Comments on: JFK

By: grayslady

grayslady — Thu, 23 Nov 2006 22:44:00 +0000

Thank you Maha. I was a teenager during the Kennedy years, so I think I am forever branded with that image of potential greatness Kennedy called forth in all of us. John Kennedy understood leadership. Thankfully, his brother, Teddy, continues to fight the good fight.

By: uncledad

uncledad — Thu, 23 Nov 2006 10:13:57 +0000

While we all enjoy our
http://www.uncledad.org/uploads/aegis-psd.wmv

Turkey tommorrow.

By: lafrance

lafrance — Thu, 23 Nov 2006 07:23:00 +0000

Think of Kennedy’s eloquence and think of his extreem class when with foreign leaders and think of his not dropping the bomb when it could have been so easy, think of his tentative steps to civil and human rights.
Then think of how far we have come since then and what we have in the White House today.

By: xpara

xpara — Thu, 23 Nov 2006 05:55:35 +0000

I’ve done more pieces than I car to remember on JFK and that dreadful day in Dallas. Somehow one poem said a lot to me and I actually got it into a newspaper that was not known for its high literacy quotient as part of long retrospective on November 22, 1963:
Buffalo Bill’s
defunct
who used to
ride a watersmooth-silver
stallion
and break onetwothreefourfive pigeonsjustlikethat
Jesus
he was a handsome man
and what i want to know is
how do you like your blueeyed boy
Mister Death

– e. e. cummings

By: Ratiocination

Ratiocination — Thu, 23 Nov 2006 02:11:41 +0000

A Wise Man Once Said

But his presidency and the years that followed it continue to shape my view of the world, for it was a time when a boy could grow up believing that it was not only possible, but proper, to believe in a society dedicated to great ends, with an attitud…

By: Swami

Swami — Thu, 23 Nov 2006 01:25:48 +0000

I believe also in the United States of America, in the promise that it contains and has contained throughout our history of producing a society so abundant and creative and so free and responsible that it cannot only fulfill the aspirations of its citizens, but serve equally well as a beacon for all mankind

A moving sentiment for sure.. but it almost becomes painful when contrasted against the state of our government leadership today. I think the light of America’s lamp has been dimmed by the dimwit-in-chief who is charting America’s course today. Torture, secret prisons, human rights abuses, and outright lies and deceptions don’t fulfill the promises and surely don’t serve as a beacon for all mankind.

P.S. Wars of aggression also.

By: moonbat

moonbat — Wed, 22 Nov 2006 21:03:15 +0000

The day that one of our politicians can revive the word “liberal” as forcefully as Kennedy did, and not merely hide behind its recent incarnation “progressivism”, is the day that we will have tipped the scales against right-wing ignorance and bullying. It’s the day our party will have truly gotten off the floor and stepped out of the shadows and into the light where it belongs.

By: Donna

Donna — Wed, 22 Nov 2006 20:50:10 +0000

Thinking with my fingers here…….I have thought that the pejorative use of the word ‘liberal’ by righties was simply coming from political operatives who intentionally creating a negative ‘brand’ with which to manipulate the public.
That may be so, but after reading JFK’s words, all of a sudden, I would add this: it occurs to me that sneering the word ‘liberal’ was/is a ploy to activate the racism tendencies still held in so many American hearts.

Hope you all have a good holiday tomorrow.

By: Paul

Paul — Wed, 22 Nov 2006 20:02:44 +0000

One of the most interesting things about this 1960 speach is that the liberalism described then by Kennedy is the same liberalism I see today in 2006. I wish Kennedy were alive today to tell all these revisionist right wingers that.

One of the most pernicious myths thrust into the mainstream by the right is that todays liberals are totally different than yesteryears. The right does this for a very important reason, thay know that liberalism has been the driving force for positive change and social justice in America. It is impossible to deny that reality, though they sometimes try, so instead thay tell us that we liberals are nothing like those of the past, those that marched for the vote for women, citizenship and freedom for blacks, desegregation, and all the other causes liberals have championed. The right also knows that the progressive agenda is largely supported by the American public so much of their energy goes into demonizing liberals and re-defining liberalism.

At the begining of the quote by Kennedy, the first paragraph, I was thinking that it may have been Obama, one of the few eloquent Democrats who will defend liberalism. It would be nice if some more of todays Democrats, and Americans in general, would plagiarize this Kennedy speach.

By: Bonnie

Bonnie — Wed, 22 Nov 2006 19:07:09 +0000

Thanks, Maha. That is exactly the liberalism I believe in.