On April 15, 1865, President Abraham
Lincoln was murdered in America by Americans. He was slain by a
politically motivated gunman who wanted this country to veer away
from its path as a democracy embracing the importance of equal
participation in citizenship for all toward a more narrowly defined
idea of what and who were constitutionally equal and how that
definition would carry the nation. That President Lincoln at the
time was conflicted about those definitions himself, was a man of his
time and socialization and really didn't know how the whole thing
would play out in a “liberal” future, but was gunned down for what
his murderer believed was a departure from conservative vision is a
great irony of the American 19th century.
On November 22, 1963, President John.
F. Kennedy was murdered in America by an American. If one subscribes
to the “single gunman theory,” the President was slain by a
politically motivated assassin who wanted this country to veer away
from its experiment in an unfettered democracy toward a controlled
communist system of government. That President Kennedy at the time
was conflicted about and being criticized at home for his “liberal”
agenda regarding civil rights and universal suffrage but was gunned
down for what his murderer believed was a very conservative
anti-communist stance is a great irony of the American 20th
century.
Tomorrow is Thanksgiving. It is the
first Thanksgiving since the nation has emerged from another overly heated election cycle where ideas about what is democracy, what is communism, what is liberal, what is conservative, what is “America” and who is
“American” have been, some 200 years later, addressed again. We
have much to be thankful for as our mission was accomplished without
murder and in the knowledge that whether it be perfected or flawed,
our America, although tested, remains true to the democratic
principles and procedures we hold up to the world as what makes us
the greatest human experiment of all time. This year we can give
thanks that we have served our fallen heroes and ourselves well and in the spirit
of the promise of our future, are not, so far, the great irony of the
21st century.
