When people look back to
a kingdom where grace, mystery, honor, change, beauty, and peace reigned, they
think of Camelot. Camelot was that mythical kingdom. It was run by King Arthur,
his knights of the round table, Merlin, and his Queen, Guinevere. Their kingdom was archetypical
of how a kingdom should not only be run, but also what it should stand for.
Ever since the fall of Camelot, kings and
queens have tried throughout the centuries to replicate the image, grace,
courage, intellect, hope, and the belief in both a utopia and man’s desire to
make the world a better place for future generations. However, we Americans are the luckiest of the
bunches, because we have had our own version of Camelot. It is 50 years to the
day when tragedy took her away from us, but we are still paying homage to the
achievements and struggles of Camelot and what could have been.
The Kennedy Administration only lasted 1,036
days, but it was in those 1,036 days that it became the Presidential
Administration that would not only define the 20th century, but also
cause Americans to change the way they viewed themselves. Just like the
original Camelot was ruled by a king, his queen, his knights, and cabinet so
was this one. The king was of course John F. Kennedy, his queen was Jackie
Kennedy, their knight; were his brothers: Bobby Kennedy, Ted Kennedy and the
U.S. Congress.
It was January 20th
1961 that John F. Kennedy took the world stage at his inauguration and gave one
of the most historical speeches in American history. “Let the word go forth
from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been
passed to a new generation of Americans. Let every nation know, whether it
wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any
hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival
and the success of liberty.” (People’s remembering Camelot 50 years later p. 66)
It was in that simple passage from his inauguration address that Kennedy
pledged to seek peaceful resolutions to the world’s problems. Yet all that was
stated above in his inauguration speech is not what people remember of his
inauguration speech it is these lines instead that we remember: “ Ask not what
your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country. All of this
will not be finished in the first 100 days...or even perhaps in our lifetime.” (Ibis. P.66)
However, Jack was not the only
one making changes to how the President of the United States was looked upon;
his wife Jackie was doing the same for the role of Frist Lady. It can be said
that Jackie Kennedy set the standard for what it was meant to be the First
Lady. Jackie Kennedy was one of our most
stylish, sexy, discrete, and chic First Lady of American we ever had in the 20th
century. She was fluent in three languages, which were French, Italian, and
Spanish. It was this combination with her natural beauty and glamour that made
her a rock star on both American and foreign soil.
The Kennedy’s involvement in
the Civil Rights movement started with a simple phone called. It was a call
made by her husband to a then pregnant 31 year Cotta Scott King, whose husband
was in prison for marching for civil rights that would prove to be the turning
point for the Kennedy administration. The electoral win of Kennedy gave the Civil
Right activist such as Dr. King new found hope in ending Jim Crow in the South.
Dr. King himself stated the hopes and expected he held for the new Kennedy
administration when it came to Civil Rights: “use the whole weight of his
office to remove the ugly weight of segregation from the shoulders of our
nation” (isb. P. 113 para. 1) Nonetheless, by 1963 that would not be the
story. In fact, little had been done by the Kennedy Administration to curtail
the racists tide in the South. Jim Crow
prove to be a problem for both King and Kennedy. For the Kennedy’s, the
Southern Democrats had threatened to torpedo his Administration entire agenda
if the White House attempted to end Jim Crow. King on the other hand, feared
that his followers were on the verge of losing patience with his non-violence
tactics, if the President did not act soon.
On a spring day in May of 1963,
the South racial problems exploded, when a large group of Dr. King’s followers
marched to Birmingham, Ala., to protest discrimination hiring practices. The
then, city’s public safety chief Eugene “Bull” Connor, unleashed an assault by both
cops and firemen who attacked the demonstrators, many of whom were children and
teens. The televised images of the snaring police dogs lunging at frightened
demonstrators and the high – pressure fire hoses that ripped off the cloths of
many demonstrators backs were frighten images for the American public! Not long
after this, peaceful demonstration had occurred that the Civil Rights community
was hit by another act of violence with the assignation of one of its leaders. The
assassination of Medgar Evans who was a veteran of D- Day had sparked in
Kennedy to send what most thought to be a far – reaching bill to Congress that
would affirmed and enforced the equal rights for all Americans. This bill of
course was the 1964 Voting Act Bill. King praised Kennedy stating, “that is the
most sweeping and forthright proposals ever presented by an American President…
that will take the nation a long way towards the realization of the ideals, of
freedom and of justice for all people.” It would be an unfortunate turn of events
that King, not Kennedy, got to see the Voting Act Bill signed into law!
However, one of the greatest
achievements that the Kennedy Administration achieved was in science, which was
the landing of a man on the moon. On July 20, 1961, two Americans Neil
Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the moon and days later returned, safely.
This event was followed up by two other special events, but of a more political
sense. Kennedy’s visited to
Berlin, Germany. In 1961
Kennedy went to Berlin, were what would become known, later as the Berlin Wall,
was starting to form. In order, to stop
the tide of refugees fleeing to the West, the government was building a wall,
to separate, West Berlin from East Berlin. The Berlin wall would stand for 28
years before it was finally torn down during the Reagan Administration! After
he failed to defuse the standoff, between the United States Hawks and the
Soviet Belligerence, Kennedy himself, went to Berlin and saw for his own eyes
the formation of the wall. It was in that very moment, that Kennedy declared
his solidarity with the people of West Berlin, in his famous statement: “Inch
bin ein Berliner,” which means “I am a citizen of Berlin”.
The second event of political
importance happened on October 22, 1962, this event has become known as the
Cuban Missile Crisis. An American U-2
spy snapped 928 photos that clearly showed that the Soviets were building
nuclear missiles, set in Cuba, which was 90 miles from America. Kennedy quickly
convened an emergency meeting of the executive committee of the National
Security Council, were by some of the war hawks were advocating a massive air strike
and a full –scale invasion of Cuba. Kennedy orders a blockade of Cuba, in an
attempt, to buy time to find a peaceful solution. Even in seeking a peaceful
resolution, Kennedy stated clear where America stood by stating: “If any
nuclear missile is launched from Cuba against any nation, in the Western
Hemisphere, the U.S. would retaliate, 27 ships approaching Cuba and the U.S.
forces were on alert, tension were nearing a breaking point on the 24th.
Then all of a sudden, six Soviet ships turned back and by the 28th
the crisis was over, with a humiliated Khrushchev agreeing to ship all missiles
back to Russia. Kennedy also agreed to not invade Cuba and secretly promises to
removes U.S. missiles from Turkey. This was a peaceful end, to the last
ruminate of the Cold War, but sadly, it would be the last important event, that
Kennedy himself, would ever be in charge of as, the President of the United
States.
November
22, 1963, would be one of those days that people would remember when they heard
the news that Camelot had died! The day started out peaceful for the President
and First Lady. The day was filled with laughter and being impress with the
large crowd that come out to see them, in Texas during his reelection campaign
the president decided to do away with the bullet proof bubble for the top of
the limousine, in which, he and the first lady would be riding in. Along the
way, he saw a sign held up by some children saying “Mr. President Please stop
your car and shake our hands” and he did, just that.
Then at 12:30 p.m., shots were
fired at the presidential limousine. It was a total of three shots, that hit
the president and several that hit other members, in the limousine. When it was
all over, the President of the United States was dead!
Although the Kennedy
Administration only lasted 1,036 days, it quickly becomes known as the Camelot
Era, no one used that term, at the time. It was a week, after the assassination,
that Mrs. Kennedy invited Life magazine writer Theodore H. White to Hyannis
Port. Jackie told him a quote that the president used to say, which was: “Don’t
let it be forgot, that once there was a spot, for one brief shining moment that
was known as Camelot.” This is how the Kennedy Administration will always be
remembered, as a mythical dynasty, that if given the chance to finish the work
they started could have heal the race wounds of our country, pushed for more open
dialogue between the races, created more jobs, housing opportunities, and help end Communists in Cuba and around the
world. These are the things and many
others that we will never know about the Kennedy Administration, but what they
did do for the full 1,036 days is more than some presidents have done in 4 or 8
years. For that we celebrate them!
Reporter
by Nadia Johnson
December
9, 2013
W.O.W
Radio
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