Biden reflects on John F. Kennedy assassination, 60 years ago

President Biden on Wednesday marked the 60th anniversary of former President John F. Kennedy’s assassination with a message of hope about the future, writing that Kennedy’s death was “a defining moment of deep trauma and loss that shocked the soul of our nation.”

“In life and in death, President Kennedy changed the way we saw ourselves — a country full of youthful hopes and ambition, steeled with the seasoned strength of a people who’ve overcome profound loss by turning pain into unyielding purpose,” Biden wrote in a statement.

“He called us to take history into our own hands, and to never quit striving to build an America that lives up to its highest ideals,” he added.

Biden recalled his own experience learning about Kennedy’s death, describing the moment as one carved into the nation’s collective memory, saying, “I was in college and had just left class, joining other students glued to the news in silence along with the entire country.”

Biden described Kennedy’s death as having “awakened a generation,” noting Kennedy “set our nation’s compass firmly on many of the most consequential issues of the 20th century, from civil rights, to voting rights, to equal pay for women.”

“He led with calm resolve through the most dangerous moments of the Cold War. And at the dawn of a new decade, he called us forward to a new frontier, propelling us to the moon and beyond. He inspired a nation to see public service as a calling,” Biden said.

He said Kennedy helped inspire his own decades-long career in public service. Biden, who frequently talks about the importance of his own faith, is only the second Catholic president after Kennedy.

“Like millions, I deeply felt his conviction and dreams for America,” he said.

“His ideas rhymed with the lessons I’d learned from the nuns at school and around my father’s kitchen table — that we are each called to do good works on this earth, to try to make our world a better place in the service of others,” Biden said. “But what stuck with me most was President Kennedy’s courage, his heroic sense of duty, and his family’s capacity to absorb profound suffering.”

“On this day, we remember that he saw a nation of light, not darkness; of honor, not grievance; a place where we are unwilling to postpone the work that he began and that we all must now carry forward. We remember the unfulfilled promise of his presidency — not only as a tragedy, but as an enduring call to action to each do all we can for our country,” Biden said.