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The Echoes of November 22, 1963, Continue to Inform My Worldview
The disruptions, fears, and uncertainties of today’s politics are rooted in the nation’s past behaviors — those which were hateful, those which were helpful
Religion, action, and reaction
On this day in 1963 I was a 14-year-old high school freshman attending Jesuit High School, in Shreveport, Louisiana. The news of John Kennedy’s assassination hit me in three ways:
The Jesuits reached for faith
First, the Catholic leadership of the school were devastated and their sadness swept through the halls and into the classrooms like a flash flood of sorrow, fear, shock, prayers, and disbelief. The usually rock-steady voice of the school’s president wavered and broke as he announced the news. I cried not just because I was sad, but because so many adults were sad. I was not a Catholic (the school was just the best choice for a good education), but the waves of Our Fathers and Hail Marys that lifted out of every room in the school did carry me along with their impassioned pleas.
The military stood up
Second, since I was a military kid living on Barksdale Air Force Base just outside town, I knew the tempo of the base would change immediately, and that some, if not…
