Time to Move Forward: Mourning Jack Kennedy, Embracing Barack Obama

Forty-five years ago today, we buried 47-year-old John F. Kennedy, the 35th President of the United States.

Although I was young, I remember it with fresh pain. It was my parents' 15th wedding anniversary, but they stayed home and mourned with the rest of our shocked nation. My mother drew closed our house curtains, and we huddled around the TV, paralyzed by grief-stricken failure to comprehend the tragedy.

Forty-five years ago today, one million people lined the streets of Washington D.C. as President Kennedy's casket was moved from the U.S. Capitol Rotunda, to St. Matthews Cathedral, and then to the president's final resting place in Arlington National Cemetary.

In attendance at the state funeral were more than 200 foreign dignitaries from 92 countries, including 19 heads of state. The world community reeled at the loss of the charismatic, bright leader with boundless promise.

But the loss was most acute for the inconsolable American people. Jack Kennedy inspired us. He motivated us. He believed in America, and he deeply believed in us, in our democracy and in our Constitution. It was inconceivable that anyone so young, so dynamic, so imaginative, so beloved could be gone...

It's been 45 years, now. And Americans, especially my baby boomer generation, have clung desperately, and nostalgically, to our throbbing hurt over the loss of Jack, and later Bobby and Martin. We've continually measured political candidates against President Kennedy, but, of course, none came close to comparing.

Until now.

Caroline Kennedy, daughter of President Kennedy, movingly wrote earlier this year:

"Over the years, I’ve been deeply moved by the people who’ve told me they wished they could feel inspired and hopeful about America the way people did when my father was president. This sense is even more profound today...

"That is why I am supporting a presidential candidate in the Democratic primaries, Barack Obama...

"I have never had a president who inspired me the way people tell me that my father inspired them. But for the first time, I believe I have found the man who could be that president — not just for me, but for a new generation of Americans. "

Plenty of differences exist between John Kennedy and Barack Obama, soon to be the 44th President of the United States. And Obama has a fair distance to travel to prove himself worthy of this presidential comparison.

But John Kennedy and Barack Obama have much in common, as Caroline Kennedy courageously penned. And Obama's potential matches that once held by Jack Kennedy.

My friends, I write these words on the 45th anniversary of the day we buried Jack Kennedy, because it's finally time for us to move on... to stop clinging to our grief... to stop hiding behind impossibly lofty comparisons.

It's time for us to mourn what-could-have-been one last time, and then to move forward to firmly embrace what could be, as Barack Obama takes the Oath of Office on January 20, 2009. It's time for us to embrace the future, not continue to live in the past.

God bless America, and everything our country can be again under President Obama.

And God bless John F. Kennedy and his rich legacy.

For a trip down historic memory lane, enjoy my new article, President John F. Kennedy - National Archive Photos of His Presidency, a series of 22 unique black-and-white photos capturing highlights and special moments of his presidency.