fewer people will listen to nonsense

When the car carrying President and Mrs. Kennedy rolled through Dealey Plaza they were on their way to the Trade Mart in Dallas where the president would have delivered a speech; you can read the prepared text of that speech online.

The thing that jumped out at me when I looked at it was when the pres. would have referred to "the Sixties"... When we say "The Sixties" we mean bell-bottom slacks, psychedelic posters, the Grateful Dead, Rolling Stones, Peter, Paul, and Mary, Woodstock, peaceful demonstrations, frightening riots, horrific assassinations, Vietnam War, exuberant joy, profound creativity and hope, and desolate, battering horrors and disappointments.  The Sixties began to be referred to as "The Sixties" when it still was the Sixties.  '68, '69. ...As Bob Dylan wrote, "You know something is happening here, but you don't know what it is...."

However, when President Kennedy would have said, "the sixties" in his Trade Mart speech, he wouldn't have meant any of that stuff because it hadn't happened yet -- when he said, "The sixties" he meant, "these modern times that we're living in, right now."  Like when we, now, say "21st century"....

In the online Times Tribune.com, Herb Linnen (former AP reporter) wrote, as a guest columnist,

= = = = I have written often about President John F. Kennedy in The Times-Tribune.  I did it because he mattered and what he said mattered.  It's relevant during the country's current uneasy passage and fevered politics.

I hope people remember him more for how he led the country than for how he died Nov. 22, 1963.  Recently I read the speech he never got to deliver before Dallas business leaders that day....He is gone but his oratory is a major reason why his legacy persists.

In the prepared text, he said:

"There will always be dissident voices heard in the land, expressing opposition without alternative, finding fault but never favor, perceiving gloom on every side and seeking influence without responsibility.  Their voices are inevitable.  But today other voices are heard in the land -- voices preaching doctrines, wholly unrelated to reality, wholly unsuited to the Sixties, doctrines which assume words will suffice for weapons, that vituperation is as good as victory, and that peace is a sign of weakness.

"... We can't expect that everyone ... will talk sense to the American people.  But we can hope that fewer people will listen to nonsense.  And the notion that this nation is headed for defeat through deficit, or that strength is a matter of slogans is nothing but nonsense."

He said America must stay alert to events beyond its shores.  He said, "we, in this country, in this generation -- by destiny rather than choice -- are watchmen on the walls of world freedom."  He said peace must be the goal "and the righteousness of our cause must always underlie our strength.  For as it was written long ago, 'except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.'"

I met and interviewed him during his 1960 presidential campaign.  You never forget it.  Quick of intellect and wit, steeped in history from his youth and beyond, a war hero, a member of Congress for 14 years were formidable assets.  Yet when he ran for president, few Democratic leaders initially thought he could win.  He prevailed by the force of his personality, knowledge of issues, and his ability to move people.

I don't know what he would make of America today.  He called himself "an idealist without illusions."  He urged people to reach higher and avoid standing still.  In his last State of the Union address to Congress, he said:

"...At home and abroad, there may be a temptation to relax.  For the road has been long, the burden heavy, and the pace consistently urgent.  But we cannot be satisfied to rest here.  This is the side of the hill, not the top.  The mere absence of war is not peace.  The mere absence of recession is not growth.  We have made a beginning but we have only begun."

[article written by Herb Linnen in the Times-Tribune.com.]

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..."There will always be dissident voices heard in the land, expressing
opposition without alternative
finding fault but never favor
perceiving gloom on every side and

seeking influence without responsibility."

Umh. -- cable news channels, anyone? ...

"and the notion that this nation is headed for defeat through deficit...is nothing but nonsense."
?
Huh -- I didn't know "deficit-mongering" was used clear back then...

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