Mark Twain once said, “History doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme.”

Over the past week, I’ve done some reflection leading up to the 50th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination.

I have to admit that I’ve always had a fascination with the late president, but being around campus this week, I couldn’t help but notice a certain silence looming over the tragic event.

Honestly, I’m not surprised. Aside from the occasional non-traditional student, I think it’s safe to say that there were no undergraduate students alive on that fateful November day in 1963. But does that mean we can leave remembrance of history to the older generations while we fixate only on what is directly in front of us? I don’t think so.

I think that this is a perfect time for our generation to buck the trend of taking history for granted.

When thinking of national events that shaped my life, my first thought (like most of us) is of Sept. 11. I’m not trying to compare the murder of one man to that of thousands, but I do think it’s important to examine the time in which this event affected lives. It was when we were children.

I can tell you exactly what I was doing the morning of 9/11. I sat in Mr. Hagan’s fourth grade class, and we had just began our math lesson when the principal came on the loudspeaker. While we couldn’t fully comprehend the calamity that had just happened, the magnitude of the event in the following days, months and years shaped our lives.

With Kennedy’s assassination, we look to how that shaped our parents’ lives. This week, I have listened to numerous accounts of the day Kennedy died- stories from parents, grandparents and professors about crying in front of the television and gathering in the neighborhood cul-de-sac worried about what would happen next.

The most eye-opening perspective I heard came from one of my professors. As a young boy, he had been sitting in a classroom when the principal burst into the room announcing the horrible news before taking off to the next room down the hall. Sounds a whole lot like my story … and that’s eerie to me.

It troubles me to think that my professor and I can have near identical experiences, but what is worse is that, as young people, we are failing to make the emotional connections. Looking to Kennedy’s death not only gives us a glimpse at a great man, but it also gives us a chance to understand the people who raised us on a much deeper level.

I’m afraid that if this trend continues, time will pass and eventually the reflection on Sept. 11 will sail away into the depths of the American history textbooks. The potential for a day when 9/11 fades out of future generations’ hearts—like that of Kennedy’s death or Pearl Harbor—is a day I hope would never come.

So, let’s start by taking a moment. Not a moment of silence, but rather a moment of re-affirmation.

Remembering a beloved president like Kennedy is important, but remembering the emotion he instilled in Americans’ hearts is most important. That emotion and feeling of trust that Americans placed in him averted nuclear war during the Cuban Missile Crisis. It was the vigor and dream he instilled in our nation as he dared us to shoot for the moon.

Leaders like Kennedy don’t come around very often. In times like today when our nation seems divided, looking at these leaders as well as the events and emotions surrounding them can remind us of the hard work and sacrifice that makes our way of life worth living.

History may rhyme, but it’s a rhyme that is never forgotten.

Alex Goering can be reached at goer8777@stthomas.edu.