The Importance Of The Death Of Kennedy
When John F. Kennedy won the election for
President in 1960, his message was exactly what the nation needed. As has been
so often quoted, he said, "Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what
you can do for your country." He sensed it was time to call our citizens into
service and sacrifice for each other, our country, and the world. He saw a weakness
in the American character, which had developed from the end of World War II
and continued on through the fifties. Americans had become self-indulgent and
soft because of their extraordinary abundance and prosperity. He reminded Americans
it was time to give back to the country in repayment for all it had given them;
he asked them to sacrifice their own interests for the public interest. He appealed
to their higher nature, and they longed to fulfil his dream and their own potential
to be good. Unconsciously, they hungered to restore the traditions of civility
and national purpose that were waning.
When Kennedy was killed, the dream of citizens
entering public service died with him. The idea of contributing to the common
good instead of to one's own immediate desires faded further from the American
consciousness. The death of Kennedy was the most dramatic turning point in American
history in the twentieth century. Without the accomplishment of this timely
improvement of the American character, the nation moved towards further individualism
and divisiveness. Many of the intellectuals and leaders connected to Kennedy's
vision lost hope and direction, and they failed to lead the country back to
the public philosophy.
Arthur Schlessinger, Jr., who was in the Kennedy
administration, explained the loss to the nation by Kennedy's death in a theory
about cycles of public service. In his book, The Cycles of American History,
he describes two aspects of a repetitive cycle in American history. There is
an interchange between "private interest" and "public purpose." Kennedy called
a generation to public service. He inspired them to be unselfish. Kennedy's
death interrupted the public purpose part of the cycle, and the generation destined
to participate in government dropped out. Schlessinger predicts the generation
of despair will break into the present selfish cycle and bring back the balance
that was lost by the death of Kennedy. I hope he is right. Unselfish service,
reinvigorated by those initially inspired by Kennedy's message, would be a healing
balm for our nation.
After Kennedy's death, the nation went into
a state of grief, confusion, and shock. President Johnson, who was politically
further left than Kennedy, took the country in the opposite direction. He believed
in expanding government's role to act for the people rather than the people
serving each other and their government. He increased Entitlements and the attitude
of entitlement. The liberal approach of Johnson stunted the cycle of public
service and responsibility that had been introduced by JFK. Without the correction
of our national character and conscience, special interests moved into the vacuum
and demanded their rights. Many patriots who planned to enter public service
turned to other occupations. I personally know people in my generation who were
inspired by Kennedy to go into public service but no longer chose to serve in
government. In fact, those people are still unable to speak about President
Kennedy without tears coming to their eyes-myself included. We did not end up
giving back to our nation the way we had intended.
Instead of people serving their country, under
the Johnson administration, the government increasingly became a tool of special
interests. Political power began to shift out of the hands of the many, the
majority, into the hands of the few, the united minorities. Johnson used the
government to create laws and programs to change the status and conditions of
minorities. Not that all of those laws were wrong. Justice was long overdue.
What became harmful was the practice of the government becoming the arm of special
interests. Rather than our citizens becoming personally involved in changing
society and becoming more unselfish, they became more self-centered and demanding.
Every group who experienced injustice organized and began to use the media to
promote its interests and lobby the government for laws and programs to enhance
their causes. Every group focused on its own needs and not the needs of others
or the needs of the country as a whole, the common good.
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Personal Reflections On The Death Of Kennedy
I was a sophomore in college when the then
Senator Kennedy ran for president. I was majoring in political science and intended
to go into law and later into politics. I was very idealistic in my desire to
fight injustice and contribute to my nation. I had read Kennedy's book, Profiles
In Courage. In it, he described Americans in government who had sacrificed reputation
and popularity for the sake of doing what was right for the country. I respected
Kennedy for the values he extolled in his book, and I decided to campaign for
him. I was greatly encouraged and filled with hope when he won. I felt he would
lead the nation on the right path. When he gave his inaugural speech, I knew
I had made the right choice. He made me feel good about wanting to serve our
disadvantaged citizens and to serve the country. I felt there was hope for the
nation to right the wrongs that were in our society. Now I know why I felt as
I did. It took me thirty-nine years to discover the reason I was stirred by
his message. I finally realized I was hungering to do what was right and to
serve my country. Somehow I sensed there was something missing in our selfish,
materialistic society. I felt its shallowness and longed for the values of the
public philosophy.
I believe that President Kennedy had the right
ideas for our nation at that time, and he had the right way to accomplish them.
He had sized up the state of our character and found us lacking. Yet he had
a strong belief in the ability of the American character to rise to a higher
level of goodness. Many Americans, especially around my age, identified with
his goals and vision. That is why, after more than thirty years, Americans still
feel dissatisfied and unsettled about the conclusion of the Kennedy era. The
dreams of Camelot still reside in our collective memories and subconscious.
We went through that time of ecstatic hope and devastating despair together.
There has never been closure to the Kennedy tragedy because the Kennedy legacy
has not been fulfilled. When John F. Kennedy, Jr. died recently, it rekindled
the memory and hopes of those who yearned for Camelot. Many people realized
they had hidden hopes that the son would fulfill his father's legacy.
We are wrong to have looked to a living relative
of Kennedy to carry out the dream. It is not up to living relatives unfamiliar
with the original vision. It is up to those who were initially galvanized by
the Kennedy message. In them there is a seed of the original legacy that needs
to be brought to fruition. They are the children to whom the mantle has been
passed. It is their calling to motivate the younger, post baby boomer generations.
There are many talented people in this nation
who have been holding back or been lost in confusion. The Kennedy message is
simple: give instead of take; love instead of hate, unite instead of divide,
courage instead of cowardice. His legacy is the restoration of the main principles
of the public philosophy. In Camelot it was "All for one and one for all." Who
could forget the noble dream to which we were willing to dedicate our lives?
It is not too late to turn back the tide of self-indulgence and self-love. We
can still serve our country by appealing to the higher nature in Americans,
lead them back to the fork in the road, and help them take the right path-the
path to a common national purpose and a willingness to serve the common good.
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