Photo courtesy of U.S. Embassy New Delhi's Flickr page - President John F. Kennedy: https://www.flickr.com/photos/usembassynewdelhi/5386861182/in/photolist-9d259W-tmwAo-cWtMa-7a4Byr-f2QNxR-6T4jUP-9D8P7N-fNDPna-owAEr7-cMia3q-byZ3sQ-5nUjps-3BNPpE-dejPUc-dejPeY-6BmWcm-6599wx-xvZgh6-3BXC4T-7a7U2J-fsx31D-fswNCz-dejP8o-nKsnKa-9d2AYA-nsYcM8-bLpmLn-e6FRc4-5X3TCf-hTFK4N-5FTTUx-Abf3GV-a1ExFz-621Udq-7UJoDn-6zdUWD-dS84z5-6zhYzo-mszAN8-msyXcP-msyWZe-mszAtk-msyWLZ-msATFA-msyWzg-mszxVV-dEmU38-fstNe2-bLoGDz-8VE5tv
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"So let us not be petty when our cause is so great. Let us not quarrel amongst ourselves when our Nation’s future is at stake."
~John F. Kennedy
Yes, I know that I already posted a couple of blogs on the whole Kennedy assassination. But today is the anniversary, after all.
I
have been watching some videos about Kennedy on Youtube, as well as the
documentary that was aired about him recently on PBS. It all reminded
me of my own youth. Tat may sound strange, but even though I was born
more than a decade after he was killed, he seemed to have made a strong
and lasting impression on the nation in general, and it almost felt a
bit like there was still a lingering presence, something that, by all
rights, should have continued, but did not.
One
of the videos that I watched (unfortunately, I cannot right now
remember which one, precisely) termed those three or so years that he
was in office as a time of political enchantment, and that sounds about
right.
My
grandparents had man reminders of the past. They had Howdy Doody dolls,
and there were other things as well. Old magazines dating back decades.
Old pictures, of course. And quite a few old books. One of those books
was "The Thousand Days: John Fitzgerald Kennedy as President". It was a
relatively glossy (it had lost a bit of this glossiness over the years)
hardcover book from 1964, the year after Kennedy was assassinated. I
leafed through it time and again, and imagined what it would be like to
have such a young and idealistic leader, one who could deliver such
amazing words. The pictures (it was in large part a book of
illustrations) showed a seemingly young and healthy, robust man with a
lot of energy. Only a few pictures betrayed this image, such as the ones
that showed his back problems. Yet, even these were meant to
illustrated the character of the man, to show that he was wiling to hide
how own, personal discomfort, in order to represent that more positive
image, almost like a personal sacrifice.
That
book was my closest glimpse of the Kennedy years, and what they might
have been like. I still have it somewhere, and admittedly still enjoy
leafing through it, although it is beginning to show it's age, as the
binding is now going, and I had to tape it up, so it looks even more
beat up than it probably should be.
Kennedy
represented an ideal. he was the physical embodiment of a spirit of
youth, of activism and idealism, in an age when the United States was
still very much enjoying it's golden age. It was truly beyond dispute
that the United States was the leading superpower of the world at the
time, far and away ahead of the Soviet Union in almost every conceivable
way, with the one exception being perhaps the space race. And Kennedy
pushed forward to make sure that the United States would win the space
race, as well, by articulating the goal of getting a man to the moon
within the decade. He did not live to see it, but those words would
indeed bear fruit, and within the decade, just like he said.
Kennedy
started the Peace Corps. Again, he inspired the youth of a nation, and
allowed them to dream of a better world, and even to act towards turning
that dream into reality. I will not get into the negatives hear,
perhaps the harsher realities that have since come to light - that will
be for another blog entry. For now, I want to focus on how Kennedy
inspired, and represented, or seemed to represent, the very best that
the country had to offer. Indeed, how could young people not be stirred,
when he famously borrowed the words of Kahlil Gibran in his Inaugural
Address:
"Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country."
Can
you imagine a modern President, or even prominent politician, saying
words like these down below, or perhaps even, dare I suggest, meaning
it?
"When
we got into office, the one thing that surprised me most was to find
that things were just as bad as we'd been saying they were."
~John F. Kennedy
"The
great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie -- deliberate,
contrived and dishonest, but the myth, persistent, persuasive, and
unrealistic. Belief in myths allows the comfort of opinion without the
discomfort of thought."
~John F. Kennedy
"If
by a ‘Liberal’ they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind,
someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who
cares about the welfare of the people — their health, their housing,
their schools, their jobs, their civil rights, and their civil liberties
— someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and
suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad, if that is what they
mean by a "Liberal," then I'm proud to say I'm a ‘Liberal.’"
~John F. Kennedy
Here are words that seem more true today than when Kennedy first uttered them:
"Too often we... enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought."
~John F. Kennedy
"Sometimes party loyalty asks too much"
~John F. Kennedy
He could laugh at himself, too.
"I
just received the following wire from my generous Daddy - "Dear Jack,
Don't buy a single vote more than is necessary. I'll be damned if I'm
going to pay for a landslide.""
"The
energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavor will
light our country and all who serve it - and the glow from that fire can
truly light the world"
"All
this will not be finished in the first 100 days. Nor will it be
finished in the first 1,000 days, nor in the life of this
administration, nor even perhaps in our lifetime on this planet. But let
us begin."
~John F. Kennedy
"Our problems are man-made, therefore they may be solved by man. No problem of human destiny is beyond human beings."
~John F. Kennedy
"We have come too far, we have sacrificed too much, to disdain the future now."
~John F. Kennedy
"As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them."
~John F. Kennedy
"Those who dare to fail miserably can achieve greatly."
~John F. Kennedy
"When
written in Chinese, the word "crisis" is composed of two characters-one
represents danger, and the other represents opportunity."
~John F. Kennedy
"Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future." ~John F. Kennedy
"If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich."
~John F. Kennedy
"The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining."
~John F. Kennedy
"Without
belittling the courage with which men have died, we should not forget
those acts of courage with which men...have lived. The courage of life
is often a less dramatic spectacle than the courage of a final moment;
but it is no less a magnificent mixture of triumph and tragedy."
~John F. Kennedy
"Let us never negotiate out of fear but let us never fear to negotiate."
~John F. Kennedy
Liberty without learning is always in peril; learning without liberty is always in vain.
~John F. Kennedy
"The
freedom of the city is not negotiable. We cannot negotiate with those
who say, "What's mine is mine and what's yours is negotiable.""
~John F. Kennedy
"Let
us think of education as the means of developing our greatest
abilities, because in each of us there is a private hope and dream
which, fulfilled, can be translated into benefit for everyone and
greater strength for our nation."
~John F. Kennedy
"If
this nation is to be wise as well as strong, if we are to achieve our
destiny, then we need more new ideas for more wise men reading more good
books in more public libraries. These libraries should be open to all —
except the censor. We must know all the facts and hear all the
alternatives and listen to all the criticisms. Let us welcome
controversial books and controversial authors. For the Bill of Rights is
the guardian of our security as well as our liberty."
~John F. Kennedy
"The goal of education is the advancement of knowledge and the dissemination of truth."
~John F. Kennedy
"The Constitution makes us not rivals for power but partners for progress."
~John F. Kennedy
"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable."
~John F. Kennedy
"A
revolution is coming - a revolution which will be peaceful if we are
wise enough; compassionate if we care enough; successful if we are
fortunate enough - but a revolution which is coming whether we will it
or not. We can affect its character, we cannot alter its inevitability."
~John F. Kennedy
"War
will exist until that distant day when the conscientious objector
enjoys the same reputation and prestige that the warrior does today."
~John F. Kennedy
Lead like John F. Kennedy BY LARRY J. SABATO November 20 at 11:07 am
Obama honors President John F. Kennedy complete coverage)
Obama pays tribute to John F. Kennedy legacy Associated Press By DARLENE SUPERVILLE 3 hours ago
JFK anniversary: Barack Obama pays tribute to the legacy of John F Kennedy
Below is at least some of what President Obama had to say in honoring the slain President Kennedy:
"This
is a legacy of a man who could have retreated to a life of luxury and
ease but who chose to live a life in the arena, sailing sometimes
against the wind, sometimes with it."
"That's why 50 years later John F Kennedy stands for posterity as he did in life: young, bold and daring.
"He
stays with us in our imagination not because he left us too soon but
because he embodied the character of the people that he led – resilient,
resolute, fearless and fun loving, defiant in the face of impossible
odds and most of all determined to make the world anew, not settling for
what is but rather for what might be."
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