November 22, 1963. The day the country changed for good. The day that innocence was lost.
The date, of course, is the day that President John F. Kennedy was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald as the presidential limousine cruised through Dealey Plaza in downtown Dallas.
I was in grade school and will never forget the ashen look on the face of my teacher as she entered our classroom after having been summoned to the principal's office. As she spoke, the tears began to flow and only as an adult do I understand the enormity of her responsibility in telling her second grade class that "a terrible thing has happened in our country."
That tragedy was broadcast into our living room and homes across the country. We all sat rapt as we watched Air Force One arrive in Washington, D.C. with Jackie Kennedy and our new president, Lyndon Johnson. We watched the replay of Jack Ruby gunning down Oswald in the basement of Dallas police headquarters. We watched the funeral procession and the cortege. We watched our country's version of the royal family grieve in public.
I take a moment on this date every year and think back to that time and how a generation was changed, forever. It was the first time in my young life that I realized that there was bad in the world.
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