Young life forever impacted

By Michael T. Robinson 

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I am writing this article for all the children born in the early 1960s who may have had their lives altered by the series of events that began with the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

I was six months old on Nov. 22, 1963, too young to remember the first murder. My recollections begin 4 1/2 years later. I was asleep in the comfort my bed the night of June 4, 1968. The following morning, Mom was watching the news and it displayed a speech delivered by Robert F. Kennedy. I heard him say he had won an election, and I assumed that he had become president. I shouted, not realizing that he had only won the California primary.

Mom turned up the volume on the console TV, and abruptly addressed me. “Michael Todd, you quiet down right this minute!” I could not imagine why she was being so serious. “But he won, Mom! He won!”

She paused to catch herself, perhaps to find a way to frame a statement for a child to embrace, but all she could manage was, “They've shot another one.”

I was 5 years old, and I understood what she meant. The news bulletins confirmed her claim. In my imagination, the younger brother of our fallen president was also dead. Both now dead! I yelled, and I sobbed disconsolately. This was how I synthesized the information. What I did not know was that Bobby had one more day to live. It wouldn't have mattered at that point.

Then, the 1963 historical footage began to accompany those reports germane to Robert Kennedy. The original footage seemed, even to my young mind, surreal and predictable, but this was the first time it was played in succession with scenes from the Ambassador Hotel. For me, both events became one, linked together in time.

I would have nightmares for the remainder of that summer of 1968 and on into the fall. Moreover, I was as angered as I was devastated. In the years since the assassinations, I have been made sad, frustrated, numb and repulsed by two failed government commissions that sought to solve these crimes. But maturity soothed these feelings.

However, now 50 years out, I remain angry at the botched investigations, the mishandling of evidence, the lack of security, and angry that two great leaders lie in Arlington National Cemetery needlessly.

Yes, they made errors in judgment, but the legacy of the Kennedys is the space program, great strides made in civil rights and international relations, slowing the nuclear arms race, commitments to education and the arts, creating the Peace Corps, and a planet spared from nuclear war.

Between 5 and 50 then, I have run gamut in terms of my emotional reactions to the losses of John Fitzgerald Kennedy and Robert Francis Kennedy. The greatest sadness for me is that the nation for which they dedicated their lives could not do enough to protect them.

Michael T. Robinson of Central City is a registered nurse, a city council member in Central City and a past chairman of the Linn County Democrats. Comments: mikecentralcityiowa@hotmail.com