"As a nation, we have been haunted for decades by 'what ifs'
wondering what if John Kennedy had lived."

OUR JFK REMEMBRANCE CEREMONY

"He inspired not only a generation of Americans,
but he inspired a generation of people worldwide."

The following news story is one of the few I found that didn't talk about the KILLING JFK FOR FUN video game that came out yesterday on the 41st anniversary of JFK's assassination. I was amazed to learn that there are only two public JFK remembrance ceremonies in the entire United States.

I didn't listen to the radio or watch television myself yesterday but I was told by friends who did that they heard nothing on Canada's national radio station about the 41st anniversary of the assassination of JFK. But local radio and tv news were talking all day about the JFK Kill Video.

We had this discussion at our annual November 22nd JFK Ceremonial Dinner where we spent the evening reading aloud stories about JFK and sharing our personal favourites about him. Then we re-watched EXECUTIVE ACTION which is a MUST SEE re-enactment of the assassination laying a rock-solid case for a conspiracy involving members of the "military industrial complex".

The house of the hostess was decorated for the occassion, as it always is, with photos of JFK and we all wear our JFK T-Shirts. Always our discussions eventually turn to wondering about what life would be like if JFK hadn't been murdered that day in Dallas and had been allowed to finish his first term and then his second. We're all pretty unanimous that afterwards he would probably have become a newspaper owner. We think John-John in his own way, by becoming the owner of a magazine, was trying to fulfill part of his father's aborted destiny.

Through the evening there is always laughter and there is always tears. The laughter is for the incredible joy of just watching JFK in action, the tears are for the pain of losing that joy.

I wonder how many other private November 22nd remembrance ceremonies there are going on throughout the world. I hope it's more than two. ~ Jackie Jura

JFK recalled in solemn ceremony
by Bill Zajac, Springfield Republican, Nov 23, 2004

SPRINGFIELD - While speakers recalled where they were when they learned of John F. Kennedy's assassination, Westfield State College student Robert M. Pajak listened intently yesterday at the 41st annual Kennedy observance at the eternal flame at Forest Park.

Pajak, who was born 21 years after Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, only experienced Kennedy through reading and watching television. "I became very interested last year when there was so much written about him on the 40th anniversary of his death," said Pajak as he stood with about 150 other people at the 1 p.m. event. Pajak, 20, of West Springfield, said he has come to admire Kennedy so much that he visited the Dallas site of the assassination when he traveled cross-country last summer. Meanwhile, community leaders and Kennedy admirers gathered under gray skies to officially mark the anniversary locally for the 31st consecutive year.

"As a nation, we have been haunted for decades by 'what ifs' wondering what if John Kennedy had lived," said Director of Springfield Veterans Services Daniel M. Walsh III. Former Springfield Mayor William C. Sullivan, who organizes the event with former city resident William G. Marot of New Hampshire, said the annual Springfield observance on Nov. 22 is the only one in the nation other than the one at Arlington National Cemetery. Mayor Charles V. Ryan Jr. said the nation suffered a nervous breakdown when Kennedy was killed. "He inspired not only a generation of Americans, but he inspired a generation of people worldwide," Ryan said. U.S. Rep. Richard E. Neal, D-Springfield, said the Kennedy family's rise from immigrants from Ireland to putting someone in the White House in two generations is a reminder of the American dream.

Helen L. Ross, 88, of Springfield, said she hasn't missed attending the observance since she retired from Monsanto in 1981. "I remember when we heard he was shot. I left work at lunch and watched it on television in disbelief," Ross said.

JFK TRUTHS & UNTRUTHS

Jackie Jura
~ an independent researcher monitoring local, national and international events ~

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