See if this rings a bell

[frustrated_lefty]

I've been reading this over and over and just had to share. There's no point to it, no profound political meaning, just good words.

May 25, 1961

" The first and basic task confronting this nation this year was to turn recession into recovery. An affirmative anti-recession program, initiated with your cooperation, supported the natural forces in the private sector; and our economy is now enjoying renewed confidence and energy. The recession has been halted. Recovery is under way.

But the task of abating unemployment and achieving a full use of our resources does remain a serious challenge for us all. Large-scale unemployment during a recession is bad enough, but large-scale unemployment during a period of prosperity would be intolerable.

I am therefore transmitting to the Congress a new Manpower Development and Training program, to train or retrain several hundred thousand workers, particularly in those areas where we have seen chronic unemployment as a result of technological factors in new occupational skills over a four-year period, in order to replace those skills made obsolete by automation and industrial change with the new skills which the new processes demand."

" One major element of the national security program which this nation has never squarely faced up to is civil defense. This problem arises not from present trends but from national inaction in which most of us have participated. In the past decade we have intermittently considered a variety of programs, but we have never adopted a consistent policy. Public considerations have been largely characterized by apathy, indifference and skepticism; while, at the same time, many of the civil defense plans have been so far-reaching and unrealistic that they have not gained essential support."

"In conclusion, let me emphasize one point. It is not a pleasure for any President of the United States, as I am sure it was not a pleasure for my predecessors, to come before the Congress and ask for new appropriations which place burdens on our people. I came to this conclusion with some reluctance. But in my judgment, this is a most serious time in the life of our country and in the life of freedom around the globe, and it is the obligation, I believe, of the President of the United States to at least make his recommendations to the Members of the Congress, so that they can reach their own conclusions with that judgment before them. You must decide yourselves, as I have decided, and I am confident that whether you finally decide in the way that I have decided or not, that your judgment--as my judgment--is reached on what is in the best interests of our country."

[pinboy3niner]

1. JFK? nt

[frustrated_lefty]

2. Yeah, it's part of the famous one

His presidency was called "Camelot." A beautiful land of high ideals, not a land of might makes right, but a land where might strove for right. It's easy to laugh off the past, pretend it didn't happen. But, you dare to look into the past and see his words and realize the hope that was.

Forgive me, I'm getting maudlin. I lived through Katrina, I'm witnessing the death of my home, and I desperately wish for a president who could at least fake the voice of JFK.

[peace frog]

3. Maudlin away, lefty, I'll join you

I get all verklempt at the memory of JFK. Would that we had a president like him today.