JFK
Think back for a moment about the United States presidents that were in office during your lifetime. Count how many there were. How many do you think rose above the level of being a politician to be an inspirational world leader? How many US presidents influenced your life and the lives of millions of people in the US for the better? How many of those US presidents catered to the needs of the loudest and wealthiest people who could buy their influence? How many of those US presidents accomplished what Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Abraham Lincoln, or George Washington, did during their administrations?
I was born in 1955 when Dwight D. Eisenhower was the president of the United States of America. In January 2025 I began living through the second administration of Donald J. Trump. If I’m counting correctly there have been thirteen presidents of the United States of America during my lifetime.
I was a toddler when Eisenhower was President of the US. I was too young to understand what a president was or what he did. The first US president that I was truly aware of was John Fitzgerald Kennedy. I remember riding home from kindergarten on the school bus in Mill Valley, California, where one half of the kids on the bus were chanting “Kennedy! Kennedy! He’s our man! Nixon belongs in the garbage can!” The other half of the bus claimed that Kennedy belonged in the garbage can.
During my lifetime I witnessed President Kennedy’s assassination, the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the awakening of the environmental movement with the first Earth Day of 22 April, 1970, the rise of the modern conservative movement where government was identified as the villain and no longer the savior, the bombing of the World Trade Center in New York on 11 September, 2001, and the siege of the US Capitol on 6 January, 2021 by allies of a president who was unable to accept his losing an election in November 2021.
In his inaugural address upon becoming president in January 1960 President Kennedy challenged us as individual United States citizens to, “Ask not what your country can do for you–ask what you can do for your country.” Some of those United States citizens would hear those words and accepted that challenge in many different ways. Some decided to become US Peace Corps volunteers in third world nations needing assistance with agriculture, education, and socioeconomic development. Other people who heard Kennedy’s words took different paths, such as Craig Breedlove did in building the rocket car “Spirit of America,” which established a world land speed record reaching 600 mph on 15 November, 1965 at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah. Still other young men who heard Kennedy’s words served in the US armed forces to fight in a faraway land called Vietnam to prevent the spread of communism in Asia.
During his successful campaign for US president in November 2024, former President Donald J. Trump told the United States that, “Only I can solve the problems that our country faces today.” What he said in January of 2017 was that his main goal was “America First” above all our other priorities. Such a phrase wasn’t the first time those exact words have been heard. It was the mantra heard prior to Japan’s bombing of Pearl Harbor in Hawaii on 7 December, 1941. That tragic event on an island few people in the US had ever heard of changed US foreign policy forever. In the course of human history such a statement as, “Only I can solve your problems,” was the mantra of French Kings prior to the war in 1776 that created this country. The statement, “L’etat c’est moi,” by French kings means the state is me or mine. It is essentially the same words spoken by current dictators today from Turkey, Africa, Central America, Asia, and the Middle East.
In an age when the US population has multiplied many times since 1776, 1960, and 1941, it seems that a president saying, “Only I can solve your problems,” would require a human being with extra human powers possibly given directly by God himself. And, of course, some people believe that President Trump is indeed God’s chosen one. This belief seems to ignore Trump’s multiple divorces and affairs, Trump’s conviction in New York State of 37 felonies, and Trump being told by numerous former high officials in his previous administration that he is unfit for office. One might justify this by Trump’s miraculous escape of an assassin’s bullet prior to the 2024 Republican National Convention.
I certainly don’t intend to question what someone else seems to believe is a message from God if they sincerely believe Donald Trump’s election to president of the US was divinely inspired.
What I do question is whether the best way to solve the challenges our nation faces today is best done by what John F. Kennedy said in his inaugural address or what Donald Trump said in his successful campaign for US president in 2024.
Instead, it would seem to me that we need to once again listen to the words of John F. Kennedy in January, 1960. Rather than relying on one man, the US president, to solve all our problems, wouldn’t it be better if we looked to ourselves to see what we could do for our country? That might mean not viewing immigrants, illegal or legal, as animals seeking to take our jobs and destroy our families. It might mean taking some time to try and meet opposing viewpoints with facts and not statements designed to incite anger and violence. It might mean caring about not only our own health but the health of the planet that supports us. If we all recognize that each one of us can make a decision to be part of the solution rather than the problem, no matter our political, social, racial, or economic perspective, maybe we could create the world we truly desire and deserve.
