I was 12 years old on January 20, 1961, the day John Fitzgerald Kennedy was Inaugurated. I recall watching the event, the pomp, the circumstance, the top hats, and of course the speech.
John Kennedy's inaugural speech was the most memorable political speech in my life, only Martin Luther King's I have a Dream speech approaches it.
I write today with more than just a little sadness as I reflect on the power of the Ideas expressed in the speech, in JFK's life, and the life of his brothers Bobby and Ted. Only Ted had the opportunity to live a full life. John and Bobby had their lives cut short by assassins, fueled by a strain of hatred that still infects our country. The Kennedy's felt that government was necessary to the proper functioning of a great nation, and that the government had, and has the power to lift up our downtrodden, to protect our weakest, and to stand before our enemies.
Government was not the problem to John, Bobby and Ted Kennedy. It had the power, derived from the people it served, to lift those from poverty, to educate the children of the poor so they did not become a succeeding generation of the poor, to protect workers and consumers from the abuses of wealth, or as FDR called them "malefactors of great wealth". John Kenndey did not propose a New Deal, he proposed a Fair Deal. He believed in the perfectability of man, that power of the people should be greater than both the power of government, and the power of wealth. He believed that American workers deserved a fair wage, and a safe workplace, and that a living wage was a fair exchange for a fair day's work.
If you haven't seen the entire speech, please take a few minutes to watch and listen. The speech is in two parts embedded below:
JFK inauguration speech 1 of 2
JFK Inaugration Speech 2 of 2
The entire text is below:
Vice President Johnson, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Chief Justice, President Eisenhower, Vice President Nixon, President Truman, reverend clergy, fellow citizens:
We observe today not a victory of party, but a celebration of freedom -- symbolizing an end, as well as a beginning -- signifying renewal, as well as change. For I have sworn before you and Almighty God the same solemn oath our forebears prescribed nearly a century and three-quarters ago.
The world is very different now. For man holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish all forms of human poverty and all forms of human life. And yet the same revolutionary beliefs for which our forebears fought are still at issue around the globe -- the belief that the rights of man come not from the generosity of the state, but from the hand of God.
We dare not forget today that we are the heirs of that first revolution. Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans -- born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage, and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this nation has always been committed, and to which we are committed today at home and around the world.
Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, to assure the survival and the success of liberty.
This much we pledge -- and more.
To those old allies whose cultural and spiritual origins we share, we pledge the loyalty of faithful friends. United there is little we cannot do in a host of cooperative ventures. Divided there is little we can do -- for we dare not meet a powerful challenge at odds and split asunder.
To those new states whom we welcome to the ranks of the free, we pledge our word that one form of colonial control shall not have passed away merely to be replaced by a far more iron tyranny. We shall not always expect to find them supporting our view. But we shall always hope to find them strongly supporting their own freedom -- and to remember that, in the past, those who foolishly sought power by riding the back of the tiger ended up inside.
To those people in the huts and villages of half the globe struggling to break the bonds of mass misery, we pledge our best efforts to help them help themselves, for whatever period is required -- not because the Communists may be doing it, not because we seek their votes, but because it is right. If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.
To our sister republics south of our border, we offer a special pledge: to convert our good words into good deeds, in a new alliance for progress, to assist free men and free governments in casting off the chains of poverty. But this peaceful revolution of hope cannot become the prey of hostile powers. Let all our neighbors know that we shall join with them to oppose aggression or subversion anywhere in the Americas. And let every other power know that this hemisphere intends to remain the master of its own house.
To that world assembly of sovereign states, the United Nations, our last best hope in an age where the instruments of war have far outpaced the instruments of peace, we renew our pledge of support -- to prevent it from becoming merely a forum for invective, to strengthen its shield of the new and the weak, and to enlarge the area in which its writ may run.
Finally, to those nations who would make themselves our adversary, we offer not a pledge but a request: that both sides begin anew the quest for peace, before the dark powers of destruction unleashed by science engulf all humanity in planned or accidental self-destruction.
We dare not tempt them with weakness. For only when our arms are sufficient beyond doubt can we be certain beyond doubt that they will never be employed.
But neither can two great and powerful groups of nations take comfort from our present course -- both sides overburdened by the cost of modern weapons, both rightly alarmed by the steady spread of the deadly atom, yet both racing to alter that uncertain balance of terror that stays the hand of mankind's final war.
So let us begin anew -- remembering on both sides that civility is not a sign of weakness, and sincerity is always subject to proof. Let us never negotiate out of fear, but let us never fear to negotiate.
Let both sides explore what problems unite us instead of belaboring those problems which divide us.
Let both sides, for the first time, formulate serious and precise proposals for the inspection and control of arms, and bring the absolute power to destroy other nations under the absolute control of all nations.
Let both sides seek to invoke the wonders of science instead of its terrors. Together let us explore the stars, conquer the deserts, eradicate disease, tap the ocean depths, and encourage the arts and commerce.
Let both sides unite to heed, in all corners of the earth, the command of Isaiah -- to "undo the heavy burdens, and [to] let the oppressed go free."¹
And, if a beachhead of cooperation may push back the jungle of suspicion, let both sides join in creating a new endeavor -- not a new balance of power, but a new world of law -- where the strong are just, and the weak secure, and the peace preserved.
All this will not be finished in the first one hundred days. Nor will it be finished in the first one thousand days; nor in the life of this Administration; nor even perhaps in our lifetime on this planet. But let us begin.
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 we need -- not as a call to battle, though embattled 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,"² 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 in 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.
And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.
My fellow citizens of the world, ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.
Finally, whether you are citizens of America or citizens of the world, ask of us here the same high standards of strength and sacrifice which we ask of you. With a good conscience our only sure reward, with history the final judge of our deeds, let us go forth to lead the land we love, asking His blessing and His help, but knowing that here on earth God's work must truly be our own.
A CBS perspective on Kennedy's Inauguration is linked below:
CBS JFK Inaugural story
John Kennedy's life was cut tragically short by an assassin's bullet on November 22,1963 in a city that was a cauldron of right wing hatred. I won't discuss any conspiracy theory here, the fact is that it happened, and the reasons, motivations and theories will be a subject of scholary study for hundreds of years. I want to discuss the parallels of right wing hatred that we see today, and why the power of JFK's ideas still resonate today.
John Kennedy and his family were wealthy in a city where old wealth was abundant. Perhaps it is because his father was not born rich, that the Kennedy brothers and sisters were raised with an awareness that the entrenched wealth, with the power inherent in it, also had the power to hurt ordinary Americans, and that there had to be a countervailing power to protect Americans from this power. I believe Kennedy saw government as the primary force in society to prevent the exploitation of labor, and the ascendency of corporate power from depleting the freedom of ordinary Americans.
Such thoughts are anathemea to some in the position of power afforded by wealth and by corporate interests who use government as a means to solidify their power, even though no corporation has a vote in the selection of our leadership, and no wealthy person has more votes than the poorest laborer. John Kennedy took the position of standing with the laboror, the cook, the teacher, the coal miner against the power of the corporations.
This idea, the idea that people had a real say in how the country was run, that they had rights that superceded and even exceeded the rights of the corporations was the idea that the right found so very dangerous. It is the idea that the right still finds so dangerous, and it is the reason that the right continues to sell violence, hatred, fear and now, with our African American president, racism.
I grieve for President Kennedy still, and I hope that our current political climate can pull itself back from the precipice it stands on, and threatens to take all of us with when it takes the plunge. Where are the leaders who will cause us to collectively, step back, catch our breath, and walk away from the edge. I do not think that the President alone has the power to change the minds of people who have been fed a diet of fear, hatred and violent rhetoric for the last 20 years. He will need to be joined by someone on the right side of the aisle, and we should reach out to help find that person. Who is it? Who on the right has the decency and strength of character to stand against the power of the right wing media? I hope this person can be found before our nation takes that dreadful step.
America is on a collision course with events that will hurt us for generations if we cannot step back. We must step back. If it is in my power to help in some small way, I will do it. Will you?
Update 1: Added links to speech
Update 2: Fixed 3 typos