Don't let it be forgot, that once there was a spot, for one brief
shining moment that was known as Camelot.

JFK and Jackie: 50 Years Later

I am proud to say I voted for John Fitzgerald Kennedy for President of the United States. To me he represented a needed break from the past. Oh, the Roosevelts, the Trumans, the Stevensons and the Eisenhowers were OK, but they were all part of a different era, one that had no future for me. Kennedy, in contrast, was young, a bit brash, and definitely someone with vision. He was probably the last president who had an appreciation for that “vision thing,” an annoyance that was later to dash the second term aspirations of George H.W. Bush. His beautiful wife, Jackie, added a touch of glamour and class that surrounded this Massachusetts bred man and elevated his standing to a place he probably did not deserve—but oh what a sight they were up there on that pedestal. She was the personification of the American Ideal. Although they were on an entirely different social scale, I identified with them completely–body, mind, and soul.

Yes, I was caught up in the times that they defined. He epitomized youth, and daring, and adventure. Jackie was gracious, elegant, sophisticated. Not coincidentally, I was also young, and daring, and adventurous although without their style, or money, or connections. Still, I had come of age, and I was determined to carve something out of this thing called life, or die trying. I also had failed at everything in life up to that point. It’s not as if I had a résumé to run on, or a coterie of friends in high places. No, I was just eager to make some kind of breakthrough in my life. I nominated and elected JFK as my mentor from afar.

His days were brief. By November 1963 he had put the Bay of Pigs behind us, he had launched the beginning of the space age, and he had stared down Nikita Khrushchev during those few weeks in October 1962 known as the Cuban Missile Crisis. I had played a small role in each of those activities and engagements. But I knew there was more to come. He had already decided to send some aid to Vietnam.

Like many Americans I remember exactly where I was when the news of his assassination was announced. A month later I stopped in Washington D.C. and visited Arlington National Cemetery. His new gravesite was a trampled muddy mess, with boards laying on top of the mud where tens of thousands of visitors had sloshed through the muck and mire. The eternal flame was burning, but the day was dreary.

I arrived in Florida and for duty at MacDill Air Force Base. Kennedy had visited Tampa just a few weeks earlier. There was some talk of renaming the main boulevard through town to Kennedy Boulevard. They did, and it retains that name today,

Many historians and others have guessed about what Kennedy’s actions might have been in Vietnam. I have little to offer to that conversation except for this: In my experience those who have tasted war, and who have felt the sting of battle and the smell of death, are among the first to renounce war, and they will go farther and stay longer to avoid conflict. It is unlikely that he would ever have taken us down that long weary trek that others, less seasoned and less tried, saw fit to follow.

He ushered in the era of civil and human rights in America with backing from the government. He expressed his sentiments to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in a letter in which he wrote about rights, justice, inequality, and the moral and political shame and disgrace to the nation because of racial bigotry. His words marked the major turning point for the nation on civil rights. Today those rights are being diminished by harsh voting registration requirements, by an unjust inequality that hits blacks hardest, by artificial barriers to education and by a lack of opportunities in the workplace. Members of his family continue to carry on work in all these areas.

I believe he would also be disappointed with the dull plateau our space program has come to rest upon. I don’t know if space is the “final frontier,” but it is certainly a frontier, and a term that he found suitable to his pursuits. The rewards from our space ventures have far exceeded the costs, and they have given us a new sense of purpose and pride, Say what you will about any of the Kennedys, but don’t say they did not, and do not, have a zest for life, and exploration, and for pushing horizons farther and farther away. Space was meant for the adventurous, and science, and the curious. Yes, he would have pushed this envelope hard.

He made public service in the Peace Corps a thing of national pride, and it remains so today. Now the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts is appropriately an institution to the good that we can do. Year in and year out it has been a place of purpose and dignity for those in the performing arts, and for those of us who love the performing arts. I’m certain that it reflects the instincts and good tastes of Jackie. Long may it stand in tribute to her and to the arts.

If John Kennedy had lived out his normally allotted years, his voice would have been heard and sought out for perhaps until the year 2000 when he would have become 83 years of age. Would he have relished the dismal state of politics in America? I think not. More likely than not, he would have become a major voice against poverty, and inequality, and in favor of universal health care for all. Although he came from a family of substantial wealth, it always appeared to this observer that wealth to Kennedy was a convenience to an end, and no more. He did not appear to have an inordinate interest in it at the personal level. He may well have become a philanthropist.

Jackie Kennedy’s honor and fortitude, both at her husband’s death and at the prospect of her own, are themselves a profile in courage. She died with dignity after refusing treatment for the cancer that invaded her body. With respect for all who preceded her, and all who will follow, she remains in my mind, heart, and soul that shining star among them all.

The Kennedy gravesite memorial is the most visited gravesite in America. It is as peaceful and as reverential as any place you are likely to visit. I recommend it. I also recommend watching this brief video of two stunning individuals, husband and wife, President and First Lady. They graced our times with style and class, and we are all a little better because of them. As Jackie reminded us "There'll be great Presidents again, but there'll never be another Camelot again … "


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxR6RkprnM4