of publicity. The self-assurance, the -
pursed, almost sneering lips in every pub
lic view of him. His arrogance. And the al
most ghoulish gnawing of a chicken bone
-while he sat waiting to murder the President
of the United States.
I think the Russians recognized him as a
mental case and refused him asylum in their
country. If he had been rational, or even of
practical service to them in a demented con
dition they would never have refused his ap
plication for citizenship; and most certainly
would not have granted he and bis wife exit
visas.‘ /' &■ i. '■