Friday, November 22, 2013

He was a friend of mine

      There are few events in our nation's history that shook the nation like what happened 50 years ago today. In the modern, live TV age, it may be that only 9-11 is on par with it.

     The 60's band The Byrds recorded a song expressing a nation trying to come to grips with this awful tragedy. To this day, I would say that He was a friend of mine is one of my top 10 all-time favorite songs. So moving, so powerful, so profound in it's simplicity and harmonic strength. This dirge of a fallen President speaks to all of us and makes us examine our hearts and minds, searching for what God could do, if not for the barbarity of man.

     On September 10th, 1964, not yet 10 months from that tragedy, my mother gave birth to a baby boy. My father named him John Fitzgerald Benko, in memory of our fallen President. Now, I am 49 years old and my father is gone and I have only the memories of him left. There are good memories and there are bad memories and both leave much to ponder.

     For better or worse, many people invested great hope in the Presidency of John F. Kennedy. He was perhaps the last President elected before this age of perpetual hatred. John F. Kennedy certainly had his faults, this cannot be disputed. However, at his core, I believe he was a profoundly decent man (even if a weak one) who truly wanted what was best for the country. Whether or not you agree with that, we must agree on one thing- John Kennedy's assassination was no work of one man with a grudge. It was a conspiracy. I do not know how this could plausibly be denied. The assassination of President John F Kennedy was a professional hit. I say this, fully convinced that the arguments of a so-called magic bullet have been debunked. I have seen the scientific analysis and re-creations and am convinced that the Warren Commission was right about 9 wounds being caused by that single bullet. To me, that only adds to the evidence of a conspiracy.
      Here are a few reasons why:
  • Though I have full confidence in the scientifically recreated shots, let's concede one fact up front- the re-created shots were all fired by trained marksmen. That alone is proof enough to me that Lee Harvey Oswald could not have made those shots.
  • The specials proved one bullet caused those wounds and it proved another hit the pavement. Fine. What it did not prove (or even address) is the third, and fatal, shot. Which clearly came from the front.
      Of course, not addressing the 3rd shot, in the program does not affirm the consequent but it sure does raise eyebrows. Suggesting that the 3rd shot came from the rear just does not pass the eyeball test. At frame 313, we clearly see a shot impact the front of John Kennedy's head and his body slammed backwards and to the left.

     Audio and eye witness accounts, plus the plain visual evidence, confirm that there was a second gunman. That, by definition, is a conspiracy. There are not many who would disagree. What most people disagree about is the who and the why. That is the biggest point of conjecture and controversy. Was John Kennedy killed by the KGB or the CIA. Was it the Mafia or were the Cubans behind it? Some have plausibly inferred that J. Edgar Hoover was behind the assassinations of, not only JFK, but Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King, JR as well. Finally, there are those who point to Lyndon Johnson, claiming that his thirst for power caused him to want the Presidency by any means necessary. In this lifetime, I doubt we will ever know who all the persons were who carried out this diabolical act. We can know, however, the one person who was behind it: Satan.

     His diabolical fingerprints are all over it. For me, it is hard to argue against the fact that the assassination of John F. Kennedy hastened America down the path of socialism and secularism. John Kennedy was, after all, a man of faith and a man that believed in America as it should be. LBJ, his successor was not. In JFK's famous inaugural speech, he challenged America to ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country. He also said, those who seek to gain power, by riding the back of the tiger, will one day find himself inside. I am firmly convinced that John F Kennedy's inaugural address stacks up against the greatest few speeches in American history. It is impossible to comprehend that this man belonged to the same party that is now run by Barack Obama, Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi.

     It is said that Saint Padre Pio has verified that John F Kennedy now resides in paradise, having received sacramental absolution the night before his death.

     When you ponder the fact that 41 of our 44 American Presidents have fallen, it is sobering to contemplate that John F Kennedy is the only President who we can be assured was saved. This is not to say that no other President isn't possibly in heaven, some could very well be.

     However, let's face squarely this fact. There is only 1 certain path to heaven. There is only one Ark to which people can flee to, safe from the powers of hell. Only one has the foundation of the Apostles, built by Jesus. Only one has the Sacraments instituted by Christ.

     Was John Kennedy a perfect man? Far from it. Yet, he belonged to a perfect church. That institution endowed with Divine perfection, even as it filled with sinful, imperfect men. While JFK was not a perfect Catholic, he, nonetheless was not a schismatic and openly defiant Catholic in the mold of Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi. If what Padre Pio said was true (and I believe it was), John Kennedy was still guided by the Holy Spirit, through his church. If John Kennedy was still a faithful and malleable Catholic, it is quite possible that his assassination was the extinguishing of the last real chance for America to cooperate with God in setting our house in order.

     This is not to say that some Presidents that followed did not attempt to show at least some godly example (Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan and George W Bush for example). It is simply saying that if Holy Mother church had more of an opportunity to work through this man, who knows what we could have accomplished towards feeding the hungry and making the world a better place. That may indeed be what died that day, half a century ago.

     Today, a host of warring factions, each as evil as the other (radical atheism/secularism, Islam, fanatical Protestantism/Zionism) has our nation in a perpetual state of paralysis and war. There doesn't seem to be a way out. The assassination of John F Kennedy certainly isn't the beginning or the cause of this gridlock but did it extinguish our last real hope of keeping it at bay?









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