Praying for the Secret Service to Protect the President

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If I had reacted just a little bit quicker. I could have, I guess. And I’ll live with that to my grave.

– Clinton J. Hill, formerly of the Secret Service, interviewed by Mike Wallace on 60 Minutes, December 7, 1975

According to a subsequent report, Agent Clint Hill retreated for a dozen years to the basement of his home. Alcohol and cigarettes were his constant companions. Almost 40 years later, he reflected more soberly, the pain more deeply buried with the passage of time.

We failed. We didn’t do it, and that’s bothered me ever since. What if it had rained that morning? What if (pause) a lot of things.

What if I’d been able to (pause) move a little faster. I wouldn’t be here, but President Kennedy would probably be alive.

– Clint Hill, Nov 22, 2013

For the audio version of this article CLICK HERE.

Those of us approaching retirement, or past that point of eligibility, will remember the moment we learned of the loss.

Those were days of great hostility. Extremists stated as a matter of established truth that President Kennedy was a communist. Segregationists hated him for interfering with states rights, the most precious of which seemed to be the right to crush any human dignity that might be afforded to black citizens.

Years ago, a public figure, I don’t recall who, was asked whether he could think of any period during which hatred of a President resembled the vitriol hurled at Bill Clinton, who was then the occupant of the White House. Yes, he said. It was the hatred toward President Kennedy just before November 22, 1963.

Since the election of Barack Obama, reports have emerged of a dramatic increase in the number of threats and their ferocity.

A lunchtime friend of long standing mocks the notion that conservative hatred toward Barack Obama is in any significant measure motivated by racism. Seeing my look of amazement, he concedes that in a nation of 300 million one might find someone who dislikes the President for racial reasons.

Well, yeah, I suppose.

As white conservatives greet black conservatives with enthused applause, such personalities as Ben Carson, Clarence Thomas, and Herman Cain implicitly confront the charge of a racist conservative core. The easy route is dismissal of that defense as more some-of-my-best-friends self deception. But it occurs to me that Barack Obama is not primarily hated for being black. He is more hated for the same reason Bill Clinton was hated when he was President. Like Clinton, President Obama is suspected of unwarranted sympathy toward those who are black.

In that respect, both Presidents share a legacy with President Kennedy.

The searing memory of that terrible day of Presidential assassination was not brought home to me by daily reports of conservative fury at either Clinton or Obama. Rather, it was a chance encounter in a supermarket in 1981 as I learned of the shooting of President Reagan. The stranger seemed gleeful. “I hope Reagan dies!” It was hard for me to hear. I remember a dimming of awareness of our surroundings as I turned and faced the man. I said nothing. In a moment, he turned and walked away.

The unraveling of the Secret Service protection of President Obama is a scary thing for those of us who remember the most painful moments of the 1960s, or the near murder of another President almost 20 years later. It now appears that two demented individuals came very close to repeating searing events, not while our President was on a sidewalk or in an automobile. They both came closer than we knew at the time, both violating the People’s House. The White House is where the President and his family live, where the first couple sleep at night, where their children have played while growing up.

Gunshots have broken a window in the family living quarters. A man carry a knife came very near. Had the first family been delayed even a few minutes in leaving on a trip, and had the intruder turned left instead of right at a critical juncture, tragedy might have struck again.

In a literal sense, it hits close to home.

This Sunday, we will pray a special prayer for the Secret Service, that those with the same dedication, the same intense sense of duty as Clint Hill, will never join with a larger public in another national torment.

Please, Lord. Never again.

This article is a collaboration between MadMikesAmerica and FairandUnbalanced.com.

About Post Author

Burr Deming

Burr is a husband, father, and computer programmer, who writes and records from St. Louis. On Sundays, he sings in a praise band at the local Methodist Church. On Saturdays, weather permitting, he mows the lawn under the supervision of his wife. He can be found at FairAndUNbalanced.com

madmikes49@gmail.com