Thought For The Day – Wednesday 22nd November 2023
J.F.K. 60
“But why, some say, the moon? Why choose this as our goal? And they may well ask why climb the highest mountain? Why, 35 years ago, fly the Atlantic? Why does Rice play Texas? We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.” (President John F. Kennedy, Addreess at Rice University, 12th September 1962).
“So, let us not be blind to our differences–but let us also direct attention to our common interests and to the means by which those differences can be resolved. And if we cannot end now our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity. For, in the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children’s future. And we are all mortal.” (President John F. Kennedy, Commencement Address at American University Washington, D.C., June 10th, 1963)
On this date, sixty years ago, President John F. Kennedy was killed.
His wife, Jackie Kennedy Onassis, was by his side.
In his 1,036 days in office, as the 35th President of the United States of America, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, led, and, was an iconic beacon of, a new dawn of equality, diversity, freedom and inclusion.
In the autumn of 1962, with his brother, Bobby, demonstrating both firm and principled moral leadership and thoughtful deliberation and diplomacy, “J.F.K.” played a vital role in averting possible nuclear war in “The Cuban Missile Crisis”. This is dramatized in the film “13 Days”.
At home, with the wonderful leader Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King articulating his dream in the summer of 1963, J.F.K. paved the way for truly ground-breaking civil rights and equality legislation.
The torch would be passed to a new generation.
Three years ago, “The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum”, which continues to reflect on and study President Kennedy’s legacy, gave the following message:
“President Kennedy’s call for public service, courage, innovation, and inclusion inspired a generation…This legacy continues to provide inspiration to us in the 21st century.”
