walkin with JFK

I recently took the train down the west end in Dallas. I had no idea where I was or what I might see, so I just started walking around. I love walking around cities/down towns, no matter how big or small. I was walking in the midst of all these skyscrapers and I saw what looked like an old Gothic cathedral, but the stone was red, i mean RED. I had remembered seeing it from the highway and how cool it looked so i just pointed myself in that direction. It turned out to be "Old Red", built in the 1880s. I didn't get much more info because of what I saw next.

It was just visually stunning. I walked over to the plaque. It was a "cenotaph", or open tomb, dedicated to JFK. It is open-topped box that consisted of 72 suspended concrete pillars in which it is seemingly only supported by 8 of the pillars going into the ground. A closed-in space, but with no roof so that it opens to the sky. There are only two narrow openings to walk through, unless you crawl in under the suspended pillars. And in the middle is metal "cube", shorter than a coffee table but up out of the ground, and it has JFK's full name on two sides and those are the only letters or words involved in the monument itself. It was really cool. So I'm just walking around it when Micheal walks up.

Micheal is a "tour guide". I don't know if he is a homeless guy that does this for cash or what, but he just starts talking to me about JFK and then he starts in on all the conspiracy theories and such. I mean he just launches into his "tour" and never says anything about money, and neither do I, so I just walk around with him. He is talking his head off when I suddenly realize where I am. At Houston and Elm St. This is where the President of the United States was killed. Micheal continues talking, most of which I ignore, and see the X's on the street that mark when the bullets struck him. I stood on the grassy knoll, touched the fence where the infamous second gunman would have stood. And what was amazing to me was that it was all SO CLOSE together. In the footage and in movies it seems that things are really spaced out, but the grassy knoll wasn't 20 yards from the street.

It was really cool. I stopped and thought about how many tears have been shed on this ground. How many people make the pilgrimage to come this place. I overheard all types of different languages, tourists I assumed, and saw families taking their children to the different spots around the area. But by this time, Micheal is nearing the end of his long-winded speech and earlier he handed me a newspaper type pamphlet in a clear plastic bag, which I made sure not to open because I was waiting for the catch, and he told me it cost $5. I told him I didn't have any money and handed it back to him. He rolled his eyes, and I thought about tipping him, but he interrupted my quiet walk so I didn't feel too bad. I'm sure he got some tourist to buy the pamphlet.

Overall, it was a very good day. I saw a piece of this nation's history, a very dramatic piece actually. My church secretary told me the next day that she was on Lemmon St the day JFK was shot, her birthday if you can believe it, and she had to pull over for the motorcade to pass by. She told me she got out and waived to him as he passed by. She also told that that was a day that America changed. It seemed like overnight we started locking our doors, and we became much more cynical, as she put it.

It truly is a befitting monument to a great man and a great leader. Let's hope that whoever we choose this November has just a little bit of him in them, God knows we need it today more than ever.