RIP JFK
JFK was murdered 51 years ago today. Not too much news in the media about it today. It’s sad.
No matter what you thought of JFK’s personal life we could use someone with his vision today.
“We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea, whether it is to sail or to watch – we are going back from whence we came.”
John F. Kennedy
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/j/john_f_kennedy.html#OHL2WebfOuwXxu7Q.99
http://www.jfklibrary.org/JFK/JFK-in-History.aspx
Good Morning Gloucester 
I still remember my dad telling me that our own Ben Smith – for whom the playground in Cripple Cove is named – was JFK’s roommate at Harvard and took his place in the Senate when he became president. So many great people with connections to our wonderful home town!!
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Paul,
Thanks for remembering.
Here are my comments to Fred Bodin’s JFK memorial post a year ago.
On November 22,1963 I was a 21 year old first year law student, at NYU, struggling with courses such as civil procedure, torts and contract law, and looking forward to my marriage to my high school sweetheart, Barbara, in a few months. The preceding three or four years had been a time of excitement and personal growth and change.
In 1960, as president of the Long Island University Young Democrats I had worked hard for the election of JFK and actually got to meet him (very briefly) during a memorable campaign motorcade through Brooklyn on a chilly October evening. The crowds were enormous and the atmosphere was electric.
After the election I closely followed his presidency through its great successes as well as its failures and disappointments. In 1961, 62 and 63 I helped write and publish “The New Frontier,” a monthly report on the Kennedy administration and was proud that the Democratic National Chairman had noticed our efforts, although he did note that one of my articles critical of a Kennedy policy was perhaps misdirected.
But, no matter what, I was a Kennedy guy. He had instilled in me, as in so many others, a sense that public service was a noble and worthy calling. From the moment my hand grasped his during that Brooklyn motorcade, I knew that I would have to spend at least a portion of my life in public office.
The news of JFK’s assassination was, of course, devastating. Barbara and I travelled to D.C. on the Sunday following the shooting to witness the cortege from the White House to the Capitol, where the president was to lie in state. To this day, I am haunted by the dirge-like drumbeats that accompanied the rider less horse, the boots reversed in the stirrups and the soft sobs of the crowd of ordinary Americans who felt compelled to pay their respect on that sad day.
In about the year 2000, while I was serving as a New York State Assemblyman, I was visited in Albany by President Kennedy’s nephew, Anthony Kennedy Shriver. He looked around my office and noted the portrait of his uncle on my wall. He told me he was very touched by that and thanked me for remembering JFK in that way. I told him that if not for his uncle, we would not have been meeting there that day.
These days, when my faith in our political system and our politicians is challenged by the daily headlines, when I wonder what has gone wrong, I think of John F. Kennedy, remember those days and have my hope renewed.
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Inspiring, Marty! Thank you for sharing some of your life story.
I was in my first year of teaching at West Parish when the principal appeared at the door with the devastating news! The world seemed different from that moment on.
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Absolutely paul and thank you for sharing great memories marty
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Thanks for the memories. All I remember was all of the family watching TV and seeing a train and my parents crying.
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And excellent Post and great comments – remember when this was announced – a shock wave came over community…lot’s of tears and emotion world-wide!
🙂 Dave & Kim
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