President's Day

Seeing that today is President's Day, and due to a recommendation from my friend Scott, I decided to take a look at JFK's inaugural address.  The climate in which JFK took office is not unlike our own.  The world was a tumultuous place in 1961; arguably it was one of the most dangerous periods in American history.  I will venture to say that it was more dangerous than it is now.

Khrushchev famously slamming his shoe on the podium at the UN

The Soviet Union was at the height of it's power; Nikita Khrushchev scared the crap out of Americans.  The Civil Rights movement was just taking shape. Nuclear fear gripped America from "duck and cover" to the construction of fallout shelters nationwide.

Bert the Turtle: "Duck and Cover"

In the mire of fear surrounding the decade, a young Senator from Massachusetts was elected to the highest office in the country.  His first words to our nation were not of fear; they were words of hope and came with a promise: a restoration of American values.

"The world is very different now. For man holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish all forms of human poverty and all forms of human life. And yet the same revolutionary beliefs for which our forebears fought are still at issue around the globe—the belief that the rights of man come not from the generosity of the state, but from the hand of God.

We dare not forget today that we are the heirs of that first revolution. Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans—born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage—and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this Nation has always been committed, and to which we are committed today at home and around the world."

Today, we still hold the power to help all men, and we still have the power to wipe all life from the face of our planet.  We know our rights come from our existence, but many amongst us have bought into the fear of the modern world. People have sacrificed our rights for the government's "security". 

Now, there is a new generation coming of age; we are the heirs of bad policy, spiraling debt, a forgotten constitution, and a crumbling empire. We have been tempered by 11 years of war.  We have been disciplined by the hard and bitter peace of the 90's. We are more proud than ever of our heritage because our government has forgotten it. We want the torch to be passed to us, and with it we will reignite the dwindling fire of liberty, not only in the American spirit, but in the whole world.

"In your hands, my fellow citizens, more than in mine, will rest the final success or failure of our course. Since this country was founded, each generation of Americans has been summoned to give testimony to its national loyalty. The graves of young Americans who answered the call to service surround the globe.

Now the trumpet summons us again—not as a call to bear arms, though arms we need; not as a call to battle, though embattled we are—but a call to bear the burden of a long twilight struggle, year in and year out, "rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation"—a struggle against the common enemies of man: tyranny, poverty, disease, and war itself.

Can we forge against these enemies a grand and global alliance, North and South, East and West, that can assure a more fruitful life for all mankind? Will you join in that historic effort?

In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shrink from this responsibility—I welcome it. I do not believe that any of us would exchange places with any other people or any other generation. The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavor will light our country and all who serve it—and the glow from that fire can truly light the world.

And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country.

My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man."

It is the last two sentences that are most forgotten today. Americans expect the government to be the creator of jobs, the guarantor of economic survival, and the defender of liberty. The governments track record in all of those endeavors is, quite frankly, terrible.

Citizens have come to expect their existence to originate from their government, and the government has come to expect itself to do the same. Most people know that second-to-last sentence: "ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country".  Yet few believe it.

Even fewer know the last line: "ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man." Many states in the world have come to expect America to be there for them, to protect them with our hot lead umbrella. They have intentionally allowed their own defenses to be weakened to the point that now, should a conflict arise, they are hopelessly unprepared. They join with us, not because they wish for the freedom of man, but because we have subsidized their right to exist.

Americans, today, we need another John F. Kennedy.  We need a President who is fearless, but not reckless.  Who is impatient, but not permissive. A president who leads from the front with support from all walks of life. Most importantly we need a President who truly believes in the value of the individual, because from the individual will stem all successes and failures of our species.