Observance Muted 35 Years After JFK’s Assassination

At one time, every American could describe, with keen emotional detail, the moment he or she heard President John F. Kennedy was dead, cut down by an assassin in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963.

That shocking moment was followed by days of nationwide mourning punctuated by orations under the Capitol dome, by the widow and daughter appearing at the flag-draped casket, by a solemn funeral cortege that was paced by hollow drumbeats and followed by a riderless horse, and by a little boy’s salute.

Twenty-five years later, the anniversary was observed by the opening of the Sixth Floor Museum in the former School Book Depository, the building where the shots were fired. On the 30th anniversary, the site of the assassination was commemorated as a national historical landmark.

Now, 35 years after shots rang out, little activity was expected for today’s anniversary.

Other than the usual handful of curious people milling about Dealey Plaza, the day was expected to be uneventful, said Bob Porter, director of public programs at the Sixth Floor Museum.

Porter said that’s understandable, considering how many Americans were old enough to reason with what happened in 1963.

Of the more than 265 million people in the United States, about half were not even born at the time of the assassination.

They missed the shock of the assassination, the national mourning period with those sharp images of the funeral.

So can it be said that fewer people care about Kennedy’s assassination?

It may be more a matter of respect than of care, said David Farber, who has written several books on American political history and has taught history at Columbia University.

“I wonder if all the disclosures about Kennedy’s tawdry nature in the White House--about his affairs--has something to do with it,” Farber said. “I think that the comparisons being drawn between Clinton and Kennedy do not look favorable on either of them, and I think people may have lost some of their respect for Kennedy.”

The 35th anniversary also is missing something important--Jacqueline Kennedy, whose presence helped keep her slain husband in the public consciousness, noted Farber. The president’s widow died in 1994.