Nov. 22,1963 in Buenos Aires

Fol published in the 11/22/13 South Marion Citizen: John F. Kennedy electrified Latin America when in his inaugural address he said: "To our sister republics south of our border, we offer a special pledge – to convert our good words into good deeds—in a new alliance for progress – to assist free men and free governments in casting off the chains of poverty." The world loved our charismatic president and our country which then represented peace and justice and hope for one and all. I was among the first half dozen people in Argentina to learn of the President's assassination. After my usual solitary lunch of bife de lomo or steak and kidney pie at the nearby London Grill in downtown Buenos Aires, I had been reading the English-language Herald in the American Embassy's file room before resuming my duties as communications supervisor when my “agency” counterpart came to the half door in shock. “The president's been shot!” Off I went to the code room to check for confirmation. Ambassador Robert McClintock, meanwhile, tried to call Washington on his hot line but it didn't work, forcing him to walk down several flights to use the phone in the military attaches' offices, a great indignity for the man who in 1958 called the Marines into Lebanon and the entire Sixth Fleet to the eastern Mediterranean on standby against anticipated turmoil in the Near East. Turned out his standard poodle had disconnected the phone. Grief exploded both within and without the embassy. Women wailed and men trembled as the light of hope for a better future was dimmed. Multitudes gathered in the streets to share their shock and sorrow. And for a full month thousands and thousands of people came to the embassy to sign condolence books while in the window of every boutique and restaurant and business was a photograph of the young president shrouded in black crepe or encircled with flowers and flags. The Embassy was then located in a 10-story building on Sarmiento within walking distance of the Casa Rosado on the Plaza de Mayo, where years later the mothers of those who “disappeared” would stand courageously in protest against the abductions and killings of their sons and daughters during the “dirty war” of military dictatorship which afflicted this rich and sophisticated nation of still unassimilated European immigrants from 1976-1983. Speaking at American University six months before his death, President Kennedy called for “a world in which the kind of peace which makes life on earth worth living – and the kind that enables men and nations to grow and to hope and build a better life for their children – not merely peace for Americans but peace for all men and women – not merely in our time but peace in all time.” Some say that his call for world-wide nuclear disarmament in that speech sealed his fate. The world came together before its television sets to witness the end of the “one brief shining moment” known as Camelot . Unfortunately too many of us join with the Argentines and peoples everywhere in continuing to search for “a man on a white horse” to singlehandedly right all our wrongs and lead us into the promised land without the commitment and effort necessary from an educated and involved citizenry. If we are to realize the dreams of our forebears, we must, as Alice Walker wrote, understand that “ We are the ones we have been waiting for.” The John F. Kennedys ......and the Barack Obamas of the world can only light the way for us.