Unfinished business ....

[H2O Man]

Before I head out to vote, I want to share two quotes with my friends on DU. The first is from JFK's Inaugural Address on January 20, 1961; the secxond was to have been delivered at Austin, Texas on November 22, 1963.

{1} "... In your hands, my fellow citizens, more than mine, will rest the final success or failure of our course. Since this country was founded, each generation of Americans has been summoned to give testimony to its national loyalty. The graves of young Americans who answered the call to service surround the globe.

"Now the trumpet summons us again -- not as a call to bear arms, though arms are needed -- not as a call to battle, though embattered we are -- but a call to bear the burden of a long twilight struggle year in and year out, 'rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation' -- a struggle against the common enemies of man: tyranny, poverty, disease, and war itself.

"Can we forge against these enemies a grand and global alliance, north and south, east and west, that can assure a more fruitful life for all mankind? Will you join that historic effort?

"In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shrink from this responsibility -- I welcome it. I do not believe that any of us would exchange places with any other people or any other generation. 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."

{2} "... This is a time for courage and a time of challenge. Neither conformity nor complacency will do. Neither the fanatics nor the fainthearted are needed .... Let us stand together with renewed confidence in our cause ..."

[Mandate My Ass]

1. defending freedom in its maximum hour of danger

He should be alive to see how much more peril exists today.

Thanks for the encouragement, H20Man. :toast:

[H2O Man]

2. I saw a segment

on Ted Kennedy yesterday. He was asked if he ever feels his brothers' presence, and he said that he did. It was a powerful moment, and it was what lead me to read through some of my books on the Kennedys through the night.

[Mandate My Ass]

5. Heck, just reading your post

I felt his presence.

Ray McGovern came to my hometown a couple of weeks ago. What a great speaker and person. He gets it and he's trying his best to make sure everybody else does too. He said he knew he was preaching to the choir but if everybody just talks about it, people will wake up. A reporter from our local paper came but I checked the entire week afterward and there was no article about it.

He said he is as Christian and conservative as they come and he hates they way the current cabal has perverted both of them.

[H2O Man]

6. He spoke at

Hartwick College in Oneonta last week. He's a good man.

[blm]

17. That's the key - Talk OPENLY about the reality and keep at it.

Because people ARE ready to listen and take the responsiblity of being an informed citizen seriously. I've neevr seen a time when people were more READY to hear the truth from the country's leaders.

[H2O Man]

19. It's on again!

It's on MSNBC right now.

[ms liberty]

8. I was just about to post, asking if you had seen it...

And here you are answering my question - Happy Voting Day, H20Man!

I saw it too, and thought it was very moving. I was surprised with how positive a tone the story took, and I'd like to be able to view that as a good sign.

I saw an ad for a movie about Bobby Kennedy yesterday also, I don't remember having seen or heard about it, and was surprised (but happy) to see it. I think it was a documentary...have you seen anything on it?

[H2O Man]

10. There is a thread

on DU:GD about the movie. It is about the day of the California primary. While I look forward to seeing it, I had hoped it would be about the last two years of his life.

[Cooley Hurd]

3. A worthy K&R!

Thanks, as always H20man!:thumbsup:

[H2O Man]

4. Unfinished Dreams ....

"So I say to you, my friends, that even though we must face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed -- we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."
-- Martin Luther King, Jr. at the Lincoln Memorial; August 28, 1963

[Me.]

12. Keep Hope Alive

And let the truth rise up

*shadow government*

[H2O Man]

7. America Defined ...

"All of us, from the wealthiest to the young children that I have seen in this country, in this year, bloated by starvation -- we all share one precious possession, and that is the name 'American.'

"It is not easy to know what that means.

"But in part to be an American means to have been an outcast and a stranger, to have come to the exile's country, and to know that he who denies the outcast and stranger still amongst us, he also denies America."

-- Robert F. Kennedy, 1968

[Me.]

14. Like That

A lot

*shadow government*

[ms liberty]

9. K&R: Thanks for the inspiration! n/t

[H2O Man]

11. America Defined: Part Two

"I believe in an America where every family can live in a decent home in a decent neighborhood -- where children can play in parks and playgrounds, not the streets of slums -- where no home is unsafe or unsanitary -- where a good doctor and a good hospital are neither too far away nor too expensive -- and where the water is clean and the air is pure and the streets are safe at night."

-- President John F. Kennedy

[Gregorian]

13. We took the easy way.

I remember those days. As young as I was. They didn't last long.

Reading that, I come away with a thought. (And forgive me, for I am ill. I'm dizzy. In pain. Confused. But still, I have hope. In fact, this sickness has gone on for many years, and I am just now getting a handle on it.)

Tyranny, poverty, disease, and war have a way of spreading on their own. I suppose it's like gravity. The easy way would be to lie down and never get up. But the alternative, which takes energy, is to get up and walk. The truth is the simple. But having been clouded, discovering it became difficult. We took the easy way out. And this is where we ended up.

The same people who ended Kennedy's life are the same ones who want to cloud the truth. But it works on the other end of the spectrum. Those who want the truth will search for it.

What we need is a top down and a bottom up approach. We need to discourage lying and obscuring the truth. And we need education and means by which to inspire the people to want to seek the truth.

We weren't vigilant. And some bought the lies.

I'm kind of disoriented. I think this is all obvious stuff. But I wrote it down anyways. It's raining and windy outside. Midterm elections 2006 day. And here we are, on this forum. How wonderful.

[bleever]

15. They may say I'm a dreamer,

but I'm not the only one.

:thumbsup:

[TahitiNut]

16. I was a senior in high school during JFK's Inaugural Address.

I still recall clearly being infused with a love of country and a sense of patriotism in listening to him. So long ago and far away .... (sigh)

[bigtree]

18. "I do not shrink from this responsibility -- I welcome it."

perfect