The government reflects the quality of the voters. We get what we ask for. Consider the gulf between a candidate like Bernie and one like Donnie. Unfortunately, “we” asked for Donnie…
@@BooksForever It's not the voters so much as the rigged system. Trump lost the vote both times. Money is speech, says the crooked SCOTUS, giving the corporations monetary control over the process, so no matter who wins, they win, and we lose. Stupid voters are the minority, so the system makes sure their votes count more than the educated. Eliminate the electoral college and demolish Citizens United, then America will once again be a beacon of democracy with intelligent leadership.
@@BooksForever And the establishment Democrats (comprising the majority of the party) always do everything they can to keep progressives like Bernie from winning the nomination in the primaries. They HATE progressives. And this is the party that neoliberal, centrist Democrat constituents keep voting for. Furthermore, It's funny to see Hartmann come out as anti-war and anti-imperialist, when the establishment Democratic Party that he unconditionally supports is every bit as warmongering and imperialist as the Republican. Both parties are always on the same page when it comes to war and military spending.
There's another quote from the American University speech I like. It goes something like, "If we cannot now end our difference, we can at least make the world safe for diversity. After all, we all cherish our children's future and we are all mortal."
I don't understand the level of apathy and disengagement from Americans in general. I don't even have kids and I care about our future. Many people won't even fight for the sake of their own children.
@@ronald3419 Ted Sorensen said JFK always changed the speeches, he wrote. Besides, the president decides on the content, framing and spirit of the message to be given. At least, this was the case until the Reagan administration.
@@danielmurphy4429 RFK Jr. still supports unconditionally Israeli apartheid. He also thinks that the marketplace can and should solve the climate-change crisis. If he loses the nomination, he will endorse Biden. He is not nearly as anti-establishment as he tries to sound.
A different time. Not perfect, but basically on the right track with reason for optimism. There seemed to be more competent & rational leaders & the media was mostly on our side. Sigh. Thanks for this, Thom. .
Wouldn't it be great for mainstream media to show and talk about some of the great speeches of the best presidents and make everyone reflect just how far off target America is? Peoole need to be re-told and shown what America was supposed to stand for and made to realize how badly republicans have screwed things up for them.
seriously doubt that ever happen without some sort of internal 'event' of high risk nature that wipe the slate of its media and 'who controls the armed forces' clean considering often others know american history and its original values better then the nations own people... add on how a large chunk of said people behaves like genocidal third reich fundamentalists and well :/
Our msm is never going to do that. In fact, they do the opposite, always pushing for and glorifying war. Have you not figured out by now that they are owned and controlled by the corporate monopolies and the military-industrial- congressional complex? Those overpaid celebrity pundits are nothing but shills for the aristocratic elites and the war pigs in DC. And BOTH parties are equally imperialistic and always pro-war.
Young people today do not - CANNOT - understand how far America has fallen; how the very idea of America has morphed in to another thing altogether. Old people like me are famous for nostalgically reminiscing about the "good old days". But the era that Kennedy's speech represents really did represent our last best hope. We are blowing it. Monumentally. And young people just don't "get it" because they have been immersed in the mess for their whole lives.
Agreed. I grew up in the 70's and I don't recognize the America we're living in now. It seems like in the late 90's or early 00's that we made a U-turn. My daughter is in her early 30's and her pov is very cynical. I try but can't explain to her that things were better than this.
American workers can generate massive profit but only a quiet protest about working conditions, environmental conditions, and infrastructure conditions. People just gave up.
JFK was probably the best at giving great speeches. I remember being at the JFK library in Boston years ago. They had a theater there where you could watch on the big screen JFK giving many of his great speeches. There was a elementary school teacher with her students sitting in the row in front of me. She was brought to tears, and turned around and said I'm sorry, he brings me to tears. I had tears in my eyes too. Like others have said, we have sunk low.
Of course they were driven by greed and power. Anyone who seeks to rise to such a position and obtains some measure of success will always be someone who has a measure of greed and who seeks power. Those traits are necessary and needn't be independent of true personal attributes of personal honor and integrity and a true altruism and desire for peace and prosperity for all others besides themselves as well. We'll never see leaders who lack those less desirable traits. It's anathema to the human condition. It's simply unfortunate in the extreme that the majority of those whom we have watched seek and attain those positions for too long have lacked the more redeeming qualities that should outweigh their personal thirsts and hungers and render them worthy of the heights they've attained. We have a plastic society, manipulated and molded deliberately to allow that to be the truth of our existence. And those who set it in motion long ago had their reasons both obvious and concealed. I just wonder if they ever considered the old adage "Garbage In, Garbage Out" when they set about fashioning the society they envisioned.
I'm from MA and he was extra loved here. I was in 2nd grade and at school the day he was assassinated. All the teachers were crying and/or quite upset. they sent us all home early. I'll never forget that day and as I aged I learned more about him. I remember seeing him on tv and how much the grown-ups were excited about the future with him as the President
Yes, I do remember. I remember when America was led by a "WOKE" President, a President who READ BOOKS, opposed censorship, respected the necessity for a free press in a Democracy, included Republicans in key positions in his Cabinet as a way to include dissenting views in forming policies, was a student of law, history and philosophy. A President whose commitment to a global compact on peace and security through strengthening the U.N. and curbing the imperial ambitions of the corporate Right Wing "military-industrial complex" ended on November 22, 1963. I remember. And mourn the loss of the humanitarian leadership that threatened the imperialist agenda of those who executed him in sight of cameras, witnesses and a horrified world. I remember what happened in the immediate aftermath as well. The political Right has driven America farther and farther toward Authoritarianism every day since then. The ultimate consequence of choosing 60 years of an illusory "national security" over awakened and informed wisdom is Donald Trump. "45" is the very antithesis of the AWAKENED President whose wisdom was earned in battle, developed in public service and was in the process of building a framework for international consensus based on peaceful co-existence. Now one uneducated, loutish, narcissistic "L'enfant terrible" and his nitwit army of self-declared, perpetual "victims" threaten to destroy the enlightened values that coalesced in the design of the Constitution of the U.S. The unthinking "L'enfant terrible" is prepared to destroy what he does not understand: Democracy.
I cry when I listen to this today. Why didnt we listen to him? Im afraid we will never get a man like that again, Im still to this day horrified how he was taken away from us. And it hurts.
I was privileged to see as a school kid our dear president at a speech in Berkeley. As a class our parents drove up from Corralitos, in Santa Cruz county. I was introduced to politics by John F Kennedy. Really appreciate his contribution.
It brings tears to my eyes to see how far down the rabbit hole we have come. The end times have truly begun and the Republican party of Lingcoln is no more , Honor and honesty have been sold for money, power and prestiege !.
Thom, thank you for replaying, and therefore reminding us of what True Inspiration and Leadership looks like. It's a Bitter Sweet moment for me hearing this. I distinctly remember, as a young teenager approaching our front gate, hearing my mother screaming hysterically, rushing inside I found her, on her hands knees wailing like a banshee, fists hammering the floor, screaming out" The Mongrel Bastards have Killed Jack, they have Murdered Jack Kennedy".I. was too Shocked to say anything, having never seen Mum so Distraught. Then she really snapped, and started swearing and cussing (something she had never done before) about Jack's Murderers. For months she would break down and cry uncontrollably, and was absolutely inconsolable. Then when Bobby Kennedy was also assassinated it pushed her over the edge, Mum was never the same again, she was trapped in perpetual grief. Tears from Michael. Australia.
Yes even now there is a deep hole in the soul where dispare finds purchase to grow. But the wit, wisdom and vision that John Kennedy put forth is still there waiting for us as individuals to claim as are own. The torch is always waiting to be passed.
@@huizhechen3779 Kennedy did NOT push Vietnam to the extent the right wing wants you to believe. And the Bay of Pigs was a CIA operation that they pushed on Kennedy. He didn't want to do it and refused to give them air support, and it was the CIA that later offed him. He was no war monger, but right wingers want you to think so, because that's how fascist propaganda works. Right wing fascist propaganda (like FOX, NewsMax, etc.) doesn't care that you see the Republican Party for the evil that it is, so long as you falsely see the Democratic Party as evil also. My opinion? You bet. A highly-informed opinion. Because, this is the prophesied return of the biblical prophet Elijah speaking.
The thing about Hartmann is that he still thinks the Democrats are worth voting for, thinks that they are going to save us. He is an unconditional supporter of this "less evil" party. But they are not less evil enough to matter. I find it disingenuous of him to profess to be anti-war when the party that he votes for is every bit as imperialistic and warmongering as the Republicans. In fact, they have become even more so. Furthermore, as intelligent as he is, he is totally ignorant of the factual history of how our government, through its hyper-aggressive foreign policy against Russia ever since the end of the Cold War, created the conditions that backed Putin into a corner, created an existential threat to Russia's security, and made him feel compelled to invade Ukraine. Either he is willfully ignorant of that history (which the MSM pundits are conveniently not revealing to their viewers), or he is in fact an imperialist and thinks that America ought to be the world's policeman and bully.
“... let us not be blind to our differences, but let us also direct attention to our common interests and the means by which those differences can be resolved. And if we cannot end now our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity. For, in the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children’s future. And we are all mortal." - President John Fitzgerald Kennedy (June 10th, 1963). No matter how many times I listen to this speech, I find it deeply moving and inspiring. This was a President who spoke of peace in pragmatic terms, as a process that could truly be worked out among nations and people.
He was profound and had empathy💕 intelligence, humor and strength and patriotism. And he knew how to look forward. (Space Program) and how to create peace. (Cuban Missile Crisis). (And separation of church and state.) What a terrible loss for America. He will always be missed.
And this is part of why the Right in America has always hated JFK almost as much as they have FDR. We rightly celebrate Johnson's Civil and Voting Rights Acts, but both of those were Kennedy's initiatives.
I've always felt the assassination of JFK was a turning point in this country. I feel that that's when America lost it's innocence. I wasn't alive then but i've asked my parents, grandparents, n many other people who were n every single person remembered where the were n what they were doing like it just happened yesterday. Just a theory i have🤔
Absolutely, its not just a feeling. They took polls about government trust and the release of the Warren Commission Report started a downward tend of citizen trust in government that has never recovered.
JFK's assassination was one of many turning points in US history. USA was never innocent: It was a slave state from the beginning & it's trying to turn into a feudal state peopled by poorly educated wage slaves trying to survive on less than a living wage. We're in a class war & the morbidly rich are, as usual, winning. The politics of assassination work.
Yes, it was a huge turning point. The seer Edgar Cayce prophesied that our government would become a "mob rule" after his assassination, which becomes more obvious with every year since the event. I was in first my first grade classroom when I heard about the event from my teacher. ("In my first memories they killed Kennedy," just like Axl Rose sang.) And you might be interested to know that I am the prophesied return of the biblical prophet Elijah - and I've published information that would blow your mind were you to peruse it. And curiosity cured the cat.
WTF?? Open your eyes! The Democrats are every bit as pro-war as the Republicans. Both parties are equally imperialistic and warmongering. BOTH parties always agree to increase the military budget. It is a Democrat president who is waging this proxy war with Russia right now, using the Ukrainian people as cannon fodder and wasted over 100 billion dollars on it. Obama never even tried to end any of our wars in the Middle East, he greatly expanded drone bombing. Hartman turns a blind eye to the corruption and warmongering of the Democrats, thinking that their being less evil than the Republicans is enough to save us and restore democracy. But they helped create this imperialistic oligarchy no less than the Republicans did, and they are intent on keeping it intact. They just want to put lipstick on the pig and pretend that we're a democracy.
as a european i can just say: it's not just "the republicans". Your democrats are no different. They're teams like a football team just to give everyone a side to applaud for, and when the government does something the civilians don't like they blame the other half of civilians for their voting choice. A government that doesn't need to fear its civilians because they're so preoccupied with accusing the other half of the civilians. You guys need to break out of this circle. Stop voting republicans, stop voting democrats. Find someone with morals like JFK who is willing to candidate without living in luxury, to be resistant to corruption, and vote for that person.
The final part of that speech, to me is the most compelling: "For in the final analysis our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children's future. And we are all mortal" ❣
My Dad died because of his service in Vietnam. He went twice. He survived the war's but he did young because of the burn pits. I wish we could outlaw Republicans or just war in general.
First grade here. "In my first memories they killed Kennedy," just like Axl Rose said. It is one of my earliest and most vivid memories. And you shouldn't believe it, but you might be interested to know that I am the prophesied return of the biblical prophet Elijah - and I've published information that would blow your mind were you to peruse it. Click and ye shall find...
At the time Kennedy was President, the United States had been directly involved in at least three, if not four wars, if you factor in American territorial expansion outside of its land borders. Both world wars showed us how modern warfare would become more cruel, even personal. Add nuclear weaponry to the mix and it takes the fear game to a whole new level. I don’t believe that Kennedy was as concerned about racial or economic justice as he was maintaining US hegemony, or at the very least leading the global community into the future. Still, this is actually the type of discourse missing on a societal level.
JFK had his eyes opened throughout his presidency. He was not falling in line with the Cold War hawks who comprised most of the members of both parties. Though he had not declared it publicly yet, he had decided that a war in Vietnam would be unwinnable and counterproductive. He was on the verge of pulling all troops out and disentangling the US from what he saw as a civil war that the Vietnamese should wage between themselves. He did not state his intentions openly yet, because the majority of Americans supported going to war in Vietnam in the early stages. He had planned to carry out his withdrawal plans after/if he was re-elected. After the Cuban Missile Crisis, he actually formed a friendship of sorts with Khruschev. They both had been shaken by how close they/we had come to nuclear annihilation. But he had to keep his written correspondences with K secret, because his military advisers and even most of the members of his administration thought that it was "treasonous" to show any sort of friendliness towards K or Russia. But Kennedy's tilt towards peace and diplomacy, not hegemony, were becoming obvious to those around him. And unfortunately, most of those around him, even within his own party and cabinet, did not align with his more peaceful and less imperialistic views. His brother and a scant few others were the only ones he could confide in. If you are interested in a well-written, thorough, and detailed book on JFK's presidency and his assassination, may I suggest reading "JFK and the Unspeakable: Why He Died and Why it Matters," by James W. Douglass.
I disagree, the problem any president faces is what Eisenhower mentioned in his last address,the carefully worded warning about the military industrial complex and the political figures they have on the payroll. You had the people in the military at the time who believed they could violently oppose the soviet bloc,and even win a war against them, see Curtis LeMay. You had Dulles at the CIA, operating on his own agenda in Cuba, central and south america,africa and the far east, its a miracle we didn't have a new world war. Give Kennedy his due, he opened up to some sort of dialogue with the soviets because he recognised its importance in preventing a third world war.
Thank you for this positive left wing message. This is the type of material we all need to hear more often. Inspiring messages of decency, kindness, and mutual aid. ❤
A vision worth striving for. Politics, like religion, can be a two edged sword. Whereas the best visions of both are of peace & welfare of all rather than the dominance of the lives of others. Thanks for this reminder; we need leaders to return us to this vision.
Thank you for sharing this clip, Thom. It is shameful to see how 2016 - 2020 had dragged our country through the mud !!!! I'm sure President Kennedy has been rolling in his grave !!!! 🤔😐😑😔 God Bless 🙏💗🙏💗
Yeah, I grew up thinking that everyone loved JFK. I did. I was born in 1963. However as I grew older I realized that not everyone liked him…at least around here. Then I told a neighbor upon seeing his old photos that I thought he resembled JFK when he was younger. He snapped at me and said “don’t you dare!” Didn’t matter to me. I liked both men. He was my friend. When he died he was buried in the cemetery that Lee Harvey Oswald is buried in. I guess my point is that Kennedy like other politicians were both liked and disliked. Seems like I remember someone saying that Kennedy had been warned not to come to Texas because that’s where the crazies are. After living here most of my life I’m inclined to think that to be correct. Stupid Trumpers everywhere here!
This is why we must call for Direct Digital Democracy without parties or politicians. Citizen initiated referendums with thresholds and a social contract means Communities can vote their own laws. As well as a Public Authority to audit police and prosecute bad actors in our own courts. Thorium energy renders their global energy monopoly obsolete
People have given up on the idea of peace. They view humanity as a dying species...so why not focus on short attainable goals; get rich with the least amount of effort, tear others down to feel superior, substance abuse, ignore climate change by burning fossil fuels to satiate our creature comforts...the list is endless.
Eight months earlier he stared into the nuclear abyss open before him. As did Khrushchev. Both men alone, together faced the reality of nuclear war erupting. Among all the people on the planet they were the ones who faced the reality and had the power to move forward, or back away. They both backed away. And both were removed from power. Another great speech, maybe even a better one, was given a year or so earlier about civil rights. He and his brother did not want to get involved in racial matters. But when circumstances forced the issue on the national stage he did not shy away or obfuscate. He talked to the citizens of our nation about the moral issues at the core of racial strife. Once we had giants as leaders. Since then most were pygmies.
@@silkroadcaravan By all accounts Khrushchev was a very emotional man compared with the other wooden, dull Soviet leaders, so that wouldn't surprise me.
Kennedy is often criticized for being a rascal. Maybe so. But I've not heard such depth in presidential speeches since. Just good speech writer(s)? Maybe, but he chose or approved his speech writer(s). In this speech he backed up the airy fairy vaunting of peace with something concrete: we should strengthen the UN's ability to 'resolve disputes'. In other words, we would support a super national force that would be able to keep a government, including ours, from warring without international approval. Such a UN would be able to keep Russia from invading Ukraine. Such a UN would have kept us from invading Iraq. Desirable? I think so.
He was inspired to give this magnificent speech after a trip to the Mountain States, and when he mentioned peace once, he got a tremendous round of applause. This was just a few months after rhe scary close call from Oct. 1962, with the nuclear missiles placed in Cuba. People thought rhis was the end, not just for them, but the world! The scare ended peacefully with both K-men reaching and agreement to remove nuclear missiles in Cuba and in Turkey--those aimed at the nearby USSR. That part was kept secret, and Kennedy was sportsman-like ordering his aides not to gloat or brag about "winning" against the USSR. Can you imagine any pol doing that today? Biden isn't one-hundreth the man or statesman Kennedy was in Oct. 1962, and after in promoting peaceful co-existence with the "enemy" as he emphasized they were not subhuman creatures, but just as human with good points and bad!
Only problem though he escalated our entry into the Vietnam war. Of course Johnson really wanted to blow the flames of war into the full conflagration.
But if your guy had survived and had served two terms WE KNOW now he would have gone to Vietnam too! As a matter of fact by 1963 we WERE already in Vietnam as "advisers". This is the problem with Democrats and it's an old problem: Democrats TALK a great game...but then NEVER actually deliver! They are masters of talking Left but governing Right, on domestic and foreign policy. And after several generations of doing this, it has made the country more cynical and more hardened to this idealistic rhetoric, cuz we KNOW it's nonsense a mile away, whether it's JFK, Obama or Biden delivering this exact same speech. With the Internet the public's memory is now long, and so the non-voter rolls grow as the public grows ever more disillusioned...thus nowadays opening the door to power more to demagogues like Trump!
This speech was one of many things that guaranteed his death. That and telling people in his administration that he would take US troops out of Vietnam after the 1964 election
Who can disagree with the words? But actions speak louder. He committed us to Vietnam and did nothing (that I am aware of) to reign in the CIA...but to his credit what he was looking at was a world where we played Philip of Macedon to the Greek city-states. What Philip wanted was not outright conquest of Greece and its people treated as his subjects; he wanted their cooperation and towards that end established a Greek Congress with which he dealt...Kennedy wanted a world along the same order.
The day before the assassination, JFK issued a Presidential Directive ordering 1000 CIA and military "advisors" OUT of Viet Nam. The Directive further ordered the sequential withdrawal of the remaining Americans to be done in 1964. One of Johnson's first orders as President, was to increase the U.S. presence in VN. The U.S. first became involved in the VN mess after the fall of Dien Bien Phu in 1954 when the French who colonised VN withdrew. Ho Chi Minh rose to dominance and the Dulles brothers - John Foster Dulles, Sec of State, under Eiisenhower and Alan, the CIA chief - pushed the "Domino Theory": if VN "went Communist", Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Burma and the whole of Malaysia would follow. JFK inherited the Dulles Brothers' CIA-led policy on VN but by 1963 had quietly "retired" Alan Dulles who hated JFK and called him a "Communist" - enough to make every Right Winger in America a potential assassin. I lived through that period of McCarthy-ist anti- Communist hysteria, John Birch Society and KKK anti-Catholic propaganda, and anti-Black vitriol. America was divided on racial, religious, and political grounds as it is now. The difference was that the Right Wing Extremists had no "useful idiot" as Leader of the GOP. That would happen in 1980 when Reagan was elected, then Bush 1, and the stupidity increased with Bush 2, culminating in the batshit crazy election of Trump. JFK was not a "saint" but he was a martyr, as were MLK and RFK, martyred for the crime of wanting to make the unachieved ideals of Democracy a reality. Instead of that, America is at the mercy of a L'enfant terrible and his self-appointed mindless militia , hell-bent on destroying what they do not understand: Democracy.
Great videos Thom. One bit of constructive criticism. Please give a pause, hello or something before going right into the content. Most videos I have to scroll back to beginning once or twice to make sure I didn't miss anything. Thank you.
As aspirational as JFK's words may be, it's hard not to view them against the rampant economic colonization we were engaging in at the time - covert CIA assassinations and coups, "economic hit men," and so on. It's easy at this remove for us to apply a little cognitive dissonance to the subject. But I don't think we're viewing our history honestly if we don't acknowledge and try to somehow reconcile that darker aspect of peace, American style.
That dark politic you are referring to is EXACTLY what John Kennedy was speaking against. Early on in his presidency he started to become more and more aware of where the road we were on was taking us . But the powers that pushed us down that road were in trenched early on in the cold war years. After the failure of the Bay of Pigs invasion he realized that the CIA in conjunction with the military industrial complex that Eisenhower warned against would not preserve peace . Rather these forces would constantly push true peace further and further from our reach. He didn't die alone in Dallas that day. Fifty thousand young Americans sent to Vietnam died with him. But here are his words still with us. Are we wise enough to make them are own.
JFK, a remarkable man and president; a more remarkable philosopher of mankind.
It's striking how much the government has devolved over the last 60 years.
@DemonCat
In proportion to the rest of western 'civilization'.
The government reflects the quality of the voters. We get what we ask for. Consider the gulf between a candidate like Bernie and one like Donnie. Unfortunately, “we” asked for Donnie…
@@BooksForever It's not the voters so much as the rigged system. Trump lost the vote both times. Money is speech, says the crooked SCOTUS, giving the corporations monetary control over the process, so no matter who wins, they win, and we lose. Stupid voters are the minority, so the system makes sure their votes count more than the educated. Eliminate the electoral college and demolish Citizens United, then America will once again be a beacon of democracy with intelligent leadership.
@@BooksForever And the establishment Democrats (comprising the majority of the party) always do everything they can to keep progressives like Bernie from winning the nomination in the primaries. They HATE progressives. And this is the party that neoliberal, centrist Democrat constituents keep voting for. Furthermore, It's funny to see Hartmann come out as anti-war and anti-imperialist, when the establishment Democratic Party that he unconditionally supports is every bit as warmongering and imperialist as the Republican. Both parties are always on the same page when it comes to war and military spending.
@@BooksForever *WE* didn't ask for that Annoying Orange. He was selected. END the electoral college! It's out of date!
Hearing JFK’s words makes my heart feel bigger! That our country’s leadership could embrace this vision.
There's another quote from the American University speech I like. It goes something like, "If we cannot now end our difference, we can at least make the world safe for diversity. After all, we all cherish our children's future and we are all mortal."
I don't understand the level of apathy and disengagement from Americans in general. I don't even have kids and I care about our future. Many people won't even fight for the sake of their own children.
Yes. A very true worthwhile pursuit.
What would the Country be like if President Kennedy had
Lived? One must wonder.
I was 19 yrs old in 63 . Now I’m 79 and I often wonder what kind of world it would be if JFK had not been murdered .
Much better.
I think so as well .
@@tomcooley3778 What did you do? Did you seek justice for his murder? did you try to continue his values? and vote for people who did?
He will make America power again, Too bad people have to murder him, We paying for now, all we have is losers.
His speeches still bring tears to my eyes….Gosh why don’t we have leaders like him today…
It was probably done by his speech writer, but we don't come close to even having speech writers like that anymore.
@@ronald3419 Ted Sorensen said JFK always changed the speeches, he wrote. Besides, the president decides on the content, framing and spirit of the message to be given. At least, this was the case until the Reagan administration.
Me too, have you listened to Robert F Kennedy Jr’s announcement to run for the presidency? If not, you should.
We get the leaders that we vote for…. as massaged by the electoral college system.
@@danielmurphy4429 RFK Jr. still supports unconditionally Israeli apartheid. He also thinks that the marketplace can and should solve the climate-change crisis. If he loses the nomination, he will endorse Biden. He is not nearly as anti-establishment as he tries to sound.
Listening to Kennedy makes Trump sound like a third grader!!!
please do not insult third graders like that...
Actually, listening to a third grader makes Trump sound like a first grader.
It’s been shown tune and time again that Trump has the vocabulary of a 7 year old I think it is.
3rd grader?
That's a bit optimistic
Now, let's not insult 3rd gragders.
I remember the speech, but it falls on deaf ears today.
A different time. Not perfect, but basically on the right track with reason for optimism. There seemed to be more competent & rational leaders & the media was mostly on our side. Sigh. Thanks for this, Thom.
.
Wouldn't it be great for mainstream media to show and talk about some of the great speeches of the best presidents and make everyone reflect just how far off target America is? Peoole need to be re-told and shown what America was supposed to stand for and made to realize how badly republicans have screwed things up for them.
seriously doubt that ever happen without some sort of internal 'event' of high risk nature that wipe the slate of its media and 'who controls the armed forces' clean considering often others know american history and its original values better then the nations own people... add on how a large chunk of said people behaves like genocidal third reich fundamentalists and well :/
OMG…WTF..Republicans screwed it up. What an utterly idiotic thing to say@romannumeral5547… unbelievable idiocy
America was supposed to be?
Capitalist, white suprematist colonising land and resource stealer.
Still is what it started off as.
Amen
Our msm is never going to do that. In fact, they do the opposite, always pushing for and glorifying war. Have you not figured out by now that they are owned and controlled by the corporate monopolies and the military-industrial- congressional complex? Those overpaid celebrity pundits are nothing but shills for the aristocratic elites and the war pigs in DC. And BOTH parties are equally imperialistic and always pro-war.
Young people today do not - CANNOT - understand how far America has fallen; how the very idea of America has morphed in to another thing altogether. Old people like me are famous for nostalgically reminiscing about the "good old days". But the era that Kennedy's speech represents really did represent our last best hope. We are blowing it. Monumentally. And young people just don't "get it" because they have been immersed in the mess for their whole lives.
Agreed. I grew up in the 70's and I don't recognize the America we're living in now. It seems like in the late 90's or early 00's that we made a U-turn. My daughter is in her early 30's and her pov is very cynical. I try but can't explain to her that things were better than this.
The day he was killed our lives were never the same! Our own people took his life for a reason we probably don’t want to know!!
We took his life for saying what he said here, in this speech
American workers can generate massive profit but only a quiet protest about working conditions, environmental conditions, and infrastructure conditions. People just gave up.
JFK was probably the best at giving great speeches. I remember being at the JFK library in Boston years ago. They had a theater there where you could watch on the big screen JFK giving many of his great speeches. There was a elementary school teacher with her students sitting in the row in front of me. She was brought to tears, and turned around and said I'm sorry, he brings me to tears. I had tears in my eyes too. Like others have said, we have sunk low.
American politics gone insane, RFK jr is the exception
I was in 6th grade....the entire class burst into tears when we heard the news. Martin, John, Robert.
Good to remember that the USA did once have some claim to greatness with politicians not driven by greed and power. Where have these people gone?
Of course they were driven by greed and power. Anyone who seeks to rise to such a position and obtains some measure of success will always be someone who has a measure of greed and who seeks power. Those traits are necessary and needn't be independent of true personal attributes of personal honor and integrity and a true altruism and desire for peace and prosperity for all others besides themselves as well. We'll never see leaders who lack those less desirable traits. It's anathema to the human condition. It's simply unfortunate in the extreme that the majority of those whom we have watched seek and attain those positions for too long have lacked the more redeeming qualities that should outweigh their personal thirsts and hungers and render them worthy of the heights they've attained. We have a plastic society, manipulated and molded deliberately to allow that to be the truth of our existence. And those who set it in motion long ago had their reasons both obvious and concealed. I just wonder if they ever considered the old adage "Garbage In, Garbage Out" when they set about fashioning the society they envisioned.
They became power hungary egotistical wannabe dictators. Started with LBJ. And continues.
I'm from MA and he was extra loved here. I was in 2nd grade and at school the day he was assassinated. All the teachers were crying and/or quite upset. they sent us all home early. I'll never forget that day and as I aged I learned more about him. I remember seeing him on tv and how much the grown-ups were excited about the future with him as the President
My experience too in grade 2, 1963. Everyone was in shock. The nation stood still for days. I will never forget that time.
one shining time of the past, we will never see again. those still alive then, are few. i am one that remembers it well.
He spoke of peace for everyone so they killed him. I was 11. I will never ever forget.
Thanks for posting this. I heard it this morning and happy to hear it again so I could find the full text of the speech. It's a good one for sure.
Yes, I do remember. I remember when America was led by a "WOKE" President, a President who READ BOOKS, opposed censorship, respected the necessity for a free press in a Democracy, included Republicans in key positions in his Cabinet as a way to include dissenting views in forming policies, was a student of law, history and philosophy. A President whose commitment to a global compact on peace and security through strengthening the U.N. and curbing the imperial ambitions of the corporate Right Wing "military-industrial complex" ended on November 22, 1963.
I remember. And mourn the loss of the humanitarian leadership that threatened the imperialist agenda of those who executed him in sight of cameras, witnesses and a horrified world.
I remember what happened in the immediate aftermath as well. The political Right has driven America farther and farther toward Authoritarianism every day since then.
The ultimate consequence of choosing 60 years of an illusory "national security" over awakened and informed wisdom is Donald Trump.
"45" is the very antithesis of the AWAKENED President whose wisdom was earned in battle, developed in public service and was in the process of building a framework for international consensus based on peaceful co-existence.
Now one uneducated, loutish, narcissistic "L'enfant terrible" and his nitwit army of self-declared, perpetual "victims" threaten to destroy the enlightened values that coalesced in the design of the Constitution of the U.S.
The unthinking "L'enfant terrible" is prepared to destroy what he does not understand: Democracy.
I cry when I listen to this today. Why didnt we listen to him? Im afraid we will never get a man like that again, Im still to this day horrified how he was taken away from us. And it hurts.
I remember it well. He had a wonderful way of expressing great ideas.
I was privileged to see as a school kid our dear president at a speech in Berkeley. As a class our parents drove up from Corralitos, in Santa Cruz county. I was introduced to politics by John F Kennedy. Really appreciate his contribution.
It brings tears to my eyes to see how far down the rabbit hole we have come. The end times have truly begun and the Republican party of Lingcoln is no more , Honor and honesty have been sold for money, power and prestiege !.
Thom, thank you for replaying, and therefore reminding us of what True Inspiration and Leadership looks like. It's a Bitter Sweet moment for me hearing this. I distinctly remember, as a young teenager approaching our front gate, hearing my mother screaming hysterically, rushing inside I found her, on her hands knees wailing like a banshee, fists hammering the floor, screaming out" The Mongrel Bastards have Killed Jack, they have Murdered Jack Kennedy".I. was too Shocked to say anything, having never seen Mum so Distraught. Then she really snapped, and started swearing and cussing (something she had never done before) about Jack's Murderers. For months she would break down and cry uncontrollably, and was absolutely inconsolable. Then when Bobby Kennedy was also assassinated it pushed her over the edge, Mum was never the same again, she was trapped in perpetual grief.
Tears from Michael. Australia.
Yes even now there is a deep hole in the soul where dispare finds purchase to grow. But the wit, wisdom and vision that John Kennedy put forth is still there waiting for us as individuals to claim as are own. The torch is always waiting to be passed.
@@TheRoyalBavarian Beautifully said. Cheers from Michael. Australia.
I was born after he was already dead. I wonder what the world would be like if he had lived.
Have you heard of the Vietnam War & the Bay of Pigs fiasco? He too was a warmonger.
@@huizhechen3779 Kennedy did NOT push Vietnam to the extent the right wing wants you to believe. And the Bay of Pigs was a CIA operation that they pushed on Kennedy. He didn't want to do it and refused to give them air support, and it was the CIA that later offed him. He was no war monger, but right wingers want you to think so, because that's how fascist propaganda works. Right wing fascist propaganda (like FOX, NewsMax, etc.) doesn't care that you see the Republican Party for the evil that it is, so long as you falsely see the Democratic Party as evil also. My opinion? You bet. A highly-informed opinion. Because, this is the prophesied return of the biblical prophet Elijah speaking.
If any politician made this speech today, the Qklan would lose their collective shit.
Thank you Thom for this inspirational video which is so lacking and necessary in our polluted 'polical' cess pool
The thing about Hartmann is that he still thinks the Democrats are worth voting for, thinks that they are going to save us. He is an unconditional supporter of this "less evil" party. But they are not less evil enough to matter.
I find it disingenuous of him to profess to be anti-war when the party that he votes for is every bit as imperialistic and warmongering as the Republicans. In fact, they have become even more so. Furthermore, as intelligent as he is, he is totally ignorant of the factual history of how our government, through its hyper-aggressive foreign policy against Russia ever since the end of the Cold War, created the conditions that backed Putin into a corner, created an existential threat to Russia's security, and made him feel compelled to invade Ukraine. Either he is willfully ignorant of that history (which the MSM pundits are conveniently not revealing to their viewers), or he is in fact an imperialist and thinks that America ought to be the world's policeman and bully.
“... let us not be blind to our differences, but let us also direct attention to our common interests and the means by which those differences can be resolved. And if we cannot end now our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity. For, in the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children’s future. And we are all mortal." - President John Fitzgerald Kennedy (June 10th, 1963).
No matter how many times I listen to this speech, I find it deeply moving and inspiring. This was a President who spoke of peace in pragmatic terms, as a process that could truly be worked out among nations and people.
Thank you, Thom.
He was profound and had empathy💕 intelligence, humor and strength and patriotism. And he knew how to look forward. (Space Program) and how to create peace. (Cuban Missile Crisis). (And separation of church and state.) What a terrible loss for America. He will always be missed.
And this is part of why the Right in America has always hated JFK almost as much as they have FDR. We rightly celebrate Johnson's Civil and Voting Rights Acts, but both of those were Kennedy's initiatives.
Having lived during that era, it's doubly to live in this era.
We so need that kind of leadership now more than ever 😔
I've always felt the assassination of JFK was a turning point in this country. I feel that that's when America lost it's innocence. I wasn't alive then but i've asked my parents, grandparents, n many other people who were n every single person remembered where the were n what they were doing like it just happened yesterday. Just a theory i have🤔
Absolutely, its not just a feeling. They took polls about government trust and the release of the Warren Commission Report started a downward tend of citizen trust in government that has never recovered.
JFK's assassination was one of many turning points in US history. USA was never innocent: It was a slave state from the beginning & it's trying to turn into a feudal state peopled by poorly educated wage slaves trying to survive on less than a living wage. We're in a class war & the morbidly rich are, as usual, winning. The politics of assassination work.
Yes, it was a huge turning point. The seer Edgar Cayce prophesied that our government would become a "mob rule" after his assassination, which becomes more obvious with every year since the event. I was in first my first grade classroom when I heard about the event from my teacher. ("In my first memories they killed Kennedy," just like Axl Rose sang.) And you might be interested to know that I am the prophesied return of the biblical prophet Elijah - and I've published information that would blow your mind were you to peruse it. And curiosity cured the cat.
I agree 100%. We did.
America has never been innocent
Thanks Thom ..remind us of our better nature when fractional divisions consume our Congress.
Thank for bringing that forward!!!!❤
I remember it well!
JFK wanted OUT of VietNam. He was horrified by LeMay & the hawks. LeMay was thrilled on Nov 22 ‘63. Among too many others.
What a great man!
Oh...we went so off track. The Republican Party would sneer and snicker at any discussion of peace.
WTF?? Open your eyes! The Democrats are every bit as pro-war as the Republicans. Both parties are equally imperialistic and warmongering. BOTH parties always agree to increase the military budget. It is a Democrat president who is waging this proxy war with Russia right now, using the Ukrainian people as cannon fodder and wasted over 100 billion dollars on it. Obama never even tried to end any of our wars in the Middle East, he greatly expanded drone bombing. Hartman turns a blind eye to the corruption and warmongering of the Democrats, thinking that their being less evil than the Republicans is enough to save us and restore democracy. But they helped create this imperialistic oligarchy no less than the Republicans did, and they are intent on keeping it intact. They just want to put lipstick on the pig and pretend that we're a democracy.
as a european i can just say: it's not just "the republicans". Your democrats are no different. They're teams like a football team just to give everyone a side to applaud for, and when the government does something the civilians don't like they blame the other half of civilians for their voting choice. A government that doesn't need to fear its civilians because they're so preoccupied with accusing the other half of the civilians.
You guys need to break out of this circle. Stop voting republicans, stop voting democrats. Find someone with morals like JFK who is willing to candidate without living in luxury, to be resistant to corruption, and vote for that person.
They would. And the Democrats would just follow orders and obey the Pentagon.
Or unity, or humanity...😔
Same thing for the Demoncruds war crazies. You think only Repubs are war hawk crazy? Bwahahaha!
This speaker SURE THE HELL HAS MY VOTE !!!!!!!!!!!
The final part of that speech, to me is the most compelling: "For in the final analysis our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children's future. And we are all mortal" ❣
My Dad died because of his service in Vietnam. He went twice. He survived the war's but he did young because of the burn pits. I wish we could outlaw Republicans or just war in general.
Thom, you are doing remarkable work when it matters most..
😢 I was in 3rd grade when Kennedy was shot ... He was a Hugely Great President and Man. ❤
First grade here. "In my first memories they killed Kennedy," just like Axl Rose said. It is one of my earliest and most vivid memories. And you shouldn't believe it, but you might be interested to know that I am the prophesied return of the biblical prophet Elijah - and I've published information that would blow your mind were you to peruse it. Click and ye shall find...
At the time Kennedy was President, the United States had been directly involved in at least three, if not four wars, if you factor in American territorial expansion outside of its land borders. Both world wars showed us how modern warfare would become more cruel, even personal. Add nuclear weaponry to the mix and it takes the fear game to a whole new level. I don’t believe that Kennedy was as concerned about racial or economic justice as he was maintaining US hegemony, or at the very least leading the global community into the future. Still, this is actually the type of discourse missing on a societal level.
JFK had his eyes opened throughout his presidency. He was not falling in line with the Cold War hawks who comprised most of the members of both parties. Though he had not declared it publicly yet, he had decided that a war in Vietnam would be unwinnable and counterproductive. He was on the verge of pulling all troops out and disentangling the US from what he saw as a civil war that the Vietnamese should wage between themselves. He did not state his intentions openly yet, because the majority of Americans supported going to war in Vietnam in the early stages. He had planned to carry out his withdrawal plans after/if he was re-elected.
After the Cuban Missile Crisis, he actually formed a friendship of sorts with Khruschev. They both had been shaken by how close they/we had come to nuclear annihilation. But he had to keep his written correspondences with K secret, because his military advisers and even most of the members of his administration thought that it was "treasonous" to show any sort of friendliness towards K or Russia. But Kennedy's tilt towards peace and diplomacy, not hegemony, were becoming obvious to those around him. And unfortunately, most of those around him, even within his own party and cabinet, did not align with his more peaceful and less imperialistic views. His brother and a scant few others were the only ones he could confide in.
If you are interested in a well-written, thorough, and detailed book on JFK's presidency and his assassination, may I suggest reading "JFK and the Unspeakable: Why He Died and Why it Matters," by James W. Douglass.
I disagree, the problem any president faces is what Eisenhower mentioned in his last address,the carefully worded warning about the military industrial complex and the political figures they have on the payroll.
You had the people in the military at the time who believed they could violently oppose the soviet bloc,and even win a war against them, see Curtis LeMay.
You had Dulles at the CIA, operating on his own agenda in Cuba, central and south america,africa and the far east, its a miracle we didn't have a new world war.
Give Kennedy his due, he opened up to some sort of dialogue with the soviets because he recognised its importance in preventing a third world war.
Thank you for this positive left wing message. This is the type of material we all need to hear more often. Inspiring messages of decency, kindness, and mutual aid. ❤
Yes, it was an idealistic time when we had inspiring and chsrismatic leaders like JFK, Bobby Kennedy, and MLK. And we had great music too!
A vision worth striving for. Politics, like religion, can be a two edged sword. Whereas the best visions of both are of peace & welfare of all rather than the dominance of the lives of others. Thanks for this reminder; we need leaders to return us to this vision.
One of a kind man!
America has lost its way. That was a powerful speak President Kennedy made that’s still very relevant today. We need to to better❤
Thank you for sharing this clip, Thom. It is shameful to see how 2016 - 2020 had
dragged our country through the mud !!!! I'm sure President Kennedy has been rolling in his grave !!!! 🤔😐😑😔
God Bless 🙏💗🙏💗
I wouldn’t be surprised if that speech was one of the reasons he was assassinated.
War makes certain people wealthy. 😥
Yeah, I grew up thinking that everyone loved JFK. I did. I was born in 1963. However as I grew older I realized that not everyone liked him…at least around here. Then I told a neighbor upon seeing his old photos that I thought he resembled JFK when he was younger. He snapped at me and said “don’t you dare!” Didn’t matter to me. I liked both men. He was my friend. When he died he was buried in the cemetery that Lee Harvey Oswald is buried in. I guess my point is that Kennedy like other politicians were both liked and disliked. Seems like I remember someone saying that Kennedy had been warned not to come to Texas because that’s where the crazies are. After living here most of my life I’m inclined to think that to be correct. Stupid Trumpers everywhere here!
This is what we need now! JFK knew things…..
That guy is Off the Wall.
Great video…thanks
Reminds me of Patrice Lumumba, and then like you said Vietnam. I am not sure how genuine he was.
Thanks Mr. Hartmann unfortunately it hard to conceptualize ever hearing a speech like that again it’s to sophisticated for the general public.
This is why we must call for Direct Digital Democracy without parties or politicians. Citizen initiated referendums with thresholds and a social contract means Communities can vote their own laws. As well as a Public Authority to audit police and prosecute bad actors in our own courts.
Thorium energy renders their global energy monopoly obsolete
Has this worked in another country or would America be the guinea pig?
This country isn't a democracy.
Excellent, Thank You Tom Hartmann~
People have given up on the idea of peace. They view humanity as a dying species...so why not focus on short attainable goals; get rich with the least amount of effort, tear others down to feel superior, substance abuse, ignore climate change by burning fossil fuels to satiate our creature comforts...the list is endless.
Tears listening to President Kennedy. We miss him and his vision💕💯
"The weak are safe, and the strong are just."
This was one great man. ❤
Thank you for all you do!!!!
Eight months earlier he stared into the nuclear abyss open before him. As did Khrushchev. Both men alone, together faced the reality of nuclear war erupting. Among all the people on the planet they were the ones who faced the reality and had the power to move forward, or back away. They both backed away. And both were removed from power.
Another great speech, maybe even a better one, was given a year or so earlier about civil rights. He and his brother did not want to get involved in racial matters. But when circumstances forced the issue on the national stage he did not shy away or obfuscate. He talked to the citizens of our nation about the moral issues at the core of racial strife.
Once we had giants as leaders. Since then most were pygmies.
It's told that Kruschev burst into tears on learning of Kennedy's assassination
@@silkroadcaravan By all accounts Khrushchev was a very emotional man compared with the other wooden, dull Soviet leaders, so that wouldn't surprise me.
Thank you for the reminders!
Kennedy is often criticized for being a rascal. Maybe so. But I've not heard such depth in presidential speeches since. Just good speech writer(s)? Maybe, but he chose or approved his speech writer(s). In this speech he backed up the airy fairy vaunting of peace with something concrete: we should strengthen the UN's ability to 'resolve disputes'. In other words, we would support a super national force that would be able to keep a government, including ours, from warring without international approval. Such a UN would be able to keep Russia from invading Ukraine. Such a UN would have kept us from invading Iraq. Desirable? I think so.
"oops - George Bush" - quite - but let's not forget the MANY wars involving the CIA...
Lebanon, Syria, Ukraine………..
The times and events are different for us, yet John Kennedy's words are still there. Are we wise enough to make them are own ?
I just found your station today and now I'm binge watching!!!
To bad that there are fewer and fewer rational men in this country
Really great content, Thom. Thank you very kindly
He was inspired to give this magnificent speech after a trip to the Mountain States, and when he mentioned peace once, he got a tremendous round of applause. This was just a few months after rhe scary close call from Oct. 1962, with the nuclear missiles placed in Cuba. People thought rhis was the end, not just for them, but the world! The scare ended peacefully with both K-men reaching and agreement to remove nuclear missiles in Cuba and in Turkey--those aimed at the nearby USSR. That part was kept secret, and Kennedy was sportsman-like ordering his aides not to gloat or brag about "winning" against the USSR. Can you imagine any pol doing that today? Biden isn't one-hundreth the man or statesman Kennedy was in Oct. 1962, and after in promoting peaceful co-existence with the "enemy" as he emphasized they were not subhuman creatures, but just as human with good points and bad!
"Freedom taken for granted because we don't know what oppression means."
Anthrax
Incomprehensible that the country could go from this to someone as foul as tRump being politically relevant!
Only problem though he escalated our entry into the Vietnam war. Of course Johnson really wanted to blow the flames of war into the full conflagration.
The United States needs another President John F. Kennedy.
But if your guy had survived and had served two terms WE KNOW now he would have gone to Vietnam too! As a matter of fact by 1963 we WERE already in Vietnam as "advisers".
This is the problem with Democrats and it's an old problem: Democrats TALK a great game...but then NEVER actually deliver! They are masters of talking Left but governing Right, on domestic and foreign policy. And after several generations of doing this, it has made the country more cynical and more hardened to this idealistic rhetoric, cuz we KNOW it's nonsense a mile away, whether it's JFK, Obama or Biden delivering this exact same speech. With the Internet the public's memory is now long, and so the non-voter rolls grow as the public grows ever more disillusioned...thus nowadays opening the door to power more to demagogues like Trump!
I still think GW needs to be charged for war crimes.
This speech was one of many things that guaranteed his death. That and telling people in his administration that he would take US troops out of Vietnam after the 1964 election
Make peace with your broken pieces
Listening to Biden and especially Trump speak makes me want to weep...
Who can disagree with the words? But actions speak louder. He committed us to Vietnam and did nothing (that I am aware of) to reign in the CIA...but to his credit what he was looking at was a world where we played Philip of Macedon to the Greek city-states. What Philip wanted was not outright conquest of Greece and its people treated as his subjects; he wanted their cooperation and towards that end established a Greek Congress with which he dealt...Kennedy wanted a world along the same order.
The day before the assassination, JFK issued a Presidential Directive ordering 1000 CIA and military "advisors" OUT of Viet Nam. The Directive further ordered the sequential withdrawal of the remaining Americans to be done in 1964.
One of Johnson's first orders as President, was to increase the U.S. presence in VN.
The U.S. first became involved in the VN mess after the fall of Dien Bien Phu in 1954 when the French who colonised VN withdrew. Ho Chi Minh rose to dominance and the Dulles brothers - John Foster Dulles, Sec of State, under Eiisenhower and Alan, the CIA chief - pushed the "Domino Theory": if VN "went Communist", Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Burma and the whole of Malaysia would follow. JFK inherited the Dulles Brothers' CIA-led policy on VN but by 1963 had quietly "retired" Alan Dulles who hated JFK and called him a "Communist" - enough to make every Right Winger in America a potential assassin.
I lived through that period of McCarthy-ist anti- Communist hysteria, John Birch Society and KKK anti-Catholic propaganda, and anti-Black vitriol. America was divided on racial, religious, and political grounds as it is now. The difference was that the Right Wing Extremists had no "useful idiot" as Leader of the GOP. That would happen in 1980 when Reagan was elected, then Bush 1, and the stupidity increased with Bush 2, culminating in the batshit crazy election of Trump.
JFK was not a "saint" but he was a martyr, as were MLK and RFK, martyred for the crime of wanting to make the unachieved ideals of Democracy a reality.
Instead of that, America is at the mercy of a L'enfant terrible and his self-appointed mindless militia , hell-bent on destroying what they do not understand: Democracy.
This speech is the best explanation of why he was murdered. The decline of America started at that point.
JFK and RFK were the best this country could never have
True history I remember this a great man
I shouted out, "Who killed the Kennedys?"
Well, after all, it was you and me...
Not this rolling stone. I was in my first grade classroom, and "in my first memories they killed Kennedy," just like Axl Rose sang.
Always expect the Unexpected 😊
Sadly...this enlightened speech sealed his fate. The MIC wanted never ending wars at any cost.
The war mongers couldn't go for that.
Decline in the quality of leaders is a sure sign of a society's decline.
Great videos Thom. One bit of constructive criticism. Please give a pause, hello or something before going right into the content. Most videos I have to scroll back to beginning once or twice to make sure I didn't miss anything. Thank you.
As aspirational as JFK's words may be, it's hard not to view them against the rampant economic colonization we were engaging in at the time - covert CIA assassinations and coups, "economic hit men," and so on.
It's easy at this remove for us to apply a little cognitive dissonance to the subject. But I don't think we're viewing our history honestly if we don't acknowledge and try to somehow reconcile that darker aspect of peace, American style.
That dark politic you are referring to is EXACTLY what John Kennedy was speaking against. Early on in his presidency he started to become more and more aware of where the road we were on was taking us . But the powers that pushed us down that road were in trenched early on in the cold war years. After the failure of the Bay of Pigs invasion he realized that the CIA in conjunction with the military industrial complex that Eisenhower warned against would not preserve peace . Rather these forces would constantly push true peace further and further from our reach. He didn't die alone in Dallas that day. Fifty thousand young Americans sent to Vietnam died with him. But here are his words still with us. Are we wise enough to make them are own.
So sad. Wonder if that was why he was killed?
What an honor....to have such intelligence, civility JFK had and was.
There is very little honor among politicians these days