To the JFK corwd. Jack He was the 35 th President of the United States, a former Massachusetts’ Senator who served the executive office from January ’61 until his assassination in Dallas, Texas in November ’63. On his watch, the United States went through the Bay of the Pigs debacle butchered by CIA operatives during Eisenhower’s term arming Cuban exiles to invade Fidel Castro’s domain. A Cuban Missile Crisis followed when Khrushchev posted warheads in Cuba in the same way as the US pointed armaments on the USSR from Turkey. The Navy blocked ships from the USSR. The Russian reformist PM, known for banging shoes, showed the same habit in a session of the United Nations! Warmly referred to as “Jack” in the “Camelot” era, JFK took Eisenhower’s legacy to the Berlin Wall erected by the Soviets to deter the exodus of East Berliners into the western sector, supported the African-American Civil Rights movement that finally saw legislation under President Johnson but cost MLK’s life, and escalated US armed involvement in Vietnam that wracked the nation’s soul. It is as if JFK crammed his short term to the hilt, credited for initiating Project Apollo at NASA, projecting an eventual landing of a man in the moon accomplished a good three years ahead of schedule. JFK’s legacy, however, is not programmatic (in spite of the US Peace Corps program, and furthering the women’s movement headed by Eleanor Roosevelt) but imaginal. He turned a nation’s energy into exploring new horizons. He began with the image of the New Frontier, dared America’s post WWII self-content public to a “set of challenges that sums up not what I intend to offer the people, but what I intend to ask of them.” A famous quote reverberates even today; it sums up JFK’s hold on the imagination: Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.” He then asked the nations of the world to wage together a fight against “common enemies of tyranny, poverty, disease, and war itself.” When he was assassinated, the world joined a nation in mourning. Politically astute, the current WH occupant avoids identity with the Kennedys (elder Joe was UK ambassador, Robert was assassinated while in L. A. campaigning for the Presidency, and Senator Edward Kennedy endorsed Obama’s candidacy). Instead, he invokes the legacy of Lincoln and Reagan, both Republicans. John Jr., caught saluting his Dad’s casket at three years of age, died in a plane crash. However, Caroline, JFK and Jackie’s girl, serves as the current US Ambassador to Japan. JFK became President at 43, gunned down at 46. He would have been 98 years old today. His centennial birth anniversary in two years highlights a legacy of snooped after sexual proclivity and health struggles (he received the last RC rites more than once going into surgery), but a PR beaut of a job on “hope” that enabled the election of the first African-American occupant of the Oval Office, and will get the country its first female President. In the famous words of Marilyn Monroe, “Happy Birthday, Mister President.” j'aime la vie pinoypanda2031@aol.com yesterday, appreciate; tomorrow, anticipate; today. participate. in all, celebrate!