John F. Kennedy inspired with his words.
He disappointed with his deeds.
The American left puts a gauzy halo on the memory of JFK. Today's guest post author Herb Rothschild takes off the halo.
Herb Rothschild worked as a civil rights activist in the deep south in the 1960s and 1970s and as a peace activist throughout his adult life. Rothschild sent this guest post because two of my recent blog posts began with quotations from Kennedy's inauguration speech. I cited Kennedy's words because I was making a point about the verdict of history as it relates to Trump's effort to overthrow the 2020 election. I wrote that history will judge harshly the Republicans who actively or passively enable Trump. Think of history, Kennedy wrote. Liz Cheney also cited history.
Rothschild refreshes our memory of Kennedy's legacy of action and inaction on civil rights. Rothschild finds it disappointing. It doesn't live up to his words or to the unexamined halo that surrounds Kennedy's memory.
Rothschild has a B.A. from Yale, a Ph.D. from Harvard. He taught English Literature at Louisiana State University. He is the author of The Bad Old Days, a memoir of his years as a civl rights activist in Louisiana. He lives in Talent, Oregon.
Guest Post by Herb Rothschild
Every black household I visited in Louisiana during the late 60s and the 70s had two pictures on the living room wall, one of MLK, one of JFK. These weren’t the homes of professionals but of ordinary--meaning fairly poor--folks with whom my work for civil rights and civil liberties brought me into contact. I consider them representative of black folks, at least in the South.
What I knew but never mentioned to my hosts was that the only reason JFK was side-by-side with MLK was that MLK had dragged him into the Civil Rights movement. He and Robert, his attorney general, for more than two years regarded the insistence that the U.S. live up to its best self as a problem to manage, not an opportunity for moral leadership.
Despite having pledged during his campaign to end racial discrimination in public housing with “a stroke of the pen,” President Kennedy only signed Executive Order 11063, Equal Opportunity in Housing, on November 20, 1962 after tremendous pressure from black leaders. Similarly, he and Robert very reluctantly acted to protect the Freedom Riders, beaten and threatened with death, in the late spring and summer of 1961. Finally, on June 11, 1963, JFK delivered a nationally televised speech calling for a federal civil rights bill. That speech is what blacks remembered. They didn’t know that he tried to dissuade lack leaders from staging the March on Washington ten weeks later, or that on October 10 Robert--doubtless with John’s knowledge--authorized J. Edgar Hoover to wiretap MLK.
Peter began his Up Close blog last Sunday by recalling how thrilled he was when, at age 11, he listened to JFK’s inaugural speech. He added, “I remain moved by words that connect community and country to some greater purpose.” I hadn’t voted for Kennedy in 1960, which was the first time I could vote. Still, I too was stirred by that speech.
Amazon Revisiting it later, and in light of JFK’s abysmal performance on civil rights, I wondered to what greater purpose he had called us if justice wasn’t it. I was called by the extraordinary bravery of Southern blacks and whites like Andrew Goodman, Michael Schwerner and Viola Liuzzo who died standing with them. The historical record suggests that, as President, JFK never felt called to anything except screwing woman after woman whom Secret Service agents smuggled into the White House.
Bill Clinton’s political career might be dated from July 24, 1963, when the 16-year-old highschooler shook hands with JFK in the Rose Garden. Clinton lived down to his role model by having no greater purpose than his own career and screwing around. But to their credit, in a culture that prizes appearance over substance they both projected considerable charisma.
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12 comments:
Well, this essay is a LITTLE harsh but I must say that I am very glad that the 30-year era -- when JFK was quoted and quoted endlessly by everyone on every occasion, as the martyred President's every word were a sacred text on every topic -- finally ended. But it is hard to know who was the greater hypocrite, JFK or RFK...the latter such a fan (not to say enabler) of Joseph McCarthy. Took me a long time, and a lot of reading, to arrive at my current cynicism about those two lovely brothers, but it's now permanent.
As a teenager I was clueless to Kennedy's personal peccadilloes, but the Clinton revelations were a bitter disappointment. That behavior seemed to me to be so self destructive and sabotaged the fledgling Progressive agenda. It certainly contributed to Al Gore's loss, and the subsequent national trauma that followed. It also can be argued that it haunts HRC and tainted her campaign.
Much can be said about all this, marriage fidelity and such, but in general it seems we hold our leaders to a higher standard, regardless of their ability to reach it. In some cases it overshadows their otherwise achievements.
I'll definitely agree with one thing, racism in this country is persistent and could well be its undoing.
Preventing WW3 has to count for something.
Many people may not realize how close we were under Kennedy to getting into a nuclear conflagration, or how instrumental he was in bogging us down in the Vietnam fiasco.
On the other hand, he wasn’t afraid to do what he asked of us. He served on a P.T. boat during WWII, a high-risk assignment. He had class, was articulate, and more committed to the nation than even to his own life. In other words, he was the antithesis of what now passes for a politician.
We are totally justified in demanding from our leaders that they live up to the standards they demand that welive up to. No fancy dinners without masks at the French Laundry for Gavin Newsom when he demands we shut everything down and wear masks, for one blatant example. No sending your kids to fancy private schools while you demand that the rest of us send our children to mediocre public schools. No private jets to Davos while you decry the CO2 emissions of the air travel of the common people.
No hypocrisy.
Even the politicians we hold in the highest esteem are often seriously flawed hypocrites. For example, almost half the framers of the Constitution owned slaves. Some claim they shouldn’t be held to the same standards we hold today. Nonsense. People of conscience were as aware then as we are now that slavery and racism are brutal and inhumane. Nonetheless, they are remembered more for the liberal principles they espoused, mainly because those principles caught on and were eventually expanded to all. Hopefully, the ideals Kennedy espoused will also eventually come back in favor.
“George Washington wrote in 1786 about slavery that “there is not a man living who wishes more sincerely than I do, to see a plan adopted for the abolition of it; but there is only one proper and effectual mode by which it can be accomplished, and that is by Legislative authority.” Washington, though, never took a public stand on the abolition of slavery. He described his ownership of slaves as “the only unavoidable subject of regret.” When Washington died, he made an important statement to the nation and freed the slaves he owned in his will, the only Founding Father to do so.”
—link—
Our Founding Fathers were political geniuses who created the great country we are fortunate to inhabit. They deserve our respect and gratitude.
We do ourselves and our country a disservice when we aim facile criticism at them and trivialize the difficult and complex situations they found themselves in. They, after all, did have the benefit of the 250 years of political and philosophical evolution that we have inherited.
Mike Pence shows moral integrity in his personal life. As such, I still don't want that man, who I feel betrayed his oath in spirit, anywheres near high political.office.
Typo correction:
They, after all, did not have the benefit of the 250 years of political and philosophical evolution that we have inherited.
A small clarification:
We do ourselves and our country a disservice when we trivialize the horrors of slavery and Jim Crow by condoning it for our forefathers and pretending its evil spawn - racism - is no longer a problem.
We do ourselves and our fellow commenters a disservice when we put words into the mouths of other people.
Thank you very much Mr Rothschild your piece cuts to the Bone, just the way I like it! I would also like say that I enjoyed your article in the newly founded "Ashland news", titled "Relocations: I don’t think I can keep my footing". These are very frightening prospects that these Techno-Franken-scienists are imposing upon the world. I have to say, Yuval Harari is one sick evil bastard. You do not mention him in your article but he is right out there proposing just these ideas. He may be Israeli, but he is certainly no practicing Jew. I doubt I will ever see him wearing a kippa.
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