By Phil Riske, managing editor | Rose Law Group Reporter
On this Nov. 22, we are a divided nation of haves and have-nots — those who have a memory of the day President Kennedy was assassinated and those who do not.
On Nov. 8, 1960, Kennedy was declared the winner over Richard Nixon, and I remember hearing the news on the radio in my dorm room at the University of Wyoming. I couldn’t believe Nixon lost because he was all you heard about in conservative Wyoming.
But not until Nov. 22, 1960, did I give a damn about American politics. That day in Dallas whetted my now-undying interest in government and politics. It did the same for millions of other Americans.
I since have covered politics from the city council level to the U.S. Senate, from the Wyoming Legislature to the Arizona Senate and now in my “retirement,” for Rose Law Group Reporter.
Kennedy’s perspective at his inauguration rings true today: The torch was passed to “a new generation of Americans.” His assassination shocked me and millions of the new generation into action to better our democracy.
The Los Angeles Times today put a flawed president in perspective.
[D]espite scores of biographies and endless tell-alls, the revisionists never have been able to dispel the Kennedy mystique.
Any assassination of a president is wrenching for the nation, and some of the admiration of JFK is refracted through the trauma of Nov. 22, 1963. But there was a special poignancy to JFK’s passing because of his youth, his optimism and his ability to inspire. It’s neither surprising nor lamentable that he remains a compelling and beloved figure half a century later.
