Forty four to forty seven years ago, dreams were huge
It was 47 years ago when he was elected president.
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Campaigns weren’t any prettier then. But JFK could also challenge folks to think. And to aim high.
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Back then, when televised debates were new, he could speechify naturally and well, instead of being punked by a moderator.
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I was eight when he was inaugurated. Which meant I knew diddly about politics. I favored him because he was more handsome than Nixon. And boy, could he ever talk well. He was one of about half a dozen of the best speakers in the last half century.
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Burned by the CIA at the Bay of Pigs, and listening to military advisers during the Cuban Missile Crisis, he started to grow skeptical of military solutions and began to aim as high as anyone can, of a world of permanent peace. Some insiders say he was even planning to pull military advisers out of Vietnam. Shortly after that, when I was nearly eleven, he was killed.
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It was like a death in the family, the first I’d ever known. I remember sitting on a swing, crying.
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I’ve always wanted to vote for a president of similar stature. But none have yet come along.
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November 22nd, 2007 at 7:38 pm
Thank you for remembering. I was a bit older; but, I remember, also. And, I, too, am still waiting. Kucinich is as close as we have come since. Why is it that no one sees that or takes him seriously. I believe JFK would have admired him.