By Patricia L Johnson

I remember November 22, 1963 like it was yesterday.  I was working at the Distribution Center for Dr. Seuss books and had been posting payments to clients cards when my boss’s telephone rang.  She answered the phone and called me over to her desk.  I had been working at this company for the past year and had never received a telephone call so I immediately knew something was wrong.

My mother was on the phone to tell me that our beloved President John F. Kennedy had been shot.  I immediately told my boss, who told the Manager of the Company.  Shortly thereafter he announced over the loud speaker that we could all leave early for a prayer vigil at the local church.  There was not a dry eye to be seen anywhere.  President John F Kennedy was loved by everyone, Democrats, Republicans, Independents, Black, White, Hispanic, etc.  

I don’t remember much after that day other than being glued to the TV set for what may have been days afterwards.  President John F. Kennedy was so well respected by “we the people”  The entire country grieved our loss.

A new cultural center was in the planning stages for Washington D.C. and on January 23, 1964 Public Law 88-260 was signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson. Public Law 88-260 is the U.S. joint resolution officially renaming the planned National Cultural Center as the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.  The Kennedy Center would be a living memorial to our late president.

“NATIONA L MEMORIAL “SEC. 11. The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, designated by this Act, shall be the sole national memorial to the late John Fitzgerald Kennedy within the city of Washington and its environs.” 

In early February 2025 President Donald J. Trump dismissed 18 members of the Board of Trustees of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and replaced them with 14 of his allies.  The Chairman of the Board of Trustees was also dismissed and the new board elected Donald J. Trump as Chairman.

This is the same board that voted to put Donald J Trump’s name on the Kennedy Center.  When that was ruled illegal and Trump’s name removed from the building,  the Board of Trustees passed two resolutions.  The first to add the words “Restored and Renovated by President Donald J. Trump” and the second to rename the campus grounds “President Donald J. Trump Plaza”.  They are now threatening to demolish the building if the changes aren’t approved.

Unless President Donald J. Trump is personally paying for the restoration and renovation of the Kennedy Center, the resolution should read “restored and renovated by WE THE PEOPLE.

President Donald J. Trump could add his name to every building in Washington D.C. (or the entire country for that matter), put his name on every piece of  U.S. Currency, or anything else and he will never be provided with the same love, honor and respect that the people in this country had for the late, great John Fitzgerald Kennedy.

© 2026 Patricia L Johnson