Memories of the Kennedys
August 31, 2009
by Senneth
|I was in the 5th grade when John Fitzgerald Kennedy was elected as the 35th President of the United States. I remember watching his inauguration with interest and, along with the rest of my family and the country, being swept up in the exuberance, the excitement, the exhilaration of the new young President and his family. I remember reading everything I could get my hands on about them, especially “Profiles In Courage,” which I ordered through my school’s Young Reader program. It was a time of renewed promise and infinite possibilities.
Jack was witty, charming, handsome, and dashing. He was a war hero as we learned about his heroic actions during WWII and his command of PT 109, we felt a deep and abiding pride in our new President. Jackie brought style, élan, flair, and radiance to the White House. They were both intellectuals with a love for the arts and poetry. Robert Frost, who was one of JFK’s favorite poets became mine as well. Touch football was in, as were a menagerie of animals including the famous pony, Macaroni. Cape Cod, Hyannis Port and the Kennedy compound became familiar places to the viewing public. Bobby became the new Attorney General and Sargent Shriver, a Kennedy brother-in-law became the first Director of the Peace Corps. And in a January 1963 article, actor Peter Lawford, another Kennedy brother-in-law, shared with the McCall writer that “The White House Is Still Wondering What To Do With Me.”
I watched as this young family captivated not just Americans, but heads of state around the world. When the First Couple went to Mexico, Jackie could converse in Spanish with the Mexican President and when they went to France, our First Lady could speak to President De Gaulle in his own language. JFK joked saying, “I am the man who accompanied Jacqueline Kennedy to Paris.” America’s love affair with the Kennedys was full blown.
Americans were treated to a tour of the White House in 1962 by First Lady Jackie Kennedy and we laughed uproariously at Vaughn Meador’s comedy album of the First Family. It truly was Camelot. Or at least many of us thought it was.
Of course it wasn’t all joy and laughter. There was the death of baby Patrick Bouvier Kennedy and the Bay of Pigs. But it was also a time of expectation and joy.
And then November 22, 1963 changed the landscape for all time. A time for death, a black, riderless horse, a First Lady now widow in black keeping back tears so the nation would stay strong instead of collapsing under its weight of grief. Caroline, who we had all watched playing under the presidential desk in the Oval Office, watching as her father’s casket was born on caisson to Arlington National Cemetery, John-John saluting as the coffin rolled by. It was a time of great grief for our nation, and a time remembered in snapshots in memory: The bloodstained pink suit Jackie was wearing, the hastily sworn in Vice President LBJ, Jackie’s face, the now fatherless children, and everywhere Robert F. Kennedy to help the family through their pain. I was in 7th grade during this horrific incident and remember it as if it were yesterday.
The next year I volunteered to help LBJ get re-elected, offering to lick stamps or stuff envelopes. Instead I found myself in that late October cold weather in the back of an open convertible with the state’s reigning beauty queen, going through the streets of my hometown and surrounding area yelling “LBJ For The USA.” It is a matter of history that LBJ was elected that year.
Several years later, while a senior in high school, Robert Francis Kennedy, the then Senator from New York, announced his bid for the presidency of the United States. I was overjoyed and I, along with several schoolmates, threw ourselves into the campaign for his election with excitement and delight. We were going to have another President Kennedy and we were elated. We volunteered at the local Democratic headquarters and when RFK came to my home town, I not only met him, shook his hand, but garnered his autograph as well. A truly memorable experience.
On my graduation night, during my all-night graduation party it was announced that Robert Francis Kennedy, the Senator from New York, had been shot and had died of his wounds in California.
Another time of mourning and grief and we all, as a nation, turned to the youngest Kennedy son, Edward Moore Kennedy, with trepidation, worry, and fear, to see what he would do. He was already the Senator from Massachusetts and now became the “torch bearer” and “father figure” for the rest of the Kennedy clan. And then in 1969 Mary Jo Kopechne died in a car accident in Chappaquiddick, Massachusetts with Ted Kennedy at the wheel of the car, and who had left the scene of the accident. Camelot had truly come crashing down.
Still, Senator Edward Moore Kennedy went on to fight for the rights of every American, addressing inequalities in our system and working to correct them, helping to pass legislation for the betterment of society. He became one of the longest serving senators in U.S. history and affectionately called the Lion of the Senate.
JFK’s “ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country,” motivated me to become politically active. RFK’s “some men see things as they are and say why, I dream things that never were and say why not?” enabled me to see a world of possibilities. Teddy helped make those possibilities become a reality.
I join the nation and indeed the world in honoring Senator Edward M. Kennedy and thank him and his family for the service and care they’ve given this great nation of ours. Godspeed, Teddy.
Although Ted Kennedy left behind some memorable legislation, he and his brothers were the epitome of male entitlement. A more fitting eulogy for the New Agenda would have been for his sister, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, but she is curiously missing.
There’s a tough piece on Kennedy at Femisex.
http://www.femisex.com/content.....t#comments
Yes, he was a great politician in many respects but…. when I learned more about the Mary Jo manslaughter / murder it became clear to me that this was no mere hit and run type of situation.
It’s really heart wrenching. I want to believe in the Camelot legacy. A privileged family who spent a life doing good. And yet, there is sexual assault and perhaps murder in this family. Where do I put that?
Yes, I would have loved a eulogy for Eunice. I knew nothing about her life until her death and have since learned what an outstanding person she was. Also, Eunice didn’t kill anyone or turn a waitress into a Chris Dodd / Ted Kennedy sandwich.
Friday, May 9th 2008, 5:55 PM
–Ted Kennedy doesn’t see a spot for Clinton on Obama’s ticket.
Ted Kennedy, the aging liberal lion of the Democratic Party, took a nasty bite out of Hillary Clinton Friday, saying she shouldn’t be vice president because the job requires “real leadership.”
“I don’t think it’s possible,” Kennedy, a Barack Obama supporter, told Bloomberg Television when asked about an Obama-Clinton ticket.
Kennedy added that he hoped Obama would choose a running mate who is “in tune with his appeal for the nobler aspirations of the American people.
“And I think if we had real leadership – as we do with Barack Obama – in the number-two spot as well, it’d be enormously helpful,” he added.
My article was really about my memories about the Kennedys and how they impacted my life. In truth I found Ted Kennedy’s behavior, in leaving Mary Jo Kopechne to die, reprehsible. It is why I mentioned that Camelot truly came crashing down. I remember that whole investigation and how Teddy went to his room to sleep. I had acually just read the article about Kennedy and Dodd and the waitress and had been totally unaware of that situation, and was really sickened. And then there was this last presidential election…I hear everyone of you and sadly, although I remember the “Camelot” era very well and remember the happy days, filtered through a child’s and young woman’s eyes, this last election and what happened to Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin, pretty much opened my eyes. Thanks for your comments.
Glad to read the comments were negative. When “feminists” kowtow to these liberal misogynists and their egotistical mythology they really lose credibility and for once it would be so nice to encounter a real feminist. The negative article comments were a warm surprise though!
Bes,
I, too, was pleasantly surprised by the comments pointing out the dark side of Edward M. Kennedy. I totally agree that he, along with his brothers, were the epitome of male entitlement.
I also want to express my extreme disappointment that TNA did not see fit to recognize his sister, Eunice nor her sister, Jean. Besides Eunice’s great work with the Special Olympics, which focused on the physical, I bet few knew about the good works of her sister, Jean. She founded the “Very Special Arts” in 1974, a non-profit organization now known as VSA arts and headquartered in Washington, D.C. It promotes the artistic talents of mentally and physically challenged children and is an affiliate of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
In 2007, Smith received the Gold Medal Award from the Éire Society of Boston for her peace efforts in Northern Ireland and for her humanitarian work with disabled children, and was mentioned in the August/September 2007 issue of Irish American magazine.
Clearly, women have been “conditioned” since birth to always notice and acknowledge male achievement, while simultaneously being taught not to make a big deal out of their own or other women’s accomplishments. Men, on the other hand, were taught the exact opposite, which is precisely why we witnessed ad nauseum men fawning and dripping with adulation for Ted Kennedy for 4 days, the likes of which we would never see them express for any woman who had achieved more in her lifetime.
Women need to change that awful habit and become just as quick to praise the work of women, as quickly and easily as they do for men. I’m not against recognizing men, but let’s face it, women are systematically left out of our history books and their work, no matter how important to society as a whole, has been all but ignored. When that changes, that’s when we will “finally” see men accepting women’s equal and rightful place in society.
totally agree kathleen
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