Most folks probably do not have a specific day when they realized that the carefree comic book and bicycle life turns into adult reflection and response. Biblically the Jewish faith had a Bar Mitzvah at 13. That was the age for me, but the Day was November 22, 1963 when Camelot collapsed with the sound of gunfire in Dallas Texas.
Though this year marks 45 years from the assassination of President John F. Kennedy I still remember the deep distress I felt that day. I came home from school after being scolded by the teachers table for bringing what must have been spurious news to their table and took by box of pictures of the first family I had purchased at the New York Worlds Fair that summer and looked through those hopeful and beautiful pictures.
On that day I realized there was evil in the world, and that it would attempt to intervene in world affairs with death and violence. It would separate a leader from his wife and children and from his nation.
Years later I would join the many who really desired to know how wide that circle of evil was that day. I still wander, and I am not gullible.
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