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A Tribute to JFK Jr.
Posted 7-20-1999
Due to the untimely disappearance of JFK Jr., I'd like to take a break from the
doldrums of the County Commissioner's race and pay tribute to him and what I believe he
and his family have represented in American politics and culture during the last half of
the twentieth century. To those of us old enough to remember where we were when JFK was
killed (I was in first grade at St. Paul School where we were lead into the church to
pray), the Kennedy family has always held a special place in our psyche.
Many baby-boomers like myself, who were too
young to appreciate JFK's time in office only have images of, not Camelot, but a country
filled with hope, optimism, and conviction that our the world can be made a better place
to live. From JFK's famous line in his inaugural address, "ask not what your country
can do for you, but what you can do for your country" a new sense of social activism
was born. The young President and his young family changed the White House forever. JFK's
death brought everything to a screeching halt, but it didn't end our attentiveness to the
Kennedy family.
The Kennedy family had their share of death
and misfortune long before JFK's assassination and continued the misfortune with Bobby
Kennedy's assassination and the deaths of several family members of the next generation.
Perhaps it is that tragic aura or their very real foibles that endear the Kennedy family
to Americans. Yet somehow JFK Jr., his sister Caroline and their late mother projected
more stateliness than other Kennedy family members did. Whether it was their mother's
protectiveness, or just the type of people they were, JFK Jr. and Caroline seemed even
more surreal than some of their cousins who became political figures. Maybe present-day
politics just takes the shine off of anyone, including a Kennedy like Congressman Joe
Kennedy.
JFK Jr. seemed like a normal guy, who in
married life appreciated privacy and as he matured, found success with George magazine. He
tried to make a political magazine entertaining for everyone and had the clout to get
interviews with guys like Dick Scaife. I'm not sure if his life would have ever led him
into politics. Perhaps his wife's desire for privacy would have deterred him. His tragic
disappearance likely causes the end to any dreams that there would someday again be a
Kennedy in the White House. Maybe it was political fantasy, but for many, many people JFK
Jr. could have still carried out the unfulfilled dreams of JFK's administration. Yet, he
might not ever have had the motivation to undertake such a life.
Perhaps what keeps America's passion with
the Kennedy family burning is a legacy of unfulfilled dreams. JFK began the dream of a
better world but it never reached fruition. Bobby Kennedy brought hope to an America in
need; perhaps more poignantly than his brother did, yet he never got an opportunity to
lead America forward. Now JFK Jr.'s tragic loss reminds us, that for all their fortune and
fame, even people like the Kennedy family can't escape a destiny that only God knows its
meaning.
Though I lived through the sixties, I
really grew up in the more cynical seventies. There was the bitter ending to the Vietnam
War, Watergate, and the drastic changes to our industrial economy. It changed our culture
from "we" to "me" and hope of social change was pushed behind
objectives like material gain. Perhaps it is my segment of baby-boomers that yearn most
for some of the magic of that idealism and optimism the Kennedy family has embodied and
for a time when people were righteous, not self-righteous. I hope that with all the
attention to the Kennedy family and the hope they offered, that people would renew their
commitment to making our world a better place to live. If we each do our part, then maybe
JFK, RFK, and JFK Jr. didn't die in vain. |
