John F. Kennedy

The Loss Of America’s Soul: The Declining Interest In Government Promotion Of The Arts And Humanities! :(

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Tonight, at the John F. Kennedy Center For The Performing Arts in Washington, DC, there will be a concert reminding people of the great musician Pablo Casals, who performed at the White House for President Kennedy nearly fifty years ago.

The Kennedy Presidency promoted interest and involvement in the arts and humanities, and Lyndon Johnson created the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities during his administration.

Today, sadly, we are hearing from the Republicans in the House of Representatives that all funding for the arts and humanities should be cut, and on the local level all over the country, we see art, music, drama and other cultural programs being dropped from public school curriculums, and even some universities cutting back on majors in some of the fields of the arts and humanities.

This is indeed a sad time, that somehow it is felt that the arts and humanities are “frills” that are not needed, and that the younger generation need not be exposed to the best of our cultural heritage!

This is a true sign of the decline of America, when we have politicians advocating that we eliminate the best part of the nation, its creativity and originality in everything but making profit!

A nation without the promotion of the arts and humanities is indeed a country without its soul! 🙁

President Barack Obama is certainly not of this view, but whether we can see a revival of the spirit of John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson in these difficult times, and harsh, no holds barred negativism, is an issue that awaits expectations! 🙁

Two Presidential Speeches 50 Years Ago: A One Time Transformative Historical Moment!

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Fifty years ago this week, we saw one President, Dwight D. Eisenhower, leave office after eight years, and deliver the best, most dramatic Farewell Address since George Washington gave the first one in 1796, and only coming close to being matched by President Jimmy Carter when he left office thirty years ago and warned of nuclear proliferation and the dangers to our environment that must be dealt with long term.

We also saw the incoming President, John F. Kennedy, give, arguably, the third best Inaugural Address in American history, before or since, trailing only behind Abraham Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address in 1865 and Franklin D. Roosevelt’s First Inaugural Address in 1933.

Eisenhower warned against the growing power of the Military-Industrial complex, an issue that President Barack Obama must deal with in his Presidency, as we talk about cutting the budget, and have a bloated defense budget that does not fit the world we live in, which is no longer a Cold War world, as Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, a Republican appointee of George W. Bush kept on by President Obama, well recognizes as he calls for budget cuts.

Kennedy spoke to our better nature in his Inaugural Address just a few days later, fifty years ago, and asked us to work for our nation’s success, rather than ask what our country can do for us alone. He appealed to us to stop being selfish and self centered, a point well taken as we look to the future, and the thought of sacrifice, including paying more taxes if we are fortunate enough to be successful, and recognizing that we are all in the economic and social crisis we face together. We must refuse to allow those who wish to divide us to continue to enrich themselves as they poison our radio, television and cable waves with their divisive rhetoric and propaganda, really the promotion of the Big Lie technique, that the more one says something as fact, the more people who are gullible and lacking in knowledge, will believe it.

We were fortunate to have these two Presidents shape an historical moment fifty years ago, and we need to learn from what they said in their oratory, and pledge ourselves to the transformation of the nation, so that it is indeed a “government of, by, and for the people”, not just the wealthy and privileged elite who have no concern but their own aggrandizement!

January 20: Historic Day Over And Over Again! :)

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Today is January 20, which has been Inauguration Day for the President of the United States every fourth year since 1937, due to the 20th Amendment which was added to the Constitution in 1933 in record time, after the horrors of waiting four months until March 4, 1933, to see the transition between defeated President Herbert Hoover to President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the worst days of the Great Depression.

So every President since then has been inaugurated on January 20, with the exception of Harry Truman in 1945 (upon the death of FDR), Lyndon Johnson in 1963 (upon the death of John F. Kennedy), and Gerald Ford ni 1974 (upon the resignation of Richard Nixon). But Truman and Johnson were later inaugurated for a full term on January 20, with only Gerald Ford never experiencing the pomp and circumstance of Presidential Inauguration Day, as a result of his defeat for a full term of office in the 1976 Presidential Election to Jimmy Carter.

Round numbers tend to carry more weight, somehow, so today it is 50 years since John F. Kennedy took the oath and 30 years since Ronald Reagan uttered the oath.

It is also 30 years since Jimmy Carter left the White House, and 10 years since Bill Clinton left the Oval Office.

Kennedy and Reagan have become the favorite Presidents of the poorly informed general public, based on public opinion polls every year to commemorate President’s Day every February.

But it is worth some consideration to think about the contributions of Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton AFTER they left the White House!

Carter has already had the second longest retirement of any President, and in mid September 2012, he will surpass Herbert Hoover as the longest retired President ever, and since he is seemingly in tip top shape physically and mentally at age 86, it seems likely he will beat the Hoover record.

Often called the best former President in American history, while far from the best President in office, Carter has stirred some outrage and animosity for some of his views and statements in the past thirty years, particularly regarding Israel and the Arabs.

But despite this, he has been engaged in many good deeds, including Habitat for Humanity and promotion of democracy and free and fair monitored elections all over the world through the Carter Center in Atlanta, and he has great acceptance as an outstanding man promoting peace and diplomacy and the fight against poverty and hunger in the world community.

His stature has risen, and he is the author of about ten books, the most prolific author ever, even surpassing Richard Nixon.

Meanwhile, Bill Clinton in ten years time has pursued a similar commitment to peace, diplomacy, and the fighting of hunger and poverty through the Clinton Initiative. He has a great international image and is seen, much like Carter, as a man of wisdom and principle. He has written his memoirs and has given advice to President Obama, and has stood by very proudly as his wife has become an exceptional Secretary of State after being a Senator from New York for eight years.

Both men have their definite faults and shortcomings, as all of us do, but both have gone the extra mile and done the office of the Presidency proud, setting a distinct image and imprint on the potential of a former President to have a major impact even beyond his years in the Oval Office!

So there is a lot to celebrate on January 20 this year!

The Kennedy Presidency Is Finally, Truly, History!

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With the death of Sargent Shriver yesterday, Ted Sorensen in October, and Ted Kennedy a year earlier, the Kennedy Presidency is finally, truly, history!

Shriver died just two days before the 50th anniversary of John F. Kennedy’s inauguration in 1961.

There are no leading figures left from the Kennedy years, and even people who were associated with Kennedy in other ways are just about all part of the past.

As we commemorate the Kennedy years tomorrow, we can all be pleased that the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library in Massachusetts has made all of the Kennedy materials in its library available in digital form online, the first Presidential library to do so.

It was an undertaking of a long period of time, and should become the model for all of the other 12 Presidential libraries, along with the less official Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library in Springfield, Illinois and the Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library in Staunton, Virginia.

For those of us who lived through and remember vividly the Kennedy years, therefore, there is good news in the midst of the final emergence of Kennedy as part of History, not current events!

Sargent Shriver, A Truly Great Man And Magnificent Public Servant, Dies At Age 95!

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Sargent Shriver, the brother in law of President John F. Kennedy, passed away this afternoon at age 95, after years of being a victim of Alzheimers Disease.

Shriver served as the first head of the Peace Corps under President Kennedy; as the leader of the War on Poverty under President Lyndon B. Johnson; as Ambassador to France under President Johnson and President Richard Nixon; and as the Democratic Vice Presidential running mate of Senator George McGovern in the Presidential campaign of 1972.

He was also the father of Maria Shriver, who was a news person on NBC and MSNBC for many years, and the father in law of California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Shriver was well respected and much admired across the country, and he will be much missed, as he was the model of a great public servant. We have suffered a loss that cannot be measured, and he cannot be truly replaced!

President Eisenhower’s Farewell Address Fifty Years Later: Prophetic!

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Fifty years ago today, President Dwight D. Eisenhower had three days left in office.

He proceeded to deliver what is often regarded as the second best Farewell Address, just behind George Washington in 1796.

He also gave the best speech he ever gave in office, without any doubt.

A famous World War II general, his utterances in that speech were particularly prophetic!

Eisenhower warned against the emergence of a “military-industrial complex”, a combination of defense contractors with the military, and he expressed concern that education and health care would suffer budget wise, and that democracy would suffer, as the military and the corporations would promote war and militarism.

What is often not recalled is that Eisenhower promoted cuts in the Pentagon budget, similar to what Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has been advocating during the Obama Administration.

It is also often forgotten that Eisenhower warned against the escalation of the Vietnam war under John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson.

The defense budget cannot be allowed to be sacrosanct as the nation has to consider budget cuts, due to the national debt and the deficit!

Eisenhower was a sage that we should listen to now, a half century after he gave us the best advice possible!

Reflections On The Eve Of Two Anniversaries And The Recent Arizona Tragedy!

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This week marks the birthday and national holiday for the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther, King, Jr., who would have been 82 years old yesterday.

It also is the 50th Anniversary of the inauguration of President John F. Kennedy this coming Thursday.

And sadly, it is just a little more than a week since Jared Lee Loughner opened up fire in Tucson, Arizona, and killed six, wounded nineteen and attempted to assassinate Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords at a Congressional meeting with constituents outside a supermarket.

These three events all are tied together by the connection of gun violence, and by the specter of the plague of mental illness which is so much ignored in this society, as compared to people who have physical illnesses, such as heart disease or cancer.

Besides having reasonable controls on the type of ammunition available, and preventing unstable people from having the right to weapons, we need to recognize that mental illness is a malady which must be addressed, instead of overlooked and ignored until a tragedy occurs.

The need for national health care is ever more important in the midst of this recent tragedy, and the critics of the health care legislation that the Republicans are now trying to repeal must accept that the responsibility of all Americans is to help prevent future tragedies by providing necessary intervention, no matter what the cost in taxes!

The sooner we realize that we all have a responsibility to each other, that this is not just a ME society, but rather a WE society, then we will be able to start healing as a nation with many troubles, trials, and tribulations!

Rhetoric DOES Affect Public Attitudes, And Incites Unstable People: Time For Responsible And Civil Dialogue Before We Have Greater Tragedy Emerge!

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The tragic events of yesterday, leading to the shooting of Arizona Congresswoman Gabriel Giffords; and the slaughter of three senior citizens; a nine year girl born on September 11, 2001; a congressional aide of Giffords; and a federal judge, is a warning sign to everyone that the tone and content of rhetoric DOES have a real effect on all of us, and tends to incite unstable people to violent action!

Therefore, it is essential for everyone to tone down their language and promote responsible and civil dialogue, and it is time to DEMAND that Sarah Palin behave in a civil way when she utters her never ending statements on Facebook and Twitter; that candidates such as Sharron Angle who talk about “Second Amendment remedies” be, like she was, repudiated by the voters as reckless and irresponsible; that a local talk show host (Joyce Kaufman in South Florida) who talks about the use of “bullets, not ballots” be denied the right to use the airwaves to promote her hate and paranoid behavior; that national talk show hosts, including Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck, who care not a whit about building up hatred and resentment as long as they enrich themselves, be denied the right to spew their poison over the airwaves; and that politicians of all persuasions be called to account if they spread hysteria, fear, and division through their rhetoric!

Does anyone have the right to “shout fire in a crowded theater” and claim it is freedom of speech? The Supreme Court, in Schenck V. US in 1919, said NO, and that should apply to people in public office, media people, and all of us, who need to understand that responsible and civil dialogue is essential, or one day, we will have a tragedy of greater magnitude emerge, on the level of the assassination of John F. Kennedy, or a renewed concept of civil war, where everyone suffers because of irresponsible, reckless rhetoric!

Senator Arlen Specter’s Farewell Speech: Condemnation Of Chief Justice John Roberts And Associate Justice Samuel Alito On Judicial Activism, And Of Right Wing Republicans! :(

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Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania is retiring after a distinguished 30 year career, plus having served in local government, and on the staff of the Warren Commission investigating the assassination of President John F. Kennedy almost a half century ago.

Specter, often seen as a difficult man to work with, and possessing a large ego, lost his Senate nomination race to Joe Sestak after switching back to the Democratic Party that he had long ago been a member of, until he converted for a long time to the Republican Party.

Specter was head of the Senate Judiciary Committee during the hearings for the nominations of Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justice Samuel Alito, and today he denounced both Justices for violating their testimony during the hearings, which indicated they believed in precedent (stare decisis), but then proceeding to use judicial activism and violating the separation of powers doctrine, particularly in the Citizens United Case in January of this year, allowing unlimited spending by corporations after nearly a century of strict regulation by Congress of such actions.

So Specter joined the criticism of President Obama, enunciated by the President in his State of the Union Address, which annoyed both Roberts and Alito, with Roberts making a clearcut statement of dissent, amid hints that neither Justice might attend future State of the Union Addresses, which if actually done, would be highly inappropriate.

Specter also condemned right wing Republicans such as Jim DeMint of South Carolina, who worked against moderate Republicans in a number of states, causing the loss of seats for the party.

One thing about Specter–he does not worry what others think of him, and his leaving Congress will make it a less interesting and principled place for sure!

Liberals, Progressives, And The Reality Of American Politics

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Liberals and progressives in large numbers are denouncing the agreement reached between President Obama and Congressional Republicans on the issue of the so called Bush tax cuts being continued for another two years.

The author is not happy with this agreement, which will raise the national debt by nearly a trillion dollars, take money away from the Social Security reserves by the fact of a lower collection of Social Security taxes, and allow the further stratification of America by making the rich richer, the poor poorer, and the middle class further exploited! 🙁

However, the restoration of the estate tax, the continuation of unemployment compensation for the millions out of work in the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, the retaining of other tax credits for the poor, and the two year limit on the extension of tax cuts, are all good points in an unpleasant but realistic compromise for the moment, so that taxes do not go up for everyone on January 1!

Barack Obama made clear yesterday at his news conference that he felt the GOP were “hostage takers”, but that the American people would be further victimized by the GOP, which he said only cares about the super rich, if he did not make a temporary deal!

Obama made clear that the battle over taxes was just delayed, not resolved, and that he would make it an issue in the 2012 campaign. So although he may be seen by many as “caving in” and “surrendering”, his contention is that the fight will be brought to the GOP in the next election, and it sounded as if he was prepared to be Harry Truman a la 1948, and “give them hell”!

Certainly, his rhetoric was aggressive and confrontational regarding the GOP. But it was also critical of the “purist” progressives and “pie in the sky idealists” who are criticizing his strategy!

Obama pointed out that he has either accomplished what his goals were, or has made progress on those that are not achievable in the short term. He is looking to the long term, and he feels that he has kept the promise of his campaign to bring change, or start to bring change in many areas where the politics make it impossible for now to accomplish success!

Obama said compromise is unavoidable in American politics, and that playing politics alone would not bring about desired results. We would not be the nation we are if not for compromise, Obama asserted. In that, he is absolutely right!

And when one looks at the history of the Democratic Party and the progressive and liberal crusade for a better America, one unfortunately MUST realize that this nation is fundamentally a conservative nation slow to react to the need for change! 🙁

Progressives, liberals, and the Democratic Party have accomplished great things since the 1930s, but the resistance and opposition to these changes has been fierce, and therefore, progress has been incremental, often delayed and often frustratingly slow! 🙁

But one thing is absolutely clear: When Democrats, progressives and liberals fight and divide amongst themselves, the right wingers of this country triumph! 🙁

When discontent leads to a decision to work against a Democratic President because everything is not ideal and perfect, the Republican Party wins! 🙁

It happened in 1980, when liberal opposition to President Jimmy Carter, as exemplified by Ted Kennedy and Jerry Brown, helped to lead to Ronald Reagan in the White House!

It happened in 1968 when liberal opposition to Lyndon Johnson and Hubert Humphrey led to Richard Nixon in the White House!

It led to Al Gore losing Florida in 2000 when Ralph Nader, a true “pie in the sky idealist” took enough votes away to throw the state to George W. Bush!

So do we want Barack Obama to be damaged and cause his loss for 2012 and get a far less desirable Republican in the White House? 🙁

Certainly, a second term of Obama will bring more chance of change and reform than if a Republican is elected!

If nothing else, the Supreme Court and lower federal court judge appointments will be a lasting legacy, which would be better under the control of Obama than a Republican President from 2013-2017!

So the reality of American politics is that compromise is often essential, as only TWICE has a Democratic President had enough of a margin of his party to be able to accomplish most of his goals: Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1930s and Lyndon B. Johnson in the 1960s!

Harry Truman, John F. Kennedy, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, and now Barack Obama have had to work within the framework of a strong opposition blockading a lot of change!

This is the sad truth and reality of American politics, and progressives and liberals NEED to recognize this and work with President Obama and give the Republican Party “hell” over the next two years and in the Presidential Election of 2012!