The Power and Tragedy of Political Assasination

How do people gain perspective when they live in the midst of history being made?

My husband and I moved to Washington DC in 1962. It was a heady place to be living. Live concerts by famous musicians, bookstores, and people from all over the world. The Smithsonian and art galleries. The Library of Congress with two copies of everything ever printed. Congress in session.

The March on Washington on the mall. It was the time of civil rights unrest. Our generation was determined to dramatically change our culture.

In November 1983, helicopters flew over the city announcing that President Kennedy had been shot. By evening it was clear he was dead. Not wanting to go home, we had something to eat at Woodward and Lothrop, a department store with a small restaurant.

Then we joined many others wandering the streets. People were in shell shock. There was little conversation, but like us people sought solace in being with others.

We were standing on Wisconsin Avenue when the motorcade carrying Kennedy’s body rushed by on the way to the Naval Hospital in Bethesda. There he was officially declared dead.

Later we learned that Lyndon Johnson had been sworn in as President as the presidential plane traveled from Dallas to Andrews Air Force base in Arlington. A sniper who disagreed with Kennedy was the assassin.

The next days were a blur. This was not supposed to happen. How did a person make sense of these events? My memories are crystal clear, visual and vivid. But they are a patchwork without any cognitive coherence.

During the transition, Johnson kindly gave Jackie several months to move out of the White House. Every morning Johnson was escorted by motorcade to the West Wing to go to work – traveling fast down Massachusetts Avenue, the avenue of embassies. Past the school where my husband was doing graduate work.

Political assassination is no joking matter. Along with others, we hoped it would never happen again.

But that was not to be. Five years later, Martin Luther King Jr. was killed by a sniper. Months later Bobby Kennedy lay wasted on the ground. Twenty years later I was at a conference, when it was announced that Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated.  A women in the group came forward keening. The sound stays with me.

It only takes one person with a gun to change the course of history.

A Millennial's Thoughtful Question

Some of our family had gathered around the table to share a meal and catch up with each other’s lives. After awhile, the conversation turned to current events in our community and beyond. Police shootings and police being shot. Black lives under attack. Inequality of rights in this country that has led to protests and sit-ins. Wars raging elsewhere and Europe under attack by ISIS. 

My husband and I reminisced about our involvement in the sixties’ civil rights movement. At a point in the conversation, one of the younger adults asked a ques†ion. He said: our generation of millennials has never known a time like this, but you two lived through tumultuous times when you were our age. How was that time the same and how is it different from today?

Over several days, I reflected on his question. Not necessarily “historically correct” observations, many others have done this analysis - but my perspective and feelings about this significant time in my early adult life. A time when my husband and I left the relative isolation of the rural Midwest to be plunged into what seemed to me like the heady center of the universe of our nation’s capital.

Words that spoke to the tumult of the sixties still speak to us today. Anne Lamott, writes 

in Traveling Mercies:  

When a lot of things start going wrong all at once

it is to protect something big and lovely

that is trying to get itself born--

and that this something needs for us to be distracted

so that it can be born as perfectly as possible.

Lamottcites a Tibetan belief and goes on to say:

That something big and lovely is our future.

It is our time and labor to embrace it,

for out of every death springs new life.

Those years so long ago did feel like something was being born. We believed we could change the world by passing laws against discrimination.

The civil rights movement was not a global issue. It was focused on events in this country. The cold war had been in existence for sometime, but I doubted Europe or Great Britain saw discrimination as their issue or paid much attention to what was going on here. Civil right was a uniquely American issue from the enslavement of African men and women, decades of repression, and the Civil War.

There was no internet telling us often within hours or even minutes of significant events around the world. I can’t even remember how we learned about what happened in Selma, Alabama, even though a close friend was there. There wer no cyber-attacks to worry over.  And no social media, instantly connecting us with individuals halfway round the world

.

Today, problems are global, far more complex, and tangled with so many issues unrelated to civil rights. What happens in France or the Middle East affects us in this country. What happened in Ferguson reverberates everywhere.  What Russia or North Korea do or say impacts  us locally.

Political leaders today are under minute scrutiny. Every word, every twitch is fodder for the news. Personalities are often the focus – over the issues. News is mixed with its entertainment value. Sure, we were fascinated with the Kennedys and Martin Luther King, but not in examining every detail of their daily personal lives – over and over again.

A spirit of optimism was pervasive. We believed we could take action and things would change. And much did. The Voting Rights Bill was passed and signed. As an outgrowth of the protest culture, the women’s movement has given women opportunities they didn’t dream of in the sixties. Where gender roles were rigid for most men and women. Yes, I picketed the White House - with my infant daughter in my arms. But I knew my place was in my home. And the civil rights movement morphed into protesting the war in Vietnam, using the same tactics of marches and protests that were so effective in addressing civil rights.

Fifty years ago, the movement within our culture was not a religious war. It was a moral war. Fear and gloom were not factors that pushed the civil rights movement. It was driven by a sense of justice. There was no distorted version of one world religion being used to justify violence or the determination to take over the world. The Ku Klux Klan was the closest “religion” to today’s ISIS. They were scary people dressed up in those white hoods and roads. But mostly, church leaders took an active role in denouncing racism.

The police were “not the enemy” nor were they victims. Yes, some of them did terrible things in the name of keeping peace. (Remember Selma for example). But they were not targeted for assassination. Today’s shooting would have shocked people even more then than they do today.

I remember being in graduate school at the University, when tear gas began to waft through the open windows. We left the building to see police trotting down the mall wearing gas masks. Had no idea then why - even though the image is crystal clear in my memory. Nor were any of us watching afraid of them.

Guns. The sniper assassination of JFK was unprecedented. It was the day so many of us lost our innocence. The proliferation of guns today has meant daily senseless shootings. From random shootings to deliberate acts to take lives. Not just in this country but in Europe and elsewhere. Europe was the safest place anywhere – is now haunted by the fear of more ISIS attacks.

During the sixties, there was not a yawning gap between those who had from those who did not – unless you were black. Wall Street was not a part of the problem. A household could live comfortably on one income. The middle class was large, and within reach of so many of us. Yes there was poverty, black and white. But our efforts were creation of Head Start and a numbr of other Federal programs. In addition to gradual integration of public schools.

                

Today’s presidential campaign would have been unbelievable in the sixties. Science fiction maybe. But not real time/real life. Sometimes it is hard not to feel hopeless or voiceless. How can one person create change, given the complex intertwined issues? Where even to begin?

Bernie Sanders began a revolution that I doubt even he did not expect would happen. It touched something deep inside people desiring a better society. However, permission has been given to voice unprecedented hatred and bigotry. In the voting booth, we all need to look deep inside and consider what we want the future to be.

A wise man said the following over twenty centuries ago:

Do not be daunted by

the enormity of the world's grief.

Do justly, now. Love mercy, now.

Walk humbly, now.

You are not obligated to complete the work,

but neither are you free to abandon it.

                                 - Rabbi Tarfon

My generation has to come to terms with contributions we made were not the solution to so much discrimination. We did our part, but the work is not done. The young adults of this day need to decide what they can do to further the work.