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

[SoCalDem]

as good a time to repost, as ever

SoCalDem Donating Member (1000+ posts)Thu Nov-22-07 09:21 PM

Original message


He served less than a thousand 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 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 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 ago gone out.

Do we have another president who can inspire us?.. I had one in my lifetime, and I wish the same for my children, and their children.

only time will tell

[anonymous171]

1. He did not invent the peace corps. Also he was very pro-rich.

But not in the Reaganesque "ALL RICH PEOPLE ARE DEMIGODS!" way of course.

[SoCalDem]

3. re-read please..never said he invented the peace corps

:)

[anonymous171]

4. You are right

My bad. I don't know how I got that.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

2. A most fitting tribute...

I weep for our loss, so long ago...

Thank you for this wonderful reminder...

K&R

:cry:

[annabanana]

5. It doesn't SEEM that long ago

. . as the anniversaries roll around

[SoCalDem]

14. to me it does.. I am approaching 61, and it does seem like forever-ago

:(

[annabanana]

15. I'm 60 on Wed... Maybe the fact that I was in Mass. when it

happened..The whole Boston area fell into a huge hole of grief & despair...He was "ours" . .

[niyad]

6. thank you for reposting this beautiful tribute--how hopeful and optimistic we were then, and how

very different the world is now.

[niyad]

7. "anybody here seen my old friend john"

Anybody here seen my old friend John?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
He freed a lot of people but it seems the good they die young
I just looked around and he's gone

..........

Abraham, Martin, and John


Anybody here seen my old friend Abraham?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
He freed a lot of people but it seems the good they die young
You know I just looked around and he's gone

Anybody here seen my old friend John?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
He freed a lot of people but it seems the good they die young
I just looked around and he's gone

Anybody here seen my old friend Martin?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
He freed a lot of people but it seems the good they die young
I just looked around and he's gone

Didn't you love the things that they stood for?
Didn't they try to find some good for you and me?
And we'll be free
Some day soon, it's gonna be one day

Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up over the hill
With Abraham, Martin, and John

[MadMaddie]

8. This is the most poignant song

Every time I hear it my heart breaks!!

[SoCalDem]

I remember a skinned knee, when I hear that song

My friend and i were walking along the brick sidewalk near my house, on our way to her house (they had a TV).. We had a funky AM transistor radio, and that song came on.,,.for the first time..we were both crying, and i stepped crooked on a icy, wobbly brick and bloodied up my knee.. 40 years later, and I still remember that :eyes:

[niyad]

10. fascinating the things we remember--to this day, I remember the room at school where I was sitting

when the assassination was announced over the pa--I still see the box over the door, and how I kept thinking, 'this is a really sick joke--somebody got into the office, and is playing a really sick joke"

[DemBones DemBones]

11. We didn't have a PA system in my school and

we found out because a guy was sent to the office for some reason and came back talking about the president being shot. They were listening to a radio in the office.

We talked about the fact that every 20 years a president dies in office and the fact that Lincoln's secretary was Mrs. Kennedy while JFK's secretary was Mrs. Lincoln.

We knew he had died by the time we went to 6th period and our chemistry teacher let us just cry, put our heads on our desks, etc.

[left is right]

12. I was in 8th grade history class

I looked out the window and saw that the flag had been lowered to half-mast. Told the teacher and he immediately went into a lesson on the meaning of it. A few minutes after his mini-lecture, the announcement came over the intercom.

[SoCalDem]

13. Our school freaked out.. I went to Lincoln Junior High

and first they told us to all go to the auditorium, forgetting that it was being painted, then they told us to all go outside..it was sleeting and about 35 degrees, so the kids who were in gym class were in shorts..then they told us to all go back to class, and our teachers sent us home early, forgetting that the school bus-kids would still have to wait.. I was a "walker" so I headed home.. We didn't have tv, so i was the one to tell my Mom & brother.. a very weird day.. We waited until my aunt & uncle got home from work, and walked to their house down the block..they had tv...my uncle went out for Chinese food & brought it back for us.

[niyad]

9. as does mine.