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

[SoCalDem]

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 the effort.

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 say JFK, and they will nod..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.

[PCIntern]

1. Bay of Pigs/JFK Assassination

were the turning points...we have never recovered. Sad.

I recall that day he died...it was as if the air went out of a balloon. The teacher in my small school who was in the Third Grade Classroom cheered...her family were well-known John Birchers. I believe a member of her husband's family presently sits in Congress from a southern State, known for his vituperative hatred of 'liberals' (read:Commies) RW hatred of all things positive and progressive and intellectual is nothing new.

[SoCalDem]

3. I can still hear the clop-clop-clop of the horses' hooves from the funeral

remember too, how there was NO commentary during those three days, except when it was necessary to tell who someone was.. the news people were as stunned as we all were..

can you even imagine how Fox et al would have behaved:grr:

[JohnnyLib2]

2. My grandchild asked, "why don't we have great presidents anymore?"

And my thoughts went right to JFK. Your message on hope and inspiration is much appreciated.

[SoCalDem]

9. According to wikipedia he's ranked third after MLK & Mother Teresa

as most admired person...and he's been gone 44 years.. I have a feeling that GW will rank a few below Satan..

1. Mother Teresa
2. Martin Luther King Jr.
3. John F. Kennedy
4. Albert Einstein
5. Helen Keller
6. Franklin D. Roosevelt
7. Billy Graham
8. Pope John Paul II
9. Eleanor Roosevelt
10. Winston Churchill
11. Dwight Eisenhower
12. Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
13. Mahatma Gandhi
14. Nelson Mandela
15. Ronald Reagan
16. Henry Ford
17. William Jefferson Clinton
18. Margaret Thatcher

[JeffR]

4. Thank you for this post

:dem:

[SoCalDem]

6. You're very welcome

I stumbled upon that picture, and it all came back to me :cry:

[FourScore]

5. What a beautiful family!

Thank you for this post.l I miss those days.

[Bitwit1234]

7. And people say Reagan was a great president

he is the cause of the economic woe today with his Reaganomics. Our greatness in this country was just beginning. My father was really upset and he blamed the republicans. At that time in our country's history I did not think it was possible for the other party to do something like that. But if it happened today I wouldn't put it pass them.

One thing I remember is we had a duckpin bowling league and it meet on Friday night. There was some question of canceling but we bowled anyway. And all I can say is, I had never heard the quiet. The bowling alley was a split house, half ducks and half ten pins and all you could hear that night was the sound of the pins. No body laughed, no body clapped and the guys who usually whooped it up when they got snookered were silent as could be.

[SoCalDem]

8. We had a similar situation in 2001..One league (150 people)

bowls on Tuesday nights. On 9-11 we had no time to get hold of people to see what they wanted to do, so we bowled, but it was creepy, to say the least.. Very withdrawn.. and of course many of us are older, so some of the people with sons & daughters in the military knew what was coming..:(

[drm604]

10. I was in grade school (I think I was in 1st grade) when he was assassinated.

His assassination is my only memory of him. I think it's my first memory of anything related to politics. It's one of my earliest memories of anything. My childhood was punctuated by political assassinations. JFK, RFK, MLK. I'm sure it had some kind of profound effect on how I view politics, my country, and the world. The funny thing is that I can't really say what that effect was since I don't know what I would be like if they hadn't occurred.

[BrklynLib at work]

11. Thank you for this post. It says what I would have like to have said.

I was in college when JFK was assassintated. It was turning point in the world...I could not believe my ears when I heard someone yell out that the President had been shot! That kind of thing just did not happen here.
Little did we know what lay ahead for us.

[zanne]

12. When I looked at that picture of him...

I saw Barack Obama.

[roguevalley]

13. It began the death of hope. What a lovely time, what a lovely

family, what a lovely world we faced, even with all the hard things. Literate, decent and possible, that is what they were and what they offered.

[SoCalDem]

14. Possible to IMpossible in one lifetime.

It does matter who gets elected.. Feeling proud of your leaders permeates all levels of society. and hopefulness is a lot better than crushing anxiety. No wonder so many people medicate themselves these days:(

[Virginian]

15. There is a grandson named Jack...

I had just moved to the DC suburbs. I was in 7th grade. I was getting to be quite a Kennedy fanatic. Then Nov 22...

Teddy survived that plane crash. I had my ear to my transistor radio every hour for the news on his condition...

Johnson wasn't quite "IT" but it was 1968 and Bobby was running for President. There was going to be another Kennedy in the White House. No one could have beat him. Then there was another gravesite on the hill in Arlington with the sound of rushing water... Little Rory would be born a few months later.

Teddy... running for president... too much baggage.

John... Little Rory would postpone her wedding until a happier time.

As much as I admired Jack, I can only wonder at what a President Joe jr. would have been. The son who was born to be the first Kennedy President. There is a corner in the JFK Library that is all about Joe. I was impressed.

[SoCalDem]

19. Eerie, isn't it? Jebbie was supposed to be "the" son

to follow Poppy...but he lost the first time he ran for governor and then right about the time he would have started to run in 99, his wife smuggled stuff from France, his son stalked an old flame and Noelle..well we all know about Noelle..so we got the dumb son.

Joe may have been great, but JFK was no slouch either..

I have a feeling that we would have heard from John.. all but for a small plane and the ego of a young man :cry:

[TahitiNut]

16. I'll always treasure the memory of being a sideboy for him in 1962.

As a cadet at the USCGA, I was one with clean whites and acceptable height at the end of the summer training cruise on the USCGC Eagle. We were "requested" to come back a few days early from the cruise so JFK (and members of his cabinet) could review the ship. I was the last sideboy on his left. Heads of State get eight sideboys - four on each side of the ladder onto the deck of the ship. It was a kick.

A little over a year later, he was murdered.
:cry:

[SoCalDem]

18. The Eagle..for you

[TahitiNut]

22. Yup. That's her. Sailed across the Atlantic and back on that.

Left New London and sailed northern latitudes to Edinburgh, Scotland. We were there for the Trades Festival (coincided with the 4th of July) and Prince Philip reviewed the ship. After 6 days, we sailed south, stopped at Amsterdam for 6 days and Las Palmas in the Canary Islands for 3 days. (We cut the stay at Las Palmas short to return to D.C.) Then we sailed the southern latitudes back to D.C. I spent a lot of time up on the foremast yard arms (usually the topgallant) setting and bringing in sail. We slept in hammocks strung on the mess dack. It was a LOT of hard work - standing watch, holystoning the teak deck, polishing brass, chipping and painting over the side ... but the experience of a lifetime.

[me b zola]

17. A moving and eloquent post

There is someone who moves me that way, reminds me of the hope of what we could be, makes me believe that our pride could be restored. He hasn't thrown his hat into the ring, I hope that he does.

[dailykoff]

20. Bookmarked

Beautifully put! Thank you! :thumbsup:

[Hekate]

21. Thanks for the memories.I thought of JFK today--when Olbermann signed off with how many days...

...it's been "since Mission Accomplished was declared" (one thousand six hundred and something) I found myself thinking that JFK only served a thousand days in office, and what a difference he made for the good.

I remember, too.

Hekate

[WritersBlock]

23. Thousand points of light

You know, the first time I heard that phrase, my immediate thought was President Kennedy's thousand days in office.

His death was such a loss for the USA and the world.

Thank you for your post.