Calvin College - Prism Yearbook (Grand Rapids, MI)

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Friday, November 22 was not significantly different than any other day at Calvin College, except that the weather was gloomy and de- pressing. But that didn't make much difference, because Thanksgiving vacation was approach- ing and it was, after all, Friday. Then the news came. At first it was only a wild rumor-some- body's idea of a joke, and, for that matter, in very poor taste. But the complex communica- tions system of the twentieth century does not tell lies. John Kennedy had in fact been shot, and was lying near death in Dallas, Texas. Stu- dents crowded around in the Commons, look- ing at the Hoor or staring into space. No one said much. because no one had anything to say. And as they waited for the inevitable news no one really doubted that he would die, but no one yet believed that he had been shot. The emotional ones criedg the others sat shocked and imitated, and even the cynics looked dis- gusted. No one smiled, and those who tried to say the show must go on got only cold stares from others-even from those who were too big to cry. Some students went to Washington D.C. to pay tribute to a man they had never known personally, but whose loss hurt as if he had been a brother. Others stayed in Grand Rapids and watched on their television sets as history happened in front of them-the video- taped swearing-in of Johnson. the stupid mur- der of Oswald. the funeral, Mrs. Kennedy and her two forlorn children, the Navy hymn, the caisson, Cardinal Cushing, the eternal Hame, and countless commentaries. . . . No one has yet answered the question why? Perhaps no one ever will.