OPINION: JFK’s assassination rattled U.S. democracy

Some events in life can be so tragic that the years cannot erase the precise time and place the news pierced our senses.

The attack on Pearl Harbor, the 9/11 collapse of New York City’s twin towers, the insurrectionists’ violation of our nation’s Capitol and the assassination of President John F. Kennedy are events seared in the memories of generations.

Today is the 60th anniversary of President Kennedy’s assassination in Dallas, Texas. On Nov. 22, 1963, our world appeared to be spinning out of control. Our security was threatened and our very future seemed uncertain.

Anniversaries are for reflection. So today is a good day for pause.

A baby boomer, I was a newly minted college freshman buoyed by the hope and future our youthful president represented. While his intervention in Vietnam was proven to be myopic, Kennedy had the moon in his sights. His was a World War II profile in courage who bravely declared his Berlin citizenship to a divided Europe.

My student worries were both minor and global — looming midterm exams were juxtaposed with the nuclear confrontation with Russia that was deftly defused by Kennedy.

As I innocently crossed campus on that fateful day, a cacophony of fearful wailing hit me:

“Have you heard? Kennedy was shot!”

“Is he still alive?”

“Oh no! That cannot be.”

“Are you sure he died?”

“Dallas? Why Dallas?”

“How’s Jackie Kennedy?”

“What next?”

“Assassinated?”

“Are we at war?”

“Russia? Had to be Russia!”

“I’m crying, too.”

“I’m going home.”

“I’m staying here.”

“Everything’s canceled.”

Where were you 60 years ago on Nov. 22? How and what did you hear and feel? If you were not alive then, what was your first recollection in absorbing the history of this horrific national crisis?

We remained glued to our black-and-white television sets for any nugget of news. We relied on trusted journalists like Walter Cronkite and Eric Sevareid to bring us breaking news. In the blink of an eye, our country was threatened and thrown into upheaval. We looked everywhere and to each other for assurances that we were secure under the umbrella of our democracy. We quickly learned about the constitutional succession of power as Vice President Lyndon Johnson took the presidential oath of office on a borrowed Bible held by Jackie Kennedy in a dress streaked with the dried blood of her husband, our assassinated president.

Many of my classmates quickly fled to the bunkers of their homes — near and far — seeking comfort and refuge from this assault that felt so personal but had international implications. Some of us stayed on campus to weep, pray and seek comfort. We were adrift with each other.

I can safely predict that today multiple media will share video and commentary. We should devote time to this summary of sharing.

As I recall that day in 1963 and the days, weeks, months and years that followed, I am still haunted by facts and theories of that sun-drenched scene in Dallas.

Are you?

I am struck by the fragility of our precious democracy and the insidious ways it is now quietly but purposefully assaulted: venomous speech, dehumanizing of opponents, denial of scientific fact, outright and repeated lies, conspiracy theories masquerading as truth, creeping authoritarianism, anti-intellectualism, revisionist history, avoidance of civil debate and dog whistle calls for violence.

The assassination of JFK was an assault on our country intended to destroy a youthful beacon of hope and nationalistic vigor. Frightful as it was in 1963, we need to recognize that at this moment we live in a political environment fraught with corrosive forces slowly weakening our beloved country.

Our democracy was imperiled by an assassin’s bullet 60 years ago. But it can also be sent careening out of control by our selfish complacency and disregard for history.

On this historical anniversary, we must take a deep and broad inventory of the current threats to our democracy. We must become engaged.

Sitting on the sidelines is not an option.

LaRocco, of Boise, represented Idaho’s 1st Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1991-95.