Is Our Government going to fall

It was Friday and the last day of school for the week. It was going to going to be thanksgiving soon and I talking about who was coming to out house with my friends as we walked to school. All of us were trying to think of all the good food we were going to eat and if we would be aloud to help with the cooking. Were we also making plans about what we could do over thanksgiving vacation.

When we got to school it started like any other school day. We had lesson, went to lunch, and then recess. But everything was going to change once we all got back into our classrooms for afternoon studies. I think we were working in out math books when when the classroom opened and the principal came into our room. He walked over to the teacher and they spoke very softly for a few minutes. We all looked at each other trying to figure out who was in trouble. But from the way they both looked it seemed like something else was going on.

"Class please form a line at the door. We are going down the hall to join the third graders."

We all lined up at the classroom door. I was in second grade at the time and got a little excited because that was one of my brother's classrooms. We quickly walked down the hall and arrived to see the principal, teacher, and other student adding extra chairs to the room and the guidance counselor was wheeling in a TV. It was Friday November 22, 1963 at approximately 1:30pm. I went and found a empty chair next to my brother because I was starting to feel scared. The teacher asked for us to be quiet and turned on the TV. There was Walter Cronkite. I knew who he was because my parents would watch the news at home and they liked him. He looked really upset.

" The President has been shot."

I think I went numb. We had only been living in America for about three years and I was instantly thinking that a Coup was going on, Was he dead, who had done this, was a war going to start? All these questions filled my head as we watch replays of the the motorcade. Poor Mrs. Kennedy, this was awful, horrible, what was going to happen?

I looked around the room. Some of the adults were crying. I wanted to go home really badly. I didn't think any of the other kids knew what a Coup was. I don't think they really believed it was happening. We sat and watched watched. Finally we heard the TV announcer say, " The president is dead." The he began to cry.

We were allowed to go home early. I kept thinking back to my years in Europe were my brothers and I had been born. We had heard a lot about different government falling and most of the time it started with the assassination of the leader of the country. I kept wondering if we were going to have to leave America.

When we got home my mother had the TV on. She looked so sad but I just went and sat down next to her. It was awful watching it all and hearing each and every detail. I wonder what would happen to Mrs. Kennedy and her two children. I wonder if someone was going to try and kill them too. Dad came home and I felt safe. He was retired Navy and I knew he wouldn't let anything bad happen to us. Then I felt guilty because our Dad was home and Caroline an John Kennedy would never see their dad again.

Mom and I always looked at magazine picture of the Kennedy family. Caroline Kennedy was born a year after me while we were living in Holland. Everyone in Europe would talk about the Kennedy's especial Joseph and Rose Kennedy. John, her brother, was born in 1960 which was the year I found out we were living Holland and moving to America permanently. Interestingly enough both of them were born during the month of November which was the same month I was born in. However, they were born near the end of the month and I was born near the beginning.

My brothers and I went to bed. The next morning we learned the the Vice President Lyndon Johnson, was now the president. It was a little confusing but as I listened to the news and the adults in the neighborhood talking I realized everything was going to be okay and that the Government wasn't going to fall. I was both relieved and sad. I like President Kennedy and his family.

A lot of people in our neighborhood were Irish American and everyone was really upset. One of my friend told me he was killed because he was catholic. Up until that point it hadn't really registered that he was America's first Catholic president. I couldn't agree or disagree because being born in Europe I knew people would really kill someone just because of the their religion. I simply sat there at let my friend talk. I could see she was trying not to cry.

Another neighbor said he was killed because of his father Joseph. She was telling my father the that Joseph Kennedy wore and an Irish curse and only his "sainted wife" would be able to save that whole family. It surprised me because I thought American only hated Jew. I didn't realize they hated Catholics too. I learned a bunch of new interesting facts about America that weekend and most of it was hateful. Really ugly

Then I started thinking about all the people in leadership that had been assassinated since we moved to the US. Something certainly wasn't right in this countries political world. Since I was only seven at the time I was I problem that i knew I couldn't solve but it left a lasting impression that made me want to figure out what was wrong with this country