Tag: assassination

Memories of the 60’s

My friend Kathie from chosenperspectives published a YouTube video today that really moved me.  I thought I would share it with you.

(If the video doesn’t come up you can find it at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-0NvkuPHZI)

I felt some sadness as I listened to the song, because these last eight years have shown how much work we still have to do in regards to racial relations.  At the same time, I know the words are as true now as they were when it was recorded.

In another post published today, Kathie also shared personal memories of what she was doing during the Civil Rights period and on the day that Martin Luther King was assassinated.  Check out her post at In Honor of Dr. King.  I think you will be glad you did.

Memories from the 60’s

Today is the 52nd anniversary of President Kennedy’s assassination.  At the time, I was fifteen-years-old and was living at Ft. Shafter army base in Honolulu, Hawaii.  Months before he was murdered, President Kennedy had visited Hawaii and I had gone to the parade.  I have treasured this picture ever since then.

President Kennedy

Prior to moving to Hawaii, I had lived at White Sands Missile Range army base in New Mexico.  As the result of President Kennedy’s fitness challenge, the high school students from the base walked the 27 miles to Las Cruces.

I was too young to participate in that walk but I was definitely inspired by it and hoped to do something like it in the future.  I was also excited when President Kennedy started the Peace Corps and AmeriCorps VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America).  I was so proud to be an American.

His death in 1963, followed in 1968 by the deaths of Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy, was quite a blow to my idealism.   As crushing as those memories are, I feel blessed to have been alive during that time.  And all three of them will always serve as role models for me.

 

Note:  This is not a photograph I took myself.  I have no memory of how I obtained it since it wouldn’t have been available at the time of the parade.  I suspect that I purchased it, or it was given to me, soon after the experience.