Nation: In Remembrance

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The tributes to John F. Kennedy's memory poured forth, ranging from official orations to folk songs, from churchly ritual to crass commercialism, from public breast beating to silent prayer. It was the anniversary of the assassination, and those who knew his quick, sensitive, critical mind could not help but speculate on how he would have commented on the observance.

The "Broody" Look. In Washington, President Johnson issued a proclamation saying: "In churches and homes everywhere, on Nov. 22 let us rededicate ourselves to the pursuit of those ideals of human dignity in which he believed and whose course he so brilliantly illuminated." A shop-window placard in New York's Times Square proclaimed: SALE! COLLECTOR'S ITEM. KENNEDY HALF-DOLLAR. 880. Boston's Richard Cardinal Gushing prepared a sermon for a special Mass that said: "He became the voice of mankind to interpret the issues of the day and to help lead our generation to higher levels toward an era of relaxing tension, humane hopes, and peace on earth. We thank God, however, that we had him, even for less than three years, as the first Catholic President of the United States." And an NBC-TV producer named Lou Hazam spoke boastfully about his Kennedy documentary (one of several commemorative efforts by networks) because his crew had shot the route of Kennedy's funeral procession in infra-red film: "It turns the sky black, the leaves on the trees white, and we get a 'broody' look."

Lou Harris, Kennedy's favorite pollster in 1960, reported on a national survey indicating that 35% of the people miss Kennedy more now than they did a year ago, that 35% have no strong feelings, and that 30% believe that "time is healing the wound." Nearly five-dozen books about Kennedy or his assassination are on the market. West Germany proudly issued a new J.F.K. postage stamp last week, but tiny Sierra Leone had already achieved an insurmountable lead in that category by printing 14 different Kennedy stamps in the last year. A bronze bust of Kennedy by Sculptor Felix de Weldon, who did the massive statue of the Two Jima flag raising for the Marine Corps War Memorial in Arlington, Va., was accepted by President Johnson; it will eventually be placed in the $10 million Kennedy Memorial Library.

Gaucherie & Tears. A special memorial symphony was written by Roy Harris (an American composer frequently given to writing symphonic paeans to the U.S.) for performance by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London. The University of Indiana chorus prepared a new oratorio, taken from a Nov. 24, 1963, New York Times editorial that began: "The leaden skies of yesterday were like a pall." Sicilian troubadours chanted a musical legend that grew up among the island's villagers after Kennedy died: "With his big heart and full of courage/ He attracted the people with his manner/ And many, many learned the language/ Of peace and loyalty without making fools of themselves."