He only served a thousand and thirty-seven days.. a lifetime ago.
SoCalDem Donating Member (1000+ posts)Thu Nov-22-07 09:21 PM
He served less than a thousand and thirty-seven days.. a lifetime ago..and yet
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 earth 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 phone.
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 since 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.
edited to add.. Maybe we have had our "introduction"..only time will tell
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