( – promoted by buhdydharma )
This diary carries a message or two but is also a tribute. It is not hero worship. I am well aware of JFK’s flaws and weaknesses as a human being – you needn’t remind me. But John F. Kennedy was also a gifted orator who inspired and uplifted us with the poetry in his soul and the power in his words – and certain of his words resonate now more than ever.
And the story of John F. Kennedy, in certain respects at least, serves as an object lesson for our times. John Kennedy was an agent for change. He saw a revolution coming and he wished to prepare the way for what he saw as inevitable.
This revolution has been coming a long time. Kennedy saw it coming in the early sixties. That’s how long the knuckle-draggers and greedheads have stalled it. But, as Kennedy said, this revolution was then, as it remains now, inevitable.
Our best hope is to affect its character as Kennedy suggested, to make it a peaceful renaissance of a revolution. Only in this way can it be a good thing. Only in this way can we go forward in confidence and hope. But whatever shape it is allowed to take, I believe it is certain that it is coming.
There’s something implacable, earnest, and righteously angry in the air. And it raises all kinds of questions for burned-out Boomers and jaded Gen Xers who’ve been ground down to the stump by the mostly losing battles of the past 30 years. Can it be — at long last — that Americans have, simply, had enough? Are we, finally, stepping out to take back our government — and with it, control of our own future? Is this simply a shifting political season — the kind we get every 20 to 30 years — or is there something deeper going on here? Do we dare to raise our hopes that this time, we’re going to finally win a few? Just how ready is this country for big, serious, forward-looking change?
“Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.”
John F. Kennedy
“If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.”
John F. Kennedy
“Our problems are man-made, therefore they may be solved by man. And man can be as big as he wants. No problem of human destiny is beyond human beings.”
John F. Kennedy
“Our progress as a nation can be no swifter than our progress in education. The human mind is our fundamental resource.”
John F. Kennedy
“Peace is a daily, a weekly, a monthly process, gradually changing opinions, slowly eroding old barriers, quietly building new structures.”
John F. Kennedy
“The basic problems facing the world today are not susceptible to a military solution.”
John F. Kennedy
“The best road to progress is freedom’s road.”
John F. Kennedy
The following video is my own.
I Pray For Revolution
“The cost of freedom is always high, but Americans have always paid it. And one path we shall never choose, and that is the path of surrender, or submission.”
John F. Kennedy
“The very word ‘secrecy’ is repugnant in a free and open society; and we are as a people inherently and historically opposed to secret societies, to secret oaths, and to secret proceedings.”
John F. Kennedy
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.”
John F. Kennedy
“Tolerance implies no lack of commitment to one’s own beliefs. Rather it condemns the oppression or persecution of others.”
John F. Kennedy
“Too often we… enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought.”
John F. Kennedy
“War will exist until that distant day when the conscientious objector enjoys the same reputation and prestige that the warrior does today.”
John F. Kennedy
The remaining two videos in this diary are YouTube finds that I felt complimented the subject – each in their own way.
The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
The Beatles’ Revolution Will Continue – Call Now!
“We have the power to make this the best generation of mankind in the history of the world or to make it the last.”
John F. Kennedy
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I can relate to. This is stronger then the grip the political fictions hoisted on us, the people, from all sides of the spectrum. The response in the air seems to be enough is enough. Taking back this country from these ‘evil doers’ is already becoming a possibility. One that should enlist us all.
but first I have to finish with the tears that came with the awareness of how far backwards we have gone from the wisdom of JFK to the idiocy of GWB. Then I’ll be ready to get on with the revolution!!!
It gave me chills. 🙂
The revolution that commenced upon JFK’s demise was a cultural revolution, the cultural revolution which brought us the partial liberation of nonwhites and women and an end to the war against Vietnam. It culminated at the beginning of the 1970s, in the heyday of the capitalist system.
Our revolution will have to get us off of the capitalist plan, before abrupt climate change wipes our planet out.
that we were supposed to change things for the better instead of search for treasure.
We are the people that will have to give up the treasure hunt to reclaim the soul of this country. I’m willing. Are you?
Thanks again OPOL.
reminded me of Elizabeth I of England and her Renaissance.
Any history buffs reading this may (and I hope will) correct whatever errors I make; but as I understand it, after Henry VIII and Mary Tudor, the English coffers were empty. Elizabeth inherited a near-bankrupt kingdom with real enemies around her–not phony Saddam enemies. Internally, she had the Catholic vs. Protestant problem; Spain, France, and Scotland (ruled by Mary Stuart–who considered herself an, if not the, heir to the English throne) were all Catholic; and the English bishops were also enemies.
So: her reign began with little money and surrounded by those who wished her dead or in the Tower of London. And yet, by carefully not entering any wars of choice and placating both sides (insofar as possible) and extending a firm grip on power (when needed; from what I’ve read of her, she preferred consensus to iron-glove tactics), she managed to keep the kingdom mostly at peace, left its coffers significantly fattened, and nurtured the greatest culture flowering England has ever seen. (Shakespeare, anyone?)
Granted, there were underhanded episodes as well. (She was a Tudor, for pete’s sake!)
Nevertheless, she had a collection of traits that, together, made her one of the best “kings” England has ever had.
What I hope to see, and what I suspect that you, OPOL, also hope to see, is for an American President to embody the best of those traits–within the American civic framework of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights–and lead us to that “peaceful renaissance of a revolution.”
P.S.: It wouldn’t hurt if they restored habeas corpus, either. By the time Elizabeth Tudor ascended the throne in November 1558, it had been the rule of law at least since the Magna Carta was signed in 1215.
Correct me if I recall incorrectly, but wasn’t that song written by John, who was at the time being hassled by Maoists?
All of those sectarian “Communists” are a depressing bunch, with their obsession with ideology and their disdain for what Gramsci called “organic intellectuals.”
As for happier revolution songs, what about:
“Revolution” by The Pretenders, off of the “Last of the Independents” album
“The Revolution Will Not Be Televised,” by Gil Scott-Heron, originally off of the “Pieces of a Man” album but also in many, many other places
& I think John did a pro-revolution song somewhere on the “Sometime in New York City” album… help me out, Docudharmistas…
http://www.nwotruth.com/the-be…
JFK was amazing and visionary — MLK the same. Of course, it seems that their visions were doomed to be silenced.
By the same “silencers” of today?
A revolution should be coming!
Thank you.
chanted the Burmese monks, the Buddha’s words on loving kindness, as they peacefully called for democratic reform, the release of political prisoners and a reduction in commodity prices, this past September.
Mother Theresa is quoted saying…
As well as all of your JFK quotes up top, OPOL, are very inspirational. I can only hope that the rest of the world knows that we, the citizens of this country actually want peace. This administration has successfully ignited way too many fires under already dubious situations all across the globe. Perhaps our message isn’t obvious. It seems to me the whole world is aflame right now, this being the beginning of the oil wars. Peace has to be the united message.
melancholy… a much loved aunt passed away, there are so few of the older gen left, and there used to be so many. she was one of the good ones. a life-long Catholic Democrat, circa JFK. growing up, i thought all Catholics were Democrats and vice versa. they did teach us pretty well you know, in their fashion.
thanks, OPOL.
Wonderful diary!
I just wanted to say that your work adds such a needed energy, you can feel it and I think it’s crucial.
Thankyou my friend and let’s hope for a peaceful revolution.
JFK did one hell of a job of motivating a whole generation in his brief time in the limelight. True, the cultural revolution that started in the 60s has been stalled, I will admit that, but it has been stalled only in terms of the general population. It seems to me that many of the folk that I find here at DD, are people that never let the dream die, never quit trying to take the next step.
From my perspective, it is almost as if the last 30-35 years have been a gestation period for the planetary consciousness, in it’s fetal growth stage into a life form that can truly, peacefully coexist in it’s entirety. Something on the line of Clarke’s book and movie “2001”.
As more people’s personal r/evolution bring them to a point of awareness where the greed, the aggression, the absolute small mindedness, which are epitomized by the cheney/bush maladministration) are seen to be a non-survival trait, a tipping point will be reached, a catharsis will be experienced, and the birth that many of us have been waiting for, and praying for, will occur.
Birth is a painful process, as any mother will tell you. And it is equally hard on the child. But I do believe that what is coming to us is going to be beyond our wildest imagination. And talk about a peaceful renaissance? After a very painful birth, it is going to be such a beautiful, loving, flowering of consciousness so as to make us all whole again. A real pro-peace experience.