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| JFK Assassination |
"It was a real turning point in my life," said the Scituate, Mass., resident. "You felt this sense of youth and promise and he really inspired. It was like what the young people felt with (President Barack) Obama. You felt like the world was full of possibilities."
Scahill, who at the time was a teacher living in Weymouth, Mass., was able to go as a VIP to the inaugural event because her mother's friends were "close personal friends" of Rose Kennedy.
"It was fabulous to be there," she said, remembering a time in history that still resonates with people.
Today marks the 50th anniversary of Kennedy's inauguration. He was born in Brookline, Mass. and was president for a little more than 1,000 days before he was assassinated.
"Part of Kennedy's appeal was his ability to really capture the historical moment at which he really represents the World War II generation kind of coming into maturity," said University of New Hampshire Professor of History Ellen Fitzpatrick, a Kennedy scholar and author of "Letters to Jackie: Condolences From a Grieving Nation," a book that examines letters Jacqueline Kennedy received following her husband's assassination.
"He was the youngest man elected into the presidency. He was the first to be born in the 20th century. Kennedy more resembled the hundreds of thousands of young men and some women who served in the military during World War II."
For Scahill, Kennedy's appeal was similar to that which Obama garnered today — a vision of change and inspiration.
"There was this sense of things are possible; we can be a vehicle of change," she said.
And Kennedy's appeal extended across generations, Fitzpatrick said, affecting high school and college students as well.
"I think it was his emphasis on idealism, on the future, on a sense of the role of young people and changing the world around them," Fitzpatrick said. "It tapped into an historical moment that was ripe."
But Fitzpatrick also attributes Kennedy's appeal to the time during which he was president.
"Kennedy was president at a time when the press had a very different relationship with the president than they do today," she said. "It was before the 24/7 news cycle. Before cable television, before Watergate, before the downturn of the American presence in Vietnam. It's a less cynical time. It's a time when the press didn't report everything they knew. There was a kind of gentleman's agreement and a less cynical view of the president and his administration than we have today. When you add into the mix that he was also very photogenic and relaxed on television; he was our first television president but without any of the downsides of the media that we see today."
The Kennedy legacy, so-to-speak, according to Fitzpatrick, is also due in large part to his assassination.
"The fact he was cut down a little more than a thousand days in office; he remains kind of evergreen in the memory of people who knew him in those days," she said.
And despite the information that has come out since Kennedy's assassination regarding his administration and personal life, Fitzpatrick said he represents a more pure political time.
"I think we live in a much more kind of sober and, in some ways, more cynical and less innocent time, and part of what produced that kind of more jaded view of politics were events that followed Kennedy and revelations about his administration that came after the fact," she said. "One of the things I think is interesting to try to understand is what happened to liberalism in politics from 1968 to now. We're in a much more conservative political climate in some ways. Kennedy in a way represents a moment when liberalism was very much at the high water mark and liberal politics were kind of the center of the political spectrum."
And, in writing her book, Fitzpatrick said one of things that struck her was "the incredible affection with which Kennedy was held, even by people who didn't share his political views."
Kennedy's approval rating exceeded 70 percent while he was president, something Fitzpatrick is doubtful would happen today.
"After his assassination and mainly as a result of the war in Vietnam and the Watergate scandal, that sort of luster of the presidency was tarnished really, so it's pretty hard for any president to first sort of roll back the clock and go back to that time," she said. "Kennedy wouldn't have survived the current political climate if he were president today."
Scahill lost her job over going to see Kennedy's inauguration — she was denied the day off from her teaching job but went anyway — but has no regrets, especially as she sees the inauguration as setting off a series of events that benefited her life overall.
"It changed my life and in light of what happened to him it was certainly the best thing to have done," she said, adding his words "inspired me to leave teaching, and that inspired me to go on and do what I wanted to do, and perhaps I wouldn't have done that if I hadn't gone, hadn't been inspired by his spirit."
