Kennedy Memories

In forming an opinion about JFK, much of my awareness is governed by mediated perceptions after his death. My parents never mentioned what a President is until he was gone. A toddler, I saw a man crying on television, he was saying that the President had been shot. I went to get my mother. I remember that I was still afraid of the cold air return vent in the hall, so I got down on hands and knees and went across it from the living room to the kitchen to get my mom. Even though I was just walking at the time, I remember the mourning like it was yesterday. No one around me was untouched by the tragedy and grief of loss. I have learned over my lifetime that as I was born, the Cuban Missile Crisis unfolded, terrorizing my mom and dosing her fetus with cataclysm-response hormones. Flight is ruled out during birth and in one's layette, so the fight response is required, but you are with only yourself, so who to fight? Yes, one self. Fight your fears, sense of loss, separation and anxiety. Fight it all, on terrain within one self. Existential I will admit, but real and true for anyone who has done it. One's opinion may differ, but the media heraldry has skewed our perception of Kennedy's Presidency toward the mythic.

Presidential scholars may rate him near the middle of the pack when it comes to performance, but except in rare cases, the values JFK stood for took a severe hit on the day of his passing. Youth and optimism did not re-enter politics until two generations later. The social justice movement that seemed alive and growing in the early to mid sixties calcified and ran aground, stagnating until it was subverted by the end of the welfare state. Only recently have we turned our faces again to the light. In terms of infusing a nation with a sense of mission to their fellow inhabitants of Starship Earth, no one stands out in modern history until Obama.

We all stand to gain when we build on a common moral ground. As much as some relished John F. Kennedy's death, they were the same sorts of folks who seek to gain from outdated competitive models. In relishing one another, and our innate capacities, giving from a place of plenty, capital loses it's importance. What more effective nail in Capitalism's coffin, than peace, love and understanding. The good old boys club is alive and well, don't fool yourself. Vigilante justice is just what the doctor ordered for political obfuscation. The Us/Them divide is surely smaller than the television reports. Our troubles are not caused by people flooding across our borders, or "drugs" that grow naturally and have the power to heal. We blame convicted pedophiles for actions that they may not take, but ignore the vast majority of child molestations, ignore where our food comes from but get angry when food borne disease breaks out. While pointing the finger at everyone else, we can easily neglect ourselves. This is what Kennedy excelled at, reminding our citizens that through cooperation and sharing a sense of purpose, we could create miracles.

I wish that we could point out the fallacy of lack to all those who claim that "nature's way" is competition for scarce resources. My own experience has taught me the exact opposite. Where nature thrives, a profusion of life breaks out like you can't imagine. Literally billions of organisms can reside in a cup of soil. Sharing is the rule rather than the exception in these systems. Successful human endeavors often reflect this co-operative spirit rather than a competitive one. Miracle can happen and often do, but what is required is for folks to again realize that we are inextricably dependent on one another and our success. We are all responsible for the cohesion of natural systems. We are most richly rewarded for being stewards of the planet, which can allow it to support each and every one of us.

Make Miracles Happen!