Stoneage Ramblings

By John R. Stone

One of the first elections I really paid attention to was that of 1960 where former Vice-President Richard Nixon, a Republican who had served eight years under President Dwight Eisenhower was seeking the presidency and was being challenged by a Democratic senator, John F. Kennedy.

Both men were in their 40s but Kennedy was the younger of the two. Both were Navy veterans from WWII although Kennedy was more directly involved in combat. His action when his PT boat was sunk and he needed to rescue is crew is kind of a heroes tale. In fairness to Nixon, he requested more than once to get closer to the action and was recognized for his work in coordinating supply aircraft in the Pacific theatre of operations.

At the time, and it probably seems silly now, there was concern about Kennedy being a Roman Catholic and his potentially being under the thumb of the Pope in Rome.

Kennedy went on to win a close election and there were allegations that Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, a strong Democrat, had somehow juggled the Chicago vote around to win Illinois.

While the two were only three or four years apart in age, Kennedy came across as the younger and more vigorous. While both could be good speakers, Kennedy came across as more exciting to hear speak.

His inaugural address may have surprised people because it called for bipartisan study of problems development of solutions.

“Let both sides explore what problems unite us instead of belaboring those problems that divide us.

“Let both sides, for the first time, formulate serious and precise proposals for the inspection and control of arms – and bring the absolute power to destroy other nations under absolute control of all nations.

“Let us seek the wonders of science instead of its terrors. Together let us explore the stars, conquer the desserts, eradicate disease, tap the ocean depths and encourage the arts and commerce.

“Let both sides unite to heed in all corners of the earth the command of Isaiah to “undo the heavy burdens – and to let the oppressed go free.”

And later on came the line that many of us remember which might be one of Kennedy’s most famous statements: “And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.”

A few weeks later he established, by executive order, the Peace Corps. And literally thousands of young Americans and older people as well joined up and went off around the world to help others improve their lives. There were Peace Corps volunteers in five nations before the end of the year and over the years Peace Corps volunteers served in over 140 countries.

Now it takes a pretty good speaker to get people fired up to do something and Kennedy had the ability to get people moving.

Of course later we discovered that his personal life wasn’t all as neat and clean as most of us would have preferred. And his life was cut short by an assassin’s bullet in the third year of his term so he didn’t get to see what he started mature.

We’ve written in this space before that it would be nice to have an election with a couple of younger candidates representing our two major political parties. Someone with Kennedy’s youth, magnetism, enthusiasm and ability to spur Americans into doing good things would really stand out this year.

Maybe I’m a dreamer, but I think there are people out there who could nudge us into being better citizens, make our nation better and do more to bring world peace. We just have to get them to run for office, a tough ask in today’s political climate.