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University Daily Kansan Friday, Nov. 20, 1964
John Fitzgerald Kennedy
(Editor's Note: Wednesday of this week the some 20 members of the class on editorial writing, taught by Professor Calder M. Pickett, were given a strange assignment. During the haper period they were not given an editorial assignment but the first anniversary of the assassination of the late John Fitzgerald Kennedy. The students were given a free rein to write in any manner they wished. Below are their results—five editorials expressing six students' views one year after the event.)
November 22.1963
IT WAS A COLD, DARK day, much like today. Students hurried through the chill gray dampness to classes and thought ahead to the Thanksgiving vacation. Little else of great importance concerned their minds, though most knew that President Kennedy was visiting Dallas that day.
It was the lunch hour. The newsroom of the Daily Kansan was almost deserted. Through the harsh clacking of the UPI teletype machine came the clear, urgent clanging of the bells noting that a flash was coming over the wire.
A student lazily watched as the keys began frantically pounding out their frightening message. Shock and disbelief were mirrored on the student's face and he called to the others. They, too, were stunned.
THE WORD PASSED quickly —"The President has been shot." The news traveled by whispers and crept into every corner and every heart—"The President has been shot."
Then came the terse, grim bulletin at 1:30—"The President is dead."
Grief, disbelief, and sorrow surrounded the kaleidoscopic events of the four dark days—Oswald's arrest, the swearing-in of Lyndon B. Johnson as President, the plane carrying the slain President's body to Washington, Oswald's murder by Jack Ruby, and finally the funeral and the burial in Arlington Cemetery.
THE MUFFLED CADENCE of the drums—symbolizing the nation's sorrow and the onward march of history and its people—and the haunting, mournful notes of "Taps" drifting away in the chill November sunshine are a part now of every American—a part of their past.
A year has gone by and changes have been made. His successor in the White House achieved much that President Kennedy could not achieve. It is, perhaps, ironical that the aftermath of Kennedy's death produced a national spirit that accomplished what he wished for America, but what he could not achieve for it in life. Largely in tribute to his memory the 1964 Civil Rights Bill was passed, a tax cut was obtained, the anti-poverty program put into action.
STILL AMERICA MOVES forward under a new leader, stumbling sometimes, but still the best hope of the free world. Change is an eternal process and the people and their deeds are soon forgotten.
But many of us will remember John Fitzgerald Kennedy, for he left us and the nation a priceless legacy—of high hopes and great dreams, of boundless energy and a zest for living, and of supreme devotion and ultimate sacrifice for that in which he believed.
"AND SO, MY FELLOW Americans, ask not your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country"—many of us hear his voice and still remember. And we are at once both proud and humble that we had such a man as he to lead us and to give us inspiration. And we pause now, in remembrance, to give thanks.
— Rick Mabbutt
"HE IS NOT HERE."
It was with these words that early Christians were told to seek their Master elsewhere . . . among the living.
Today these words would be spoken to the men who would seek John Kennedy.
He has been gone a year, yet men still find him among the living.
HE WAS NOT HERE when our Congress voted equal rights to all men regardless of their color or creed, but he was among the living men who favored such a move.
He was not here to see and hear about the personal tragedies which infected the men in high governmental places, but he was among the living who regretted such events.
John Kennedy is not here to see the war in Southeast Asia, but he is among the living men fighting there.
HE WAS NOT ABLE to herald with the nation the election
of a new president, yet he was among the living who stood beside the new President and who prayed for his success.
He is not here, but he is among the living . . . among the ideals of free men; among the targets of those who would destroy that freedom; among the spirits of men who would rise above the expected and give their all.
"SEEK YE HIM among the living."
- Bobbetta Bartelt
At 12:30 p.m. Sunday, the rifle fire, now muffled and muted in our memories, will be a year old. The man who most of us loved and respected will have been dead 365 days.
Tread lightly, ye blithe spirits;
Hasten not to have more than his mortal·body entombed.
For in the memories of Americans all The spirit of the man must linger.
Choking on the year-old tightness in my throat. Withdrawn from the reality of the event, I see him
- * * * *
— at the helm of a little, buffeted sailboat,
I see him —
—before Berliners as protector, friend and,
in his words, "a Berliner."
— in a lonely chamber, waiting a long night's hours for the missiles to be moved.
hair askew, Secret Service men askance.
— with his loving, not yet conscious children.
and their mother, too, too, painfully aware of his rare heart.
On the imminent, decades early anniversary of his death
Remember from the spark he struck.
The fire must burn in us.
The torch is passed to our generation by
Live the love of life
He vowed in every deed;
Press on to pinnacles
Before only imagined as a goal.
From him take the lesson:
How easy it would have been done.
Charlie Corcoran
MUCH HAS HAPPENED since that day. The ideas and programs which John F. Kennedy championed have largely been enacted. An attempt to repudiate them at the polls has failed miserably. Part of the success of the Kennedy legislative program and foreign policy goals since his death can be attributed to his successor, Lyndon Johnson. But to an unmeasured extent, the late President's shocking death awakened the minds of many who had opposed his every recommendation out of habit and caused them to look upon the proposals objectively.
1 2 3 4
SO HERE WE ARE a year later. Time has been gentle with us. Those minutes, hours, days and even weeks of anguish have slowly subsided. Except for those instants when we see a picture of John-John or do one of those many other little things which send the shock reverberating through us again, the pain has left. The man is dead. But may his spirit stay with us forever.
K
— Fred Frailey
Kir throu
IT WAS ONE YEAR AGO Sunday—Nov. 22, 1963.
Fri Unite main ened Kim
The "eternal flame" is still burning.
It burns not only at a grave side in Arlington National Cemetery.
It burns in the courage and fortitude of a mother and two small children. They were left saddled not with worldly difficulties—only with the task of overcoming the loss of their most treasured possession. Left only were memories.
junct form
"I exch prese He is Th
Th sent State when tione
IT BURNS IN THE EMPTY hearts of an elderly couple in Boston, Mass. Theirs has been a great family—but one frequently attacked by misfortune and grief.
It burns in the dedication of the Secret Service agents who gladly would have given their own lives that day in November if only they had a second chance.
It burns in the admiration of the vast number of public officials who had worked with, for, and even against this man in Washington—a great man.
IT BURNS IN THE RESPECT of the scores of foreign leaders and dignitaries who crossed oceans to pay homage to a great American—whether an ally or not.
It burns in the memory of the American public. The memory of a great choice by a narrow margin—a margin which would not have been nearly as narrow three weeks ago.
IT BURNS IN THE DEDICATION of the man buried in Arlington.
It was a year ago Sunday— Nov. 22, 1963—a great American who loved his country was lost to his country. John Fitzgerald Kennedy.
Russ Corbitt