He served less than a thousand days.. a lifetime ago..and yet

[SoCalDem]

SoCalDem Donating Member (1000+ posts) Mon Oct-29-07 05:14 AM

reposting for the terrible "anniversary"..



People who never met him, and only learned of him by seeing a picture in Grandma's house, or in a book at school, and people all over the world, knew what he stood for, and admired him then, and still do.

He was young, by the standards of the day, and yes he may have been a "player", but he never embarrassed his country. He served 4 years in wartime, and acquitted himself admirably.

He was rich and could have partied his way through life, but he did not. The life he might have lost in wartime, he still lost in service to his country.

He met with "bad people".. He stared down our enemies, and they blinked. He erred with The Bay of Pigs fiasco, and like a man, he admitted it. He had courage and grace.

He was not petulant and secretive. No doubt he kept secrets, but he was not one to embarrass or belittle people .

He focused our hopes and aspirations, and looked to the future with fearless ambition...ambition to help the world and foster Peace..not to dominate and change regimes.

Millions of young people were inspired to put their lives on hold and venture to the four corners of the world in the Peace Corps. He "invented" the space program and within the 10 year goal he set, we had men on the moon..sent with computers with less power than your Blackberry.

The world liked us then. We were the hope of the world. Foreign dignitaries came to the US and were treated with respect and decorum..not hotdogs on the grill at Mom & Dad's house.

Every president since him, has served longer, and yet his legacy is the strongest.

The sad thing is that when he died, hope died with him. His brother tried to regain it for us, but was killed for his efforts.

It's almost as if we are afraid to care too much again for a candidate..any candidate, lest we get our hearts broken again.

People of my age remember when hope was limitless.. we could do anything... and then we couldn't.


We've had presidents who were in office longer, but none of them have retained the interest or admiration of JFK. You can go to any country on earth and mention JFK, and they will nod, in silent understanding ..even if they do not speak english.

Presidents after him have come and gone, and most of the time, it's with a kick in the pants and a "Good Riddance". People can name every building in DC after Reagan, and JFK's administration will still shine brighter than any of those "Thousand points of Light" that Reagan/Bush loved to talk about..

Maybe those Thousand points of light were the days we had Kennedy..and the lights have long ago gone out.

Maybe someday we will get another president who can inspire us.. I had one in my lifetime, and I wish the same for my children.

It could be that we just have not yet been introduced to that president.

[Maccagirl]

1. Thanks SoCAL

To put it simply, and ineloquently, JFK brought out the best in people-Ronald Reagan did not. That is why people respond to the memory (I'm speaking about real-time memories, not revisionism). RIP John Kennedy-you deserve it.

[SoCalDem]

2. He was really our last "hopeful" president

Every one since him, has had a doom & gloom mentality to deal with and has created doom and gloom of their own, to add to it..

I have no illusions about Viet Nam..It may have ended up tainting his presidency had he been re-elected, but I also think he was smart enough to have figured out a way to avoid what came later..

[fizzgig]

3. i was many years from being born

but i still felt a sadness today

i asked my dad today about where he was when he heard and i could feel the sadness from him too, although he was pretty young when it happened.

i hope someday to know a president like that

[SoCalDem]

5. I personally knew two kids who "passed" on scholarships to college

One went to Africa in the peace Corps and the other went to somewhere in Central America
People were inspired by him , to be ambassadors of good will.. No guns necessary..just initiative and a helpful spirit..

[Hekate]

4. Thanks for the memories. So much of what has happened since then has been unspeakable.

A few weeks ago I watched a fascinating film of JFK-the-candidate meeting with representatives of Protestant denominations to talk about being the Catholic candidate for president in a largely Protestant country.

As far as I could tell the audience was all white and all male, and they really grilled him hard, some of them dredging up every past prejudice against Roman Catholicism.

JFK never broke a sweat and never broke stride. Every answer he gave was rational, thoughtful, detailed, on-message, and without anger. It was a remarkable performance.

He had honor, wit, intelligence, courage, and the respect of friend and foe alike. During the Cuban Missile Crisis he told French president Charles DeGaulle that he could provide photos of the USSR nukes in Cuba and DeGaulle said that he did not need photos for proof -- that the word of the president of the United States was sufficient.

Imagine that.

Hekate

[SoCalDem]

7. I watched that too.. Can you imagine W, doing something like that?

He'd poop his pants & run away crying..

Kennedy spoke at that conference..sans notes.. totally ready for any question that popped up..and yes.. some were very heated questions..

[Hekate]

11. What * would do (& actually did do) was pander to the fundamentalist denominations of Protestantism

He presented himself as a "man of faith" -- meaning specifically their faith, not the old mainline Protestant faiths interviewing JFK -- and having convinced the fundamentalists of that he received a blessing from a secret conclave of dominionists.

Bush knows how to twist religion to his political advantage, and has been eager to erase the line between church and state in service to his political aims. That has been his strength.

JFK approached it as an issue of church-state separation in which all faiths would be protected and respected by that separation. His approach was ethical and intellectual, and he maintained that attitude when attacked by people with emotion-laden prejudices. That was his strength. On very different occasions he displayed flashes of wit, which is an intellectual sort of humor.

If Bush ever tried to operate on JFK's playing field he would fail. But his failure would look like a success of sorts for him -- and would be portrayed as such by the MSM -- because he would turn it into a joke. He would joke and mock his way out of it without engaging the issues seriously. If pressed he would show his anger spitefully, but would still try to pass it off as a joke. What a guy, what a sense of humor.

Hekate

[eridani]

6. I can't imagine anyone writing a song these days like Abraham, Martin and John

Not even for people who are decent political leaders.

[windbreeze]

8. I was 22 that day...and hadn't had the TV on...

so when my stepkids came home from school...they were saying how the president was shot and killed...and I said oh, you were studying about Lincoln....that's when they said, no...the teachers said our president was killed today...I said, Kennedy, they said yes...and I ran to turn on the TV...that's when I found out the horror...and the horror has continued...nothing has been the same, nothing ever will be...we lost far more than a president that day...we just didn't know it, and even if we can't seem to put a finger on exactly what it was that we did lose, maybe it was our heart, I don't know...but it was serious.......my firm belief...is that there are those still alive, who were involved, and who know the truth of what happened...I hope they have a real bad case of indigestion today....wb

[SoCalDem]

12. 11-22 is your birthday?? It must be a bittersweet day for you every year

I have a friend whose son was born on her husband's birthday, and then her father died on that same date.. She always has mixed emotions every year :(

[man4allcats]

9. So well said.

Thank you. :thumbsup: :hi:

[Blue_In_AK]

10. Well said, SoCalDem

November 22 is always a very sad anniversary.