Last night the President of the United States gave a press conference in the East Room of the White House. CNN was there with their cameras to broadcast it worldwide. While we waited for Bush to make his appearance at the podium, the camera scanned around the room and my thoughts drifted to JFK. I remembered that this - the East Room - was the room where President Kennedy, in a coffin, was brought in the wee hours of November 23rd, 1963.

By then the ballroom had been stripped of its usual gaiety, the huge piano moved out, and black crepe draped around the chandeliers and windows. An honour guard of soldiers carried the flagged-draped coffin in from the hearse and placed it on the catafalque. Jackie, still in her blood-stained pink suit, followed it in and buried her face in the flag. After she left the soldiers stood silently by, one at each corner, not moving or speaking. A little while later Robert Kennedy came into the room and, gesturing to the guard to step back, he went to the coffin alone. He lifted the lid and looked, for the last time, at the face of his brother. Then, wet cheeked, he turned and left the room, and the guards returned to position. This would be the last night JFK would spend in the White House. On Sunday he would travel by gun carriage to the Capitol to lie in state under the dome.

I was visualizing all this while the camera returned its focus to the podium and then the trance was broken. The current President entered the room and started speaking in a low monotone about his plans to lead the nation into war against Iraq. It struck me as symbolic that this very room - forty years ago - had housed a man of peace. It was ironic, too, that the current President came from the state of Texas, which was where the man of peace had died.

And I couldn't help but start comparing the different speaking styles of the two Presidents. I wondered if Helen Thomas - the 82 year old correspondent who used to cover JFK's press conferences - was there and if she was, if she was remembering. It was at those press conferences that the people of North America started their love affair with Kennedy. It was his idea to televise them so that he could speak directly to the people and not have his words twisted by newspaper reporters with editorial policies. His speeches weren't scripted for him - as were Bush's last night. Instead he used to talk off-the-cuff and always he injected humour. He was famous for his witticisms.

That's how I, who was thirteen years old when he died, got to know him and admire him. My mother used to always call us over when he was on television. And of course, even though we were Canadian and he wasn't OUR leader, we shared high drama with the Americans. We too held our breath over the Cuban Missile Crisis.

But the President who was speaking last night was nothing like JFK - not only because he's a war-monger instead of a peace-maker, but also because he has no passion. Bush talked about dropping bombs on innocent civilians as casually as he talked about building the place up again when they were done. He seemed to have no heart, no brain and no courage - like something out of the Wizard of Oz.

Also - as I almost nodded off while listening to Bush - I was remembering how JFK's death accomplished something that had never occurred before and has never occurred since. The occassion of his funeral brought almost every head of state from the entire planet together in one shared cause. The second most powerful man from the Soviet Union - representing Nikita Khrushchev - stood side by side with De Gaulle, someone who was famous for turning his long nose down on almost everyone else in the world. And even though they were advised against it for security reasons, every one of them chose to follow Jackie on foot behind the coffin when it made its journey to St Matthew's Church on Monday for the funeral. During that walk everyone was equal and focused only on thoughts of President Kennedy and what he had meant to them. To all he was respected and mourned. The only country not represented either in person or through messages was Communist China. Its leaders hadn't even told their nation of his death, until hours after the event.

So maybe that's the one good thing that came from JFK's death. Even though - these forty years later - we are far, far away from where he was leading us, at least we have the knowledge that universal peaceful thoughts and shared goodwill are possible. The world stood still and experienced it that autumn weekend in November in honour of a peace-loving man. ~ Jackie Jura

Helen Thomas snubbed (asked questions to 6 presidents). Wash Times, Mar 7, 2003

Listen to JFK's speech announcing plans for the NUCLEAR TEST BAN TREATY delivered to students at American University, Washington, DC, on June 10, 1963. This is where he introduced his Strategy for Peace.

Last night I dreamed the world agreed to put an end to war (1950 song & music by Ed McCurdy)