JFK, MLK Milestones Set to be Marked in 2013

Both men are dead, deliberately murdered. Yet the streak of violence goes on and on ad nauseum.

Courtesy: arehegold.wordpress.com

(SALEM) - Two icons of recent US History are more than likely to be commemorated this year, 2013. Both are familiar household names: John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr.

Their lives actually overlapped and both died violent deaths. It is all the more ironic that as we approach the 50th anniversary of Dr. King's "I Have a Dream" speech this August 27, that the nation is still reeling from the trauma of 26 innocents slain in Newtown, CT. His eloquent pleas for nonviolence are yet to be heeded. Come November 22nd, we reach the half-century mark of President Kennedy's assassination. Other than the 9/11 tragedy, I can think of no day of greater collective tears shed during my entire lifetime. Things ground to a halt as our progressive young leader was killed at age 47.

He had saved our country from WW III by standing up to the Soviets over missiles sent to Cuba, only to himself become a fatality of violence.

I feel personally intertwined in these chapters of history. As a cub reporter for The NY Voice, covering Dr. King's speech was a stirring moment never to be forgotten. When the Kennedy assassination was announced over the radio that autumn, I was typing out a story about the local DA's campaign against drug abuse as a forerunner of violent behavior. Later on I was assigned to interview Marine Cpl. Hubert Clark, one of JFK's military pallbearers.

Both men are dead, deliberately murdered. Yet the streak of violence goes on and on ad nauseum. I can no longer truthfully claim that we lived on a civilized planet. ========================================================================= NOTE: A lifelong lover of history, Lee has written for newspapers and magazines nationally. Born in Brooklyn, NY, he lived in Virginia and NM before moving to Oregon in 2000.

B. Lee Coyne, a NYC native, blends three careers: Journalist, Counselor, Educator. His writings have appeared in newspapers and magazines on the East and West Coasts and the Southwest.  He loves the art of the interview and has covered such persons as Dr. King's 1963 "Dream" speech and Sen. William