Let me begin with my remembrance first:
"Commencement Address at American University in Washington, June 10, 1963
.... I have, therefore, chosen this time and this place to discuss a topic on which ignorance too often abounds and the truth is too rarely perceived -- yet it is the most important topic on earth: world peace.
What kind of peace do I mean? What kind of peace do we seek? Not a Pax Americana enforced on the world by American weapons of war. Not the peace of the grave or the security of the slave. I am talking about genuine peace, the kind of peace that makes life on earth worth living, the kind that enables men and nations to grow and to hope and to build a better life for their children -- not merely peace for Americans but peace for all men and women -- not merely peace in our time but peace for all time. I speak of peace because of the new face of war. Total war makes no sense in an age when great powers can maintain large and relatively invulnerable nuclear forces and refuse to surrender without resort to those forces. It makes no sense in an age when a single nuclear weapon contains almost ten times the explosive force delivered by 11 of the Allied air forces in the Second World War. It makes no sense in an age when the deadly poisons produced by a nuclear exchange would be carried by wind and water and soil and seed to the far corners of the globe and to generations yet unborn.
Today the expenditure of billions of dollars every year on weapons acquired for the purpose of making sure we never need to use the is essential to keeping the peace. But surely the acquisition of such idle stockpiles -- which can only destroy and never create -- is not the only, much less the most efficient, means of assuring peace.
I speak of peace, therefore, as the necessary rational end of rational men. I realize that the pursuit of peace is not as dramatic as the pursuit of war -- and frequently the words of the pursuer fall on deaf ears. But we have no more urgent task....
Let us reexamine our attitude toward the Soviet Union.... No government or social system is so evil that its people must be considered as lacking in virtue.... For, in the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children's future. And we are all mortal.
--MORE--"
That goes for the MUSLIMS we are now SLAUGHTERING, too, AmeriKa!!!!!
Btw, the wish to end the Cold War is one of the things that got him killed, folks, along with the intention to withdraw from Vietnam, shatter the CIA into a thousand pieces, end the Fed, and preventing Israel from developing a nuclear bomb.
Related: JFK on Secret Societies
RFK: 'What we need in the United States'
“War will exist until that distant day when the conscientious objector enjoys the same reputation and prestige that the warrior does today.”--John F. Kennedy
--source--"
And what has the Boston Globe been giving us:
"Theodore Sorensen, JFK’s aide and wordsmith, dies" by Bryan Marquard, Globe Staff / November 1, 2010
Theodore Chaikin Sorensen, whose prose mingled with the thoughts and words of his close friend John F. Kennedy to create some of the most memorable presidential speeches of the 20th century, died yesterday....
The man who had something to do with the words above.
Considered by many to be the premier presidential speechwriter of his lifetime — some thought him the best ever — Mr. Sorensen played significant roles in crafting JFK’s enduring speeches, including his 1961 inaugural address, and the president’s book “Profiles in Courage,’’ awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1957....
Kennedy sought Mr. Sorensen’s counsel at every key juncture, from campaigning for the White House to guiding the country through perilous times such as the Bay of Pigs invasion and the Cuban missile crisis....
Mr. Sorensen was a pacifist who had registered as a conscientious objector....
Mr. Sorensen wrote in his 2008 memoir about his impressions of Kennedy when he interviewed for the job. “I was struck by this unpretentious, even ordinary man with his extraordinary background, a wealthy family, a Harvard education, and a heroic war record,’’ he wrote. “He did not try to impress me with his importance; he just seemed like a good guy.’’
And as the years have passed many of us have realized how good.
Yes, the man had some faults and flaws; however, he was a compassionate and caring man who was connected to the world's pain due to the physical illnesses and maladies he suffered.
Their friendship deepened over the next 11 years until Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas. The pain of that November day was still fresh when Mr. Sorensen wrote in his memoir about the emotionally wrenching hours in Washington after he was told the president had been shot. “Deep in my soul,’’ he wrote, “I have not stopped weeping, whenever those events are recalled.’’
I'm having a hard time myself as I sit here and type -- and I know I am not the only American who feels this way.
************
Never far from politics, he advised Robert Kennedy during his 1968 presidential campaign until he, too, was assassinated.
And with that the last chance for America was killed (imho).
Another tear-jerker, ten-fold for Ted.
“I do not know whether I have ever fully recovered from John F. Kennedy’s death,’’ Mr. Sorensen wrote. “Time passed. Love and laughter helped. But the deep sadness of that time remained, only to be reinforced five years later by the murder of his brother Robert. Those two senseless tragedies robbed me of my future.’’
They robbed us all, and none of us have recovered. The sadness deepens each year that passes.
In 1977, President Jimmy Carter nominated Mr. Sorensen to be CIA director. But before the Senate could vote, Carter withdrew the nomination as foes criticized Mr. Sorensen’s long-ago conscientious objector status and raised other objections....
Oh, I'LL BET THAT RAISED HACKLES over there -- especially after the Church Committee reports. Ted would be the LAST PERSON the agency would want as its head!
His decision to apply for conscientious objector status, rather than simply not register for the draft, was brought up by conservative writers and politicians in the early years of the Kennedy administration and during Carter’s brief attempt to make him director of the CIA.
He was descended from Danish immigrants on his father’s side and Russian Jews on his mother’s side....
Looks to me like they raised a good boy.
--more--"
But that is just my opinion, folks.
Here is the Globe's:
"Time had rendered him ever more partisan.
Oh, Globe! Saying bad things about a dead man.
Or perhaps he had trouble thinking about the Camelot era without grief and shock over how abruptly it ended.
How can you not think and feel that way about what happened?
Wikipedia will record that Ted Sorensen died on October 31, 2010. But a big part of him was lost on November 22, 1963.
So was a big part of America's heart and soul -- and the rest was finished off by the brother's book-end of a killing (with Martin Luther King's assassination in between).
--more--"
"Kennedy was poised to become a legend — a promising, beloved president whose life would be cut short by an assassin’s bullet.
And the newspaper never goes down those roads.
--more--"
Related: Boston marks golden anniversary of JFK’s election
Also see: Fate of armory used for JFK victory speech divides Hyannis
From the divisive to the downright lurid:
"62 photo of Monroe with JFK, RFK to be auctioned
NEW YORK — An image of Marilyn Monroe in a skin-tight pearl-encrusted dress flanked by President John F. Kennedy and his brother Robert, then US attorney general, used to be kept in an envelope tagged “Sensitive material.’’
Part of a lot estimated to be valued at $4,000 to $6,000, the photograph will be sold Dec. 9 at Bonhams in New York as part of the 12,000-image archive of Cecil Stoughton, the first official White House photographer.
Timed to coincide with the 50th anniversary of Kennedy’s election, the sale is expected to fetch as much as $250,000.
“She is wearing an outrageous dress,’’ said Matthew Haley, historical photograph specialist at Bonhams. “We believe it’s the only picture where the three of them appear together.’’
The black-and-white Monroe photograph was taken on May 19, 1962, the day she sang “Happy Birthday, Mr. President’’ to Kennedy at Madison Square Garden in New York.
Lucky guy!
--more--"
Someone who won't be singing Happy Birthday to me -- nor would I want her to:
"Palin attacks Obama, JFK, ‘American Idol’ in new book
NEW YORK — In her new book, Sarah Palin devotes several pages to Kennedy’s noted speech on religion during the 1960 campaign — a speech many saw as crucial in persuading the country to elect a Catholic president. “I am not the Catholic candidate for president,’’ Kennedy said at the time. “I am the Democratic Party’s candidate for president, who happens also to be a Catholic.’’
And the last true American president we had.
Discussing her own faith, Palin writes....
She already gets enough press.
--more--"
What doesn't get nearly enough of a look:
"In 1963, President Kennedy was assassinated as he rode in a motorcade in Dallas. Suspect Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested.
--more--"
RIP this day, JFK. You earned it.
