Today marks the 50th anniversary of President Kennedy’s assassination and all the television specials and recently released books on the subject pay homage to this turning point in our nation’s history. The assassination left an indelible mark on our culture and society as a whole leaving everyone to wonder what could have been.

Not being born until the 1970s, I view this American tragedy through different eyes than those who can say where they were when they heard the news from Dallas. One thing that strikes me about the event is how innocent and even naive we were as a nation before that day. For all those gathered along the motorcade thoroughfare to glimpse the President and his lovely First Lady riding in an open convertible, the events to follow would have seemed less likely than a man walking on the moon.

I recently read an article about Jackie Kennedy’s pink Chanel suit that is being preserved by the National Archives but will not be available for public view until 2103. The suit is as much a part of that terrible day as the now infamous Abraham Zapruder film. But where the former captures the death of a presidency and with it the last remnants of our national innocence, her clothing is both emblematic of the First Lady’s elegance, of the grace that came before and of the tragedy that stained it, altering its meaning. Having served as First Lady for only three years and being so young herself, it is difficult to image the horror and shock that Mrs. Kennedy experienced. Yet she handled the aftermath with a public poise and grace that gave a heartbroken nation a rallying point of determined strength, a gracious reminder of what was lost that day.

The article noted that when staffers urged Mrs. Kennedy to clean her husband’s blood from her clothing she refused saying, “Let them see what they have done.” The suit, which remained in storage for 50 years, was officially deeded to the National Archives in 2003 by Caroline Kennedy with the provision that it “not be seen by the public” for 100 years. Upon reading the article, a friend posed the question: should the public be able to view the suit at all?

The suit is an iconic piece of American history and seeing it stained with our 35th President’s blood is too disturbing, even this distant from the act and loss. Maybe that’s better left unseen, maybe it’s better to remember Jackie Kennedy happy and smiling, unaware of the life changing events that would soon befall her family and the nation that loved them. It should be preserved in pictures and in the nation’s collective memory, not put on display for the perversely curious to ogle.

The Kennedy assassination completely changed the outlook of our country. It was, and is, a line of demarcation between the unified, confident nation that spearheaded the liberation of Europe and began a period of unprecedented economic prosperity at home and the cynical, shaken, unsure America that followed for decades. The American Camelot, a dream of a people who believed nothing was beyond their reach, ended. A time when politics could be put aside and the role of President was revered and respected, the undivided sense of a national purpose died in Dallas, passed us as certainly as their smiling faces in that motorcade.

Maybe I’m still naive, but I choose to look back on history and the pictures from Camelot and think of those happier times and people. Seeing pictures of the young and sun-kissed family it is difficult to reconcile it to their fate. Like attending a funeral with an open casket, I don’t look because I want to remember my loved one as they were in life. So too do I choose to look back at the pictures and memorabilia of the life leading up to the tragedy of the Kennedy assassination and the somber pictures that followed instead of the pictures of the actual event. It is important to remember all the hands of time has touched and learn from our past, but a bloodied reminder doesn’t have to be a part of that. Where it is vastly important to preserve that fragile part of history and all that it stands for I don’t have to see it to know it exists.

When I was a teenager, I visited Arlington National Cemetery with my family and saw the eternal flame that marks Kennedy’s grave. Even at that young age I was moved by what that memorial represented. Knowing that the flame flickers today and will for generations to come is reassuring and it is fitting that the flame serves as a lasting reminder of a man and a woman who shared a brief life together but whose legacy will be a beacon to idealists and patriots for years to come.

Maybe, in time, what was once too painful to look upon becomes bearable and a garment touched with death becomes, not a symbol of loss, but of determination and perseverance. Then, what was lost was not lost to us forever and we can find in familiar words the voice of a new generation, one willing to “pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty.”

In other business news, the North Baldwin Literacy Council could use your end of year tax deductible donations. Give to a worthy cause and help adults learn to read, get their GED and have a brighter future. Contact Marilyn Waters at 937-1112 or stop by her office located inside the Bay Minette Public Library.

Joanna Bailey is the director of the Bay Minette Public Library. She can be reached at baileyvolumes@gmail.com