Tomorrow is the 50 anniversary of the assassination of President John Kennedy. This past Tuesday was the 150 anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address.
Both presidents are more revered in death than they were in life. Indeed, they had their detractors who hated everything about them and were not at all saddened by their deaths.
But their legacies live on, and the nation continues to wonder, “What if…?”
I was a college freshman when President Kennedy was killed, and like everyone else I remember exactly where I was when I heard the news. That horrible moment still seems surreal all these years later.
There are so many things to miss about him, but the thing I miss the most, and what I believe he and President Lincoln had most in common, was the ability to inspire the nation, not just with words, but with the grace and dignity with which they served as president.
Both knew, of course, how to use words. The Gettysburg Address and President Kennedy’s Inauguration speech were short and enduring because of their profound simplicity, beauty, and power to lift the spirits of every American.
I was raised in a very political family, and so even as a teenager I remember hanging on every word President Kennedy spoke, feeling secure because he was president despite the ever present tensions of the Cold War.
I also loved the fact that he made us laugh, and had a smile that was infectious.
Political leaders like Kennedy and Lincoln are in short supply these days.
No one in our time seems to possess their ability to sense what the nation needs to hear, speaking just the right words at just the right time.
That void may be the reason why there remains an ember of hope that burns inside my soul that one day another Lincoln and Kennedy type of political leader will emerge.
It may never happen, and probably won’t given the poisoned political environment we live in, but when you catch a glimpse of Camelot, real or not, you never stop longing to see it again.
Some days that is all that stands between me and abject cynicism.
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Thank you,, Jan. I love your message. It evokes strong memories of how hope for our beloved country feels. Keep on inspiring us.
Mary.
For me the line has worn very thin, and maybe broken. I too would love to see a return to Camelot, but I don’t see anyone that I think can do that, especially in our present poisoned political environment. And there CERTAINLY is no one within the present, so called, Republican party that I consider can provide even the remotest possibility of a return to Camelot, or even a return to just plain rationality. This is coming from someone who was once a very active Republican.
You are right, as usual. I enjoy your message so much!!!!
Beautifully written to convey the emotions and feelings that Camelot elicited from most of us who found Kennedy to be one of a kind.
Maybe we just saw a tiny step towards Camelot when Reid invoked the “nuclear option” in dealing with the filibustering of presidential appointments. I think that step is something to cheer about.
Touching! Thank you. The pendulum WILL swing back, whether we see it or not.