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America remembers JFK
By Debbie Peterson
 Media Credit: Ching Fung Sophomore Ario Wicaksono reads at the JFK exhibit, now on display at the Miller Center through Dec. 6.
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Forty years ago, a national tragedy etched itself into the collective memory of American culture. The assassination of John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States, shocked the nation. Those alive at the time can specifically remember where they were and what they were doing when they heard of the president's death.
The event is now shrouded in controversy and conspiracy and new information is uncovered and new documentaries are created every year. The History Channel aired a new documentary, "JFK: a Presidency Revealed," Nov 16. The documentary contained never before heard tapes of both JFK and his brother Robert Kennedy, classified medical records and in-depth interviews with those who were closest to President Kennedy.
The SCSU Miller Center will soon have a copy of this recently aired documentary. The History Channel contacted the Miller Center in September and offered it a free copy of the documentary if the library would build a JFK memorial book display and then send The History Channel a picture of it.
"We would have done a display anyway," said Sandra Williams, Miller Center government documents coordinator. She was thrilled with the offer and was glad to receive the free copy which will be available for students to check out in a couple of weeks.
The display sits across from the reference desk on the library's first floor behind the stairway leading to the second floor, and will be up until Dec 6. All of the books on the display, except for those from the reference section, are available for students to check out. The History Channel also sent some images of the president and bookmarks for the library to use in the display.
The assassination of President Kennedy left a strong and memorable impression on those who remember it. The impact of the president's death affected Americans then, much in the same way that the collapse of the World Trade Center affected Americans only a few years ago.
"The Kennedy assassination is kind of like 9/11 today," said Tom Hergert, an SCSU assistant professor. "Everyone just slowed down and stopped."
Hergert described where he was and how he found out about the death.
"I was 12 and I went to a Catholic school," Hergert said. "I remember being in a stairwell and seeing a nun quite visibly upset. The news traveled quite quickly through the school, and it just slowed down everyone."
Sandra Williams also commented on how everything slowed down after the shooting in Dallas, Texas.
"I was in college then," Williams said. "My twin sister and I were in the student center at Washington State. There were no TVs, we walked home and the television was just full of it. And then everything just stopped. My sister and I were in a play that weekend, and it was postponed. Everything we were doing was just put on hold."
Williams was also glad for the role that television played in the whole situation.
"Everyone just stayed home," Williams said. "Just glued to the TV sets. During the national crisis everyone was brought together by the TV. I was grateful for television just so that I could know what was going on."
College students today hear of the national event, and they associate more controversy to Kennedy's death.
"We don't know the whole truth," said sophomore Rob Arends eluding to popular conspiracy theories that question who actually shot the president. "There's more to it than we really know."
Ashley Bekish, sophomore, said that the first word that came to her mind was tragedy, and also compared the event to the recent collapse of the World Trade Center building.
"Now there is a tragedy in my lifetime that I never had expected to happen," Bekish said. She also commented on the recognition American society gives to controversial and tragic events.
"Our society feeds off of scandals and tragedies," she said.
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