MONDAY,
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An Independent Nowipipel
Entered ai tecond elese matter
Medlord. Oregon under Act ol
March 3, 1897
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History from tne files of The
Mall Tribune 10, 20, 30, 40
and 50 Vf fl-
10 YEARS AGO ,
Nov. 25, 1053 (Wednesday)
, High waters all over Oregon
were falling today and the sea
son's first flood appeared to be
about over. ;
Howard Perrin, Klamath Falls
architect, is scheduled to arrive
in Medford this afternoon to look
over the site of the new city
elementary school.
20 YEARS AGO
' Nov. 25, 1043 (Thursday)
Miss Bernice Rcames, Med
ford, sworn into Marine Corps;
scheduled to report for active
duty in about six weeks.
From Arthur Perry's "Ye
Smudge Pot" column: "Lawn
tenders report the trees are all
stark and bare and gloomy look
ing, but leaves keep on falling."
30 YEARS AGO
Nov. 25, 1033 (Saturday)
Medford and Bend High School
football teams to play Thanks
giving day on Van Scoyoc field
for state championship; Darwin
Burgher's Medford team defeats
Ashland 37 to 0 to win right to
play in title game.
Former Heavyweight Cham-
fiion Jack Dcmpsey visits bricf
y in Medford; plans return trip
, within a month.
40 YEARS AGO
Nov. 25, 1023 (Sunday
Hunters Fred Sheffcl, Warren
Butler, Seeley Hall and L, C.
Garlock provide ducks for Med
ford 40 and 8 duck dinner.
Glenn Fabrick, accompanied
by his son and a number of
high school students, leaves to
attend football game in Eugene.
50 YEARS AGO
' Nov. 25, 1913 (Tuesday)
Attorney Gus Newbury sched
uled to give memorial address
at annual Elks memorial serv
ices in Page Theater.
George E. Boos, Medford. re
ports on organizational meeting
of Tri-State Pacific Coast Good
Roads Association held in Eu
reka, Calif,
What's Your I.Q.?
Nina or tn correct it iuprier;
leven or tight ti txctlUntf flv or
fix ft good.
1. Pan was the Greek God of
what?
2. What is the literal meaning
of Rio dc Janeiro?
3. Complete the following say
ing: "Many a true word is
spoken in .
4. Mt. Vernon, home of George
Washington, fronts on what
river?
5. Nutmeg State Is one of the
nicknames applied to which
state?
6. When Cortez conquered
Mexico, who was the Mexican
emperor?
7. With what poem by Long
fellow do you associato the
forest primeval?
8. Which is father south, the
tip of Africa, or the tip of South
America?
9. What Is the name given to
a line joining two points on Uie
circumference of a circle?
10. The term "eagle" is used
in what game?
Answers: I. Forests, pastures
flocks and shepherds. 2. Kiver
of January. 3. ". . . lest." 4
Potomac River. S. Connecticut.
- (. Moateiuma. 7. Evangeline. I,
South America. I. Chord. II.
Golf.
4 A
NOVEMBER 25, 1963
Dishonored Nation Grieves
America bows its head in sorrow and shame.
The assassination of President Kennedy brings to
all Americans the full measure of grief which
each of us experiences in the loss of a loved rela
tive. And we are ashamed
as it did to three other
passionate, cultured and
It is no consolation that the assassin may be
deranged. We have failed to protect the man we
chose to lead us away from the perils of nuclear
holocaust, onto the pathway of a better nation
and a better world.
The sacrifice of this strong, young, idealistic
leader who survived so gallantly the shells and
flames of a world war against tyranny on what
may have been the shabby altar of political or
religious hatred, is an
forgive those who wanted
TXHEN the flags of
T lowered to half-staff on that black Friday,
every American must have
Did he see there a measure, no matter how small,
of bigotry, hatred, intolerance, arrogance? These
are the baser emotions which have been gaining
currency in this republic in the years since World
War II, when so many of our sons died to stop
the spread of dictatorships which thrive on feel
ings such as these. Who is free of guilt?
There is much to be
Kennedy, the first Catholic President of the Unit
ed States. For this moment, let it only be said
here that his death is a tragedy of unknown pro
portions. It may shape the course of our lives in
ways we do not now understand.
The nation grieves and
dishonored us all. The
He Lived Among Us
Nearly all Americans are appalled that a fel-
ow citizen would take
'resident of the United States. But while a single
man or a. tiny group of conspirators was behind
that trigger, millions of Americans must share
some of the blame for today's outrage.
1 he murderer didn t
tion idea in a vacuum. He lived among us and
observed the words and deeds of fellow citizens.
And we all know of outrageous examples of dis-
espect yes, or arrogant disregard for con
stituted authority.
We see a little of this
ernment of law every day, in every community.
We have seen it on a grand scale in Alabama and
Mississippi, where public officials have fanned
the flames by brazen defiance of the law of the
land.
1X7E have seen ignorant and emotionally dis-
turbed people jostle or strike or spit upon
our Ambassador to the United Nations, the Chief
Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, and the Vice-
President of the United states.
The man who pulled the trigger presumably
belongs in a mental hospital, for surely no sane
man could commit such an outrageous crime. But
the blame for nurturing such insanity rests upon
all who have fostered disrespect for the law, upon
all who have condoned it, and upon all of us who
have done too little to battle such action.
We can best pay tribute to our departed Presi
dent by rededicating ourselves to our government
of law. We can only hope that this tragic act thus
affects all of us, and that it jolts to their senses
those Americans who have unwittingly lent en
couragement to the assassin. Capital Journal,
Salem.
Television's Lesson
After that totally unbelievable week end a
week end when the world turned topsy-turvey,
and the irrcat and the humble of the earth came
into our living rooms on
it must be said that television has added a new
dimension to history.
It was a magnificent performance. From the
first decision, whereby the networks voluntarily
gave up millions of dollars in revenues, all
through the tragic, shocking and fantastic week
end, the networks did a job which can only be
looked upon with awe and respect.
Never before in history have so many millions
been able to feel they were active participants to
one of the great and moving moments in history.
DY relinquishing their sources of income, and
by putting their full facilities at work, taking
viewers from Washington to Dallas to Hyannis
Port, the networks performed a miracle in com
munications. And it was in the best possible taste, most of
the time. The informed and respectful commen
tary of most of the announcers, their calm, often
sorrowful demeanor, even when caught up in the
midst of incredible events, compels respect and
admiration.
The utterly shocking contrast of the solemn
ceremonies in Washington with the violence and
shame in the basement of the Dallas police sta
tion; the courage and dignity of the bereaved
first lady at one moment and the excited, un
thinking laughter of police reporters the next
tnese left one gasping.
The television networks, so often criticized
and rightly so for
blatant nonsense, have
these last sad days. They have taught us all
and pernaps themselves
I1...1 !l t.1 A
that this could happen,
presidents, in this com
democratic land.
unbearable infamy., God
him dead.
the United States were
looked within himself.
said ot John Ifitzgerald
prays. An assassin has
Oregonian, Portland.
the life of the elected
germinate the assassina
disrespect for our gov
the flickering screen
crass commercialism and
earned the richt to pride
a lesson. Let us hope
"With a good conscience our only sure reward,
with history the final judge of our deeds,
let us go forth to lead the land we love . . . "
John F. Kennedy Inaugural Address
Communications
Letters to the Editor must bear the name and address of the writer,
although under certain circumstances the use of a pen name or initial
for publication Is permissible. The Mail Tribune reserves the right to
edit all letters with a view lo clarification and condensation. Letter
submitted tor publication must not exceed 400 words. The letters
printed in this column do not necessarily represent the views of t?
paper. In fact tha contrary ii often the case.
Belongs to Ages '
To the Editor: And now, John
F. Kennedy, like Abe Lincoln,
belongs to the ages.
A neighbor called at my house
and said "The President has
been murdered." It shocked me
so that I got a choke in the
throat and shed tears, the first
time I have cried in close to
80 years (I am now 85).
But I liked the man. 1 could
not help liking him, though I
did not cast my vote for him.
As soon as he entered the
White House, he showed his
good sense in steering the Ship
of State, and he changed its
course as soon as he took the
helm, avoiding the threatening
rocks and shoals by using his
influence on the national press.
Uncle Sam lost a good cap
tain. I salute him.
John E. Ring
1049 W. 11th St.
Medford.
Wonderful Comfort
To the Editor: This is written
the morning after our President
Kennedy's tragedy. The sky is
bleak and it's raining hard.
I have a feeling of "Good Fri
day" sad, but trust in God that
this all will have a repenting
effect on all of us as a nation.
I sincerely pray that this will
stir each and every one of us
to acknowledge God in all our
ways and to remember that all
things work for good to those
who love God. What wonderful
comfort to know that.
Our Redeemer lives.
Roonoy Senderson
1532 Terrace Dr.
Medford.
In His Place
To the Editor: As 1 was sit
ting here, listening to the people
say how sorry they were that
a great man Had Been Killed,
I started wondering how many
of the same people had said
terrible things about him the
day before. We just don't realize
that it doesn't do any good to
say how great he was now. If
they want him to know, say it
before something like this hap
pens. If we could just put ourselves
in the President's place for one
day, we would see that it is not
an casv job. Trying to keep
peace with other countries is
not an easy thing to do wncn
the people of the United States
can t even get along logcmer
The next time you start to
say something bad about the
new President, just think how
you would like it if you were
the President and the people
were saying those things about
you.
fat uovc
Route 1, Box 193
Gold Hill, Ore.
The Divine Plan
To the Editor: 1 cannot find
it in my heart to fault Lydia
entirely for the contents of her
M.T. loiters. More truthfully the
guilt lies, perhaps, at the doors
of those uf us who, after the
death of the Apostles, have
sought lo be teachers rather
than learners.
In denial of the plain Scrip
tural statement that man is a
soul (Gen. 2:7) we have said
man has a soul. In denying that
mnn dies, we have said he re
mains alive. In accrediting to
God perfect love, we have made
Him, by the eternal torment
theory, promulgated by the fa
ther of lies (John 8:44), a tor
turer. We have upset the beauty
in the correspondancy of the
ransom by accepting the thought
the man Jesus was other than a
perfect human being with per
fect human life and rights
which, in relinquishing forever
lo Justice, He purchased man
from the death sentence.
These are only a few. Small
wonder there is so much con
tusion, etc. Is It not time we got
MEDFORD MAIL TRIBUNE, MEDKOKD.
out our Bibles to ascertain
whether God has a plan, and if
so to seek to harmonize the
seemingly contradictory state
ments by a proper understand
ing and a rightly dividing of the
word of Truth? Perhaps, if we
v.'ould do this we would be kept
back from attributing to the
Bible only those things which
support our own pet theories and
thus fall into the error of dis
carding many meatier truths.
We are told to search the
Scriptures, to prove all things
and hold fast to that which is
good. Also that knowledge shall
be increased. Why, when the
foregoing seems presently to ap
ply to everything under the sun,
should we not apply it to the wis
dom which shines more and
more unto the perfect day?
As a help toward this end,
with proper reverence for the
Lord which is the beginning of
all wisdom, and with Bible in
hand, may I recommend to all
the reading of "The Divine Plan
of the Ages" in the Medford
Public Library.
(Mrs.) Irene Moreland
3146 Hanley Rd.
Medford.
Bird Bills
To (he Editor: The Cemetery
of the Cats at Sakkaret, Egypt,
contained many mummies of
both cats and of ibis. The ibis is
shown on Egyptian monuments
as Thout. This God has man's
clothing, including a lion's tail
at his coattail as a symbol of
might. His left hand holds a tab
let. On (his he writes. His head
is not human, but of an ibis,
even to its bill curved like a
curlew's.
After a young bird student has
learned to identify his common
birds, lie will commence to no
tice the wonders of bird anat
omy. One of these is bill adap
tation. The sparrow and finch
tribe has the stubby seed crush
er. The spoonbill's very name
suggests an evolution toward
food getting as that organ moves
like a scythe in yesteryear's
harvest, systematically to gain
shrimps and other nutrition .in
the muddy waters of Everglades
National Park s "keyes."
Note also the woodpecker's ef
ficient chisel as he makes a hole
in a dead snag in which he next
will stuff an acorn against future
hunger. The pelican has a fish
net at its lower beak. The com
orant has a fishhook at (he end
of its upper bill. The fisheating
mergansers have a sawlike bill
to hold slippery-scaled prey.
Other ducks have a specialized
bill for food getting in pond
mud.
The hummingbird's needle is
evolved for flowers. The eagle's
for its predator food gathering,
it's fun to study bird bills.
C. M. Goethe
3731 Tea St.,
Sacramento, 16. Calif.
Kancirs and Facts
To the Editor: I note that
Arnold Eugene Jenny in his re
ply lo Anna M. Streed (11-10)
indulges in some of (he most ex
treme language in denouncing
some of the most prominent
, fighters against the Reds.
! Anyone who denounces such
great American patriots as
jSmoot. Swarlz, (sic) Hargiss,
I (sic) Welch, etc., must be either
' a follower of the red line or
I hopelessly ignorant. In hatred
! tor the truth as (o (he terrible
i advances of Communism in con
quering (he world, such a per
son makes himself (he enemy of
all of us, including himself.
1 .lusi hvcauae Mr. Jenny is Ig
norant of the facts as given by
Miss Slreed constitutes no proof
of (he falsity of those fads.
I have been familiar with the
ominous facts as given by Miss
' Streed for many years in var
ious publications of (he highest
character. For 15 years, I have
I been taking some 30 publica
tions, mostly anti-Red. such as
OREGON
JFK: Intelligence, Vigor, Impatience
. . ... . ? 1 .WM.M Ia mora h
Br ERIC
SEVAREID
(Distributed 1983,
By The Hall
Syndicate, Inc.)
(All Hlrhta
Reserved)
What WAS John F. Kennedy?
How will he stand in history? As
this is written, hours after his
death, it is hard even to assem
ble thoughts, easy to midiudge
such a complicated human be
ing.
The first tiling about him was
his driving intelligence. His
mind was always on fire; his
reading was prodigious; his
memory almost total recall of
facts and quotations. A friend
of mine once crossed the Atlan
tic on a liner with the Kennedy
family, years ago. She remem
bered the day 12-year-old Jack
was ill in his stateroom; there
lay the thin, freckled little boy
12 years old, and reading
Churchill's early life, other
books scattered about his bed.
His was a directed intelligence;
he did not waste his energies;
he always seemed to know
where he was going and he put
first things first.
John Kennedy's intellectuality
was perhaps the hallmark of his
nature, even more than his
youth; the thing that made him
different from so many presi
dents. But few thought of him
as an intellectual in the sense of
one seeking truth for its own
sake; he sought it, in order to
act upon it. He was that rare
and precious combination, the
National Review, Human
Events, American Opinion, U.S.
News, Freeman, Williams Sum
marys, Fagan's Bulletins, etc.
These publication don't have to
fictionalize in order to fill their
columns. There are too many
deadly facts that are ignored by
much of the press.
In reply to those who lie about
the great patriotic John Birch
Society, a subcommittee of the
California State Senate under
Chairman John M. Burns, after
two years investigation of the
Society, says, "Our investiga
tion and study was requested by
the Society, which had been
publicly charged with being a
secret, fascist, subversive, un
American, anti-Semitic organi
zation. We have not found any
of these accusations to be sup
ported by the evidence.
"We believe that the reason
that the John Birch Society has
attracted so many members is
that it simply appeared to be
the most effective, indeed the
only, organization through
which they could join in a na
tional movement to learn the
truth about the Communist men
ace and then take some positive
concerted action to prevent its
spread."
Charles R. Weede
278 Idaho St.
Ashland, Ore.
In the Day's News
By FRANK
Shocking fact:
In our relatively brief career
as a nation, FOUR of our Pres
idents have been assassinated.
In the centures - long career of
the Roman Empire, there were
only two assissinations:
Julius Caesar by Brutus.
Mad Caligula by the officers
of his own guard.
BRUTUS allowed himself to be
drawn into (he plot to mur
der Caesar who, he thought,
was reaching for supreme pow
er. He hoped by killing Caesar
to save republican government
in Rome. He was a hero to
many Romans who believed, as
did Brutus, that republican gov
ernment was in danger.
Caligula, in the first eight
months of his reign, made him
self popular by his mildness and
acts of justice. Then, when he
had a firm hold on the republic,
he lost his mental balance. He
became cruel and vindictive,
killing and torturing many per
sons. He considered himself a
god, and had a temple built
in his own honor. He declared
Ins horse Incitatus to be consul,
j He was murdered by the offi
I cers of his own guard, who re
garded his slaying as an act
of patriotism.
OUR record is different.
, Our four martyred Presi
dents have been murdered by
I CRACKPOTS.
ON APRIL 14, 1865, after a
long cabinet meeting at
which he had urged conciliation
of (he defeated confederacy,
Lincoln went to Ford's Theater
to seek relaxation. John Wilkes
Booth, an actor and a fanatic,
stole into the box behind the
President and shot him in the
head.
He then leaped down to the
stage, waving a dagger and
shouting "Sic semper tyrannis"
(So be it to tyrants.) In spring
ing from the box to the stage,
his foot was caught in an Amer
ican flag and his leg was broken.
He escaped by the rear of
the theater, reached a horse
lhat was saddled and waiting
man of contemplation as well
as the man of action. He had a
sharp sense of history from bis
immense reading, an d was
acutely conscious of what his
own place in history might be.
In a sense, he lived for that;
much of his personal corres
pondence as President suggest
ed his awareness that those let
ters would be part of the Ameri
can archives and story for all
time.
He brought a new style into
government; he surrounded
himself with intellectuals, as
did Franklin Roosevelt in his
Strictly
Personal
By Sidney J. Harri
(c) Field Enterprise!, me.
BOYS AND GIRLS
Speaking of the woman's need
for clothes, as I did in a recent
column, it occurs to me that,
beyond the reason I suggested,
her desire for many and varied
articles of clothing may have a
lot to do with her girlhood in
our particular culture.
In buying Christmas gifts for
my sons and daughters, I have
consistently been struck with
the disparity between the toys
made for boys and those made
for girls. It is infinitely easier
to find intriguing and different
devices for boys than for girls.
Almost everything for girls
is related to the doll family or
to some form of domesticity.
There is a monotonous same
ness about the kind of toys de
signed for little girls as if they
were merely miniature women,
totally lacking in the need for
novelty, excitement, and ingen
uity displayed in the toys for
little boys.
At an early age, it seems
to me, the girl is made to
feel obliquely, if not openly
that her role in life is rela
tively closed and circumscrib
ed, her childhood a kind of
bland preparation for wife
hood and motherhood. Her
brothers get the toys that
make noise, move swiftly, and
provide a satisfying release
for the kinetic tensions of
youth.
I happen to believe that
boys and girls, while obvious
ly differing In many psycho
logical traits, at the same
time share a common need
for action, noise, and the ef
fective discharge of aggres
sive tendencies. A girl may
not be as overtly "wild" as a
boy, but biologically and neu
rologically she needs lo work
out and work off her accu
mulated tensions.
Such working out is not con
sidered quite proper for a little
JENKINS
for him and fled into Virginia
where he was caught in a barn
near Bowling Green. On his
refusal to surrender, the barn
was set fire to and it is believed
he shot himself.
OUR NEXT martyr was Pres
ident Garfield. While wait
ing for a train in Washington to
take him to Williams College,
he was shot by C. J. Guiteau,
a disappointed office seeker. He
was shot on July 2. The shot
was not immediately fatal. Gar
field lingered on until Septem
ber 19, when he died.
(N SEPT. 6, 1901, while hold-
v ing a public reception in
the Temple of Music at the Pan.
American Exposition in Buffa-
lo, President McKinley was shot
by an anarchist named Czolgosz,
who approached an unsuspect
ing President with a pistol con
cealed under a handkerchief
that appeared to cover an in.
jured hand.
For several days, his condi
tion held out some hope of re
covery, but a week later he be
came suddenly worse and died
THERE comes now the assas-
sination of President Ken
nedy.
A suspect was arrested. He
was Lee H. Oswald. He was a
j former Marine wilh a dishon
orable discharge He was a pro
Castro Marxist. He once sought
citizenship in Communist Rus
sia. He follows the hisloric pat
tern of American assassins.
Without exception, they have
been crackpots.
That suggests a thought for
those of us who have not agreed
politically with some of our-
Presidents. Perhaps we have
been TOO PARTISAN. Perhaps
our partisanship has been unin
tentionally carried TOO FAR.
We can make the necessary
rationalizations. We can make
cracks about the man in the
White House without mcanins
anything disrespectful to the
President of the United States.
Perhaps the crackpots CAN'T.
At least, it's worth some seri
ous thinking on our part.
first years; but in his personal ,
- ' ... ... I
style he was more like President
Theodore Roosevelt. Like the
first Roosevelt, President Ken
nedy believed in action; he had
no patience with those who were
tired or skeptical or cynical; no
patience with those who could
not keep up, mentally or physic
ally. He become, with his young
and beautiful wife, the symbol
of America as he and most of us
like to think of American: itself
young, itself always hopeful, be
lieving that government could
change the face of our land and
our lives and that America
girl, although I cannot imagine
why not. As a result, she is
given quiet, gracious, decorative
gifts which act as sedatives
rather man as stimulants. Ana
while these may seem to please
her, I suspect they build up a
large reservoir of resentment,
and a deep sense of deprivation.
The way the girl "runs wild"
when she grows into womanhood
is through the socially accept
able channel of "buying sprees."
She purchases clothes she does
not need, and may not ever
wear, and is always on the
lookout for the kind of novelty,
excitement and ingenuity she
missed as a little girl. The ex
tensive, and sometimes flam
boyant, wardrobe is a compen
sation for the lacks she felt.
plus a retaliation against the
male for having enjoyed a more
stimulating "toyhood."
All this may be nonsense, of
course; I set it forth with the
utmost diffidence. But I have
yet to hear a more plausible
explanation of woman s notor
ious irrationality in the buying,
and discarding, of so many gar
ments she doesn t really like
and hardly ever wears.
Shock, Grief,
Anger and Pride
By Arthur Hoppe
It hit so hard. So suddenly.
We were standing in the of
fice, a group of leporters,
laughing over some small anti
Kennedy joke. Not a vicious
joke. One he would probably
have laughed at himself.
Then there was the word he
was shot. There was the first
moment of blankness of sheer
incredibility. We gathered
around a battered radio on one
reporter's desk and stared at
its chipped, ivory - colored plas
tic case for . . , How long was
it? An hour?
And slowly it became be
lievable. And, as it became be
lievable, the shock grew. "I'm
going to be sick," one woman
kept repeating over and over.
"I'm going to be sick."
And as the believability grew
and the shock grew, there grew
within those of us around the
battered radio still another emo
tion a hard, burning knot
of anger.
"The bastards," said an old
reporter, his eyes hard, "the
dirty bastards." We all nodded,
filled with anger and hate for
those who did this. And I
thought of all the deaths this
old reporter had seen mur
ders and fires and wrecks. I
thought of how we reporters
armored by our shell of cyni
cism, could usually manage wry
jokes about disasters, jokes that
would seem in terrible taste
to outsiders, jokes we tradi
tionally use to flaunt our pro
fessional toughness and perhaps
to protect our human sensitivi
ty. But this time there were no
jokes. There was only the
shock and the grief and the
anger. And yet it was only one
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"Vou tan tell t hriMmas Ij just around thr corner Ihe
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could do more than any country
in Iha tunrlH tn manCP tha fana
and the nature of the world it
self. He showed no signs, even after
three years in office, of grow
ing tired, either in body or
spirit ... but the built-in ob
s t a c 1 e s to practical achieve
ment wpre and remain
prodigious and complex. He te
gan some new practical courses
of government action as with
the Peace Corps and the Alli
ance for Progress; these, per
haps, were more imaginative
than his domestic conceptions;
in any case, it is in the domestic
field that his difficulties were
the greatest and progress the
slowest.
Early on, he showed that his
way would be to try to conciliate
and persuade the Congress, and
to compromise with it where he
had to, rather than to try bull
dozer tactics. Of his bold ac
tions, his nuclear confrontation
with the Soviet Union over Cuba
was the boldest, one of the bold
est and most successful acts of
statesmanship the histoory book
will ever tell the future about.
But at bottom, President Ken
nedy was a cautious, prudent
man. He liked to have all his
ducks in a row before he fired.
However vibrant in his political
Denavior, ne was, in nis aeep
est emotional nature, a conser
vative human being. Rarely,
did the people become aware
of his deep feelings about any
thing. When he spoke to the
country by radio or television,
his head usually ruled his heart.
Only in very special circum
stances, as on the day of brutal
events in Mississippi, did pas
sion rise in his voice as he
spoke. This is why some pro
fessioional observers said that
President Kennedy had opened
his mind to us, but not his
heart . . . that therefore, politi
cally, he had not captured the
heart of the people.
If that was so, it is so no long
er; the heart of the people is
with the young President in
death; with all of his family.
The tears of the country are
with them; its hopes are with
the new President.
man who had died. Not a small
child, nor a defenseless crip
ple, not even someone we knew.
But a mature, powerful man.
A man, moreover, who, during
his life, some of those around
the radio had not particularly
admired and few, if any, had
truly loved.
Then why this choking grief
we all shared at his death? Why
this buring anger toward his
assassin?
I don't know. Partly, I sup
pose, it is because we all iden
tify with a President, as we do
with any famous man. He is
part of our conversation, our
casual thought, part of the fab
ric of our lives.
But in the case of a President,
I think it is more than that. He
was not merely the President.
He was our President.
Whether we voted for him or
not, he was our President. He
had made a thousand speeches
and shook ten thousand hands
and traveled a hundred thou
sand miles to present himself
to us. And we we, the peo
ple had elected him.
And now all this was for noth
ing. A single man firing a single
bullet with a simple squeeze of
his finger had destroyed what
we, the people, had built. And
I think that what at least part
ly grieves and angers all of us
so much is this flaunting of our
system, this terrible injustice.
I hope so. I think so. And
mingled in these other emotions
for me, there isigrowing anoth
er pride. I m proud that
all of us feel this grief and
anger so deeply. Whatever our
politics or our eyenicism. For
our grief and our anger, I be
lieve, is the measure of our
love for democracy.
... I r
Ora