reply to post by Grifter42
Kennedy seemed to have it all. By 1957, he had a child on the way and plans for something greater than even being a senator. He had decided that 1958
would be his last term running for senate.
In 1960, he ran for the office of the president of the United States of America, the highest position in the land. Running against him stood Richard
Milhaus Nixon, a master manipulator and politician. Nixon was cunning, the kind of man that would take being called Machiavellian as a complement, and
in the environment he existed in, such tendencies served him well.
There was a game changer on the horizon though. Television, the wave of the future, had come on the scene. Along with the advent of television came
televised debates, and this is where Kennedy found an advantage. Kennedy was a statuesque handsome man with an honest face. Nixon had a countenance
that was vaguely unpleasant, without confidence, or scruples. Standing side by side on live television, Nixon looked out matched.
Still, Nixon was a cagey sort. With Kennedy’s old defeated adversary, Henry Cabot Lodge II as his running mate, they nearly fought Kennedy to a
draw. The public went to vote November 8th, 1960. Soon, the results were in. Kennedy had received 49.7 percent of the total vote. Nixon lost by a
tenth of a percentage point. One day he would be president, but on November 9th, he was just another person who lost an election to Kennedy.
Kennedy, however, had achieved something monumental. He had been elected to the highest office in the country, the most powerful man in the world. He
was the youngest man to have ever become President. But his youth did not equal inexperience. He faced his problems with careful consideration,
innovation, and wisdom.
He truly believed in equality. When in 1962, an intrepid African American named James Meredith was prevented from entering the University of
Mississippi by a group of bigots, Kennedy sent 3,000 troops to the campus. With an entire army behind him, James Meredith went to that school, and got
his education. When Governor George Wallace blocked the doorway to a school in 1963, because the people who wanted to enter were the wrong skin
color, Kennedy sent the National Guard, and gave an address about the need for equality the same night. He started the path towards setting it in
stone, laws that would prevent discrimination.
Kennedy was that sort of person. He was a man with genuine desire to do something for the people. To leave a mark on history. Progress was part of
Kennedy’s appeal. When he said something, he meant it. He was a very rare thing to behold, an honest politician. But everything good comes to an end
eventually.
The date of November the 22nd, 1963, will live on in infamy. On that day, this great king of men fell. In front of a crowd of cheering people, his
wife, and other officials, he was shot. The nation went into shock. Clouds blotted out the light of hope, and a country in mourning collectively wept
an ocean of tears. The President was dead. Camelot was no more. One minute, John sat up, his usual self, waving to the crowd, and then in an instant,
he was gone, his mind annihilated by senseless violence.
John F. Kennedy is still with us even today though. The shot that killed his body made his ideals live on forever. The Eternal Flame burns in honor
of him, and as a reminder of Jack and what he stood for. One of the last truly great and progressive presidents rests in peace, having accomplished
more in three years than most politicians do in their entire career.
Jack once said, “We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard”.
That’s who John F. Kennedy was. Someone who took on a challenge, set a deadline, and meant it. While he wouldn’t live to see it, in 1969, Apollo
11 did it. Man walked on the moon. Even in death, he kept his word. Here’s to you, John