WASHINGTON (WJTV) – November 22 marks the anniversary of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination in 1963.

I was invited to go to Arlington Cemetery in Washington, D.C., with some of the Honor Flights they have for veterans. President Kennedy is buried in Arlington.

I remember I got a call at the TV station several years ago on this date. Someone ask me why no one had mentioned this was the day Kennedy had been killed on television so far that day. I really hadn’t noticed. But I do recall they used to do network stories about the assassination on the anniversary of it every year. 

But by the time I got that phone call. it was already well past the 50th anniversary of his death. Maybe after half a century it was old news? Or so much other stuff had happened, Kennedy’s death just wasn’t nearly as spectacular at it used to be.

One spectacular thing that remains from Kennedy’s death, I don’t seem to recall ever hearing any conspiracy theories about anything before he died. Afterwards, they sprouted like seeds that had laid fallow in the ground just waiting for a good rain, so they could sprout. Now, even the Kennedy conspiracy is tame compared to others that have come up the decades since.

But today is the day Kennedy died, and the country hasn’t been the same since. We’re not as naïve as we used to be. We had no reason not to be naïve before. And although his death is not date that will live in infamy, it is certainly a day that should live in our memories. 

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