Opinion: An Open Letter to President Barack Obama.

Opinion: 

Dear President Obama,

Because of what has been happening lately with the assassination comments about you, I felt compelled to write... as I desire to give you something small, that JFK gave my father shortly before he was assassinated... a symbol of hope.

In 1963 President Kennedy was in Germany briefly, in West Berlin. I believe this was the same time as the "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech but I am not sure.

While there, among other things, he had a luncheon with all the Sergeant Majors of the Army stationed in Germany. My dad, Edgar Lee (Pete) Bevis was one of those men. He was just a country boy who went into the Army in WWII, then got out when the war was over, then went back in to try to better himself and take care of his family, and rose to the highest enlisted level he could.

At the luncheon he and the others were each given the invitation/program/menu for the luncheon, and a small PT 109 tie clip. JFK spoke to them, ate with them, maybe shook their hands, I don't know. But then he was gone.

For not long after that... he, our President, was murdered. And I can still remember that day. It was a bright sunny day in Germany and a friend and I had just finished playing basketball at the Babenhausen Base Gym. We were just two young carefree boys walking back home when we passed the little base church, which was actually little more than a small chapel. The doors were open and many people were going in and out and some were crying openly. We asked what had happened and when we learned, we went inside too. It was a horrible day.

I was about 13 that day. And on that day, because of that tragedy for all of us, I personally was pushed unwillingly, one step further closer toward manhood. I remembered how proud my dad had been to meet JFK and how much he hated what had happened. We watched the funeral procession on an old black and white television, and everyone was not only sad, but very worried about what would happen next.

But somehow, we made it to this day: Where you, an African American, have a wonderful chance to become President, and hopefully heal a lot of old wounds, and bring our nation closer together as one people. Where we could become Americans who don't care about color. But only about integrity. And JFK as you know, had a hand in doing that. In bringing us down that long road toward racial equality.

After my father died about 20 years ago, my mother gave my brother the invitation, which he displays proudly on his home office wall. He is retired from the State Department. I got the PT 109 tie clip and it is the only one I wear. Ever. I can't even recall ever wearing a different one, because it means that much to me.

And although I am just a Postal Clerk, that PT 109 tie clip still inspires me to this day... to want to do the best I can with my life, no matter what happens. To keep on trying.

I am writing to you because as a seventh generation white Southerner, I seem to be in a minority down here as a staunch supporter for you... although I am beginning to see some of my coworkers coming around. People who are managing to overcome all the past hatreds and prejudices... and who now are starting to look beyond the color of a man's skin... just as I and others try to do.

I would like to give the tie clip to you, as a passing on of a symbol of hope that we once had in JFK, that some of us now see in you... to let you know that we want to see you live and prosper and not die... just as we want to see this nation do.

To some the tie clip may seem like just a silly old "throwaway" that a president gave to people at a luncheon. But to those Sergeant Majors at the luncheon that day, and to some of their children, because of what happened to JFK, that little tie clip symbol came to represent hope...

Just as you represent hope to a lot of us today.

If you don't see in it something of value, then I will just keep it and do with it what I had originally planned to do with it.

For when my father died I placed the medals he had earned while serving in the Army in three wars, World War II, Korea and Viet Nam, in his coffin, in his hand. They are there with him now. A tribute to his service and to his good heart.

When I die, if you do not want it, I just want the tie clip that JFK gave my father, to be clipped on to my blue tie, and be buried with me.

It's not and never was a little piece of metal to me. It's hope.

And that is really... all we have now.

And you give that to us.

Thank you Sincerely,

William D. (Will) Bevis

Gadsden, Alabama 35904

April 16, 2009

Note: This was first put on the internet on July 11, 2008 under the title "An Open Letter to Senator Obama Concerning Talk of An Asassination." It has been updated to reflect that he is now the President.  In updating it, not all of the original title would fit, due to new limitations on space implemented by Nowpublic.com. WDB