On this day in 1963, everything changed.
What if President John F. Kennedy had never been assassinated?
What if it was possible to go back in time to protect the president?
The premise of Stephen King’s novel 11/22/63 caught my attention. A lengthy book, but the first two acts of the book were fantastic! I wasn’t as fond of the ending, but I would still recommend it.
In 2016, JJ Abrams is bringing an 8 part series to Hulu based on Stephen King’s book and starring James Franco. See more here: 11.22.63.
The book got me thinking once again….
Who shot JFK?
In addition to the research in the book, I did my own research by watching some documentaries, reading some online articles, watching some old interviews from that tragic day and the ensuing investigation including the response to the Warren Report, and even spending some time at the Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza.
Below is a video I recorded on my visit to the grassy knoll where some conspiracy theorists believe the real shooter was hiding. The “X” in the road marks the spot where JFK was tragically shot.
My conclusion: Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone to kill President John F. Kennedy.
Obviously I’m not a private investigator, and there are certainly people who have spent far more time on this with different theories on what happened.
Even still, Oswald was troubled, angry, and seemed to want the attention in a world not prepared or ready for terrorism or an “active shooter incident,” the name for the tragic mass shootings that are all too common nowadays.
Here’s a quote which captures why we want to believe that Cuba or the Soviet Union or even the FBI was involved:
“We can’t accept very comfortably that two nobodies, two nothings – Lee Harvey Oswald and Jack Ruby – were able to change the course of world history.” – Hugh Aynesworth, eyewitness and former Dallas Morning News Reporter
What if?
- What if Lee Harvey Oswald had been arrested for his assassination attempt of General Edwin Walker in April 1963?
- What if the political environment not been so vitriolic in Dallas in 1963?
Some had encouraged JFK not to even go to Dallas.
- What if it had been raining as was expected?
Some had wanted the President to ride with a plastic bubble on the top of his convertible which could have deflected the bullet or at least made it more difficult.
The list of “what could have been” goes on and on.
Watchmen of World Freedom
We will never know how differently the world would have been, but one thing is certain: had John F. Kennedy made it to the Dallas Trade Mart for his speech, he would have shared the following in a message later that day (including his quote of Psalm 127:1):
“We in this country, in this generation, are — by destiny rather than choice— the watchmen on the walls of world freedom. We ask, therefore, that we may be worthy of our power and responsibility — that we may exercise our strength with wisdom and restraint — and that we may achieve in our time and for all time the ancient vision of ‘peace on earth, good will toward men.’ That must always be our goal — and the righteousness of our cause must always underlie our strength. For as was written long ago: ‘except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.’”
