JFK

Where were you when President John F. Kennedy was shot 40 years ago today?

It's a question that defined a generation, just as the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, will define today's generation.

The Camelot feeling of Kennedy's short administration was bolstered by his personal charisma and the glamor of his family -- a feeling that was spread across the nation by the medium of television. Kennedy was what might be called the first TV president. He used the medium to create an image that found a receptive audience with the millions of Americans who were spending more and more time watching their favorite TV programs.

And during his administration, he had to deal with issues that would take on historic proportions, including the Cuban missile crisis -- which established new parameters for the Cold War -- and the civil rights movement. His assassination in Dallas struck a what-might-have-been chord with Americans and galvanized the popular appeal of his short presidency.

Much more information is generally known about Kennedy today than in 1963. He was, after all, a man capable of bad judgment politically and personally.

When people who were old enough to remember Nov. 22, 1963, are asked where they were when Kennedy was shot, memories and emotions surface quickly. They recall exactly how they felt when they heard the news. They remember crying at the images of the president's young son saluting his father's casket and Jacqueline Kennedy's quiet dignity through the aftermath of an immense tragedy.

Today, on the 40th anniversary of an event that changed a generation and, perhaps, generations beyond, we remember and honor our good memories of John Fitzgerald Kennedy.