07/24/2024
John F. Kennedy
35th President
(1961-1963)
If John F. Kennedy was alive today, and he was honest with himself and everyone else, he would be a Conservative Republican:
John F. Kennedy on Faith:
At the 9th annual Presidential Prayer Breakfast held in Washington, D.C., on February 9, 1961, Kennedy had much to say about God and His role in the life of America’s presidents. He also spoke to the country’s need for God during trying times. His words resonate with significance more than 40 years later and seem to fit perfectly the deep needs of our country today. Following are excerpts from his speech:
“No man who enters upon the office to which I have succeeded can fail to recognize how every president of the United States has placed special reliance upon his faith in God…. While they came from a variety of religious backgrounds and held a wide variety of religious beliefs, each of our presidents in his own way has placed a special trust in God. Those who were the strongest intellectually were also the strongest spiritually.
“Today our nation is passing through another time of trial. In many ways, our dangers and our problems are far greater – and certainly infinitely more complex…. It is an ironic fact that in this nuclear age, when the horizon of human knowledge and human experience has passed far beyond any that any age has ever known, that we turn back at this time to the oldest source of wisdom and strength, to the words of the prophets and the saints, who tell us that faith is more powerful than doubt, that hope is more potent than despair, and that only through the love that is sometimes called charity can we conquer those forces within ourselves and throughout all the world that threaten the very existence of mankind.
“Keeping in mind that ‘when a man’s ways please the Lord, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him,’ let us go forth to lead this land that we love, joining in the prayer of General George Washington in 1783, ‘that God would have you in His holy protection, that He would incline the hearts of the citizens…to entertain a brotherly love and affection one for another…and finally that He would most graciously be pleased to dispose us all to do justice, to love mercy, and to demean ourselves with…the characteristics of the Divine Author of our blessed religion, without an humble invitation of whose example we can never hope to be a happy nation.’ The guiding principle and prayer of this Nation has been, is now, and ever shall be ‘In God We Trust.’”
John F. Kennedy on the Sanctity of Life:
The truth is during John F. Kennedy’s lifetime abortion was simply not the hot button issue it is today so there is little found that could point in one direction or another. One book, JFK, Conservative by Ira Stroll did find this quote:
“Now, on the question of limiting population: as you know the Japanese have been doing it very vigorously, through abortion, which I think would be repugnant to all Americans.”
While the quote is far from conclusive the 35th President does have a major pro-life legacy – he appointed Byron White to the Supreme Court. Justice White was the writer of the dissent in the tragic Roe v. Wade case that, with Doe v Bolton, legalized abortion at all stages. Justice White dissension, where he was joined by Justice William Rehnquist, is the only sane part of the whole opinion. Here is an excerpt:
With all due respect, I dissent. I find nothing in the language or history of the Constitution to support the Court’s judgment. The Court simply fashions and announces a new constitutional right for pregnant mothers [410 U.S. 222] and, with scarcely any reason or authority for its action, invests that right with sufficient substance to override most existing state abortion statutes. The upshot is that the people and the legislatures of the 50 States are constitutionally dissentitled to weigh the relative importance of the continued existence and development of the fetus, on the one hand, against a spectrum of possible impacts on the mother, on the other hand. As an exercise of raw judicial power, the Court perhaps has authority to do what it does today; but, in my view, its judgment is an improvident and extravagant exercise of the power of judicial review that the Constitution extends to this Court.
The Court apparently values the convenience of the pregnant mother more than the continued existence and development of the life or potential life that she carries. Whether or not I might agree with that marshaling of values, I can in no event join the Court’s judgment because I find no constitutional warrant for imposing such an order of priorities on the people and legislatures of the States. In a sensitive area such as this, involving as it does issues over which reasonable men may easily and heatedly differ, I cannot accept the Court’s exercise of its clear power of choice by interposing a constitutional barrier to state efforts to protect human life and by investing mothers and doctors with the constitutionally protected right to exterminate it. This issue, for the most part, should be left with the people and to the political processes the people have devised to govern their affairs.
John F. Kennedy on the 2nd Amendment:
On January 29, 1961, President John F. Kennedy spoke words that remain to be true to this day. He spoke about the importance of the 2nd Amendment and why it must not be subverted in any way. To disagree with what he said would be futile. People on the left who want to abolish the 2nd Amendment or slowly whittle it away in bits and pieces should be wise to take Kennedy's words as the gospel. If any of you disagree with JFK's quote on why we need to take up arms, please explain why.
John F. Kennedy Quotations - John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum
"the battle for American freedom was begun by the thousands of farmers and tradesmen who made up the Minute Men -- citizens who were ready to defend their liberty at a moment's notice. Today we need a nation of minute men; citizens who are not only prepared to take up arms, but citizenswho regard the preservation of freedom as a basic purpose of their daily life and who are willing to consciously work and sacrifice for that freedom. The cause of liberty, the cause of American, cannot succeed with any lesser effort."
Read more: http://www.city-data.com/forum/politics-other-controversies/1785716-president-john-f-kennedys-quote-importance.html
John F. Kennedy on America:
We stand for freedom. That is our conviction for ourselves; that is our only commitment to others.
All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin. And therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the words "Ich bin ein Berliner!"
Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names.
The American, by nature, is optimistic. He is experimental, an inventor and a builder who builds best when called upon to build greatly.
Liberty without learning is always in peril; learning without liberty is always in vain.
There are risks and costs to a program of action. But they are far less than the long-range risks and costs of comfortable inaction
A man does what he must-in spite of personal consequences, in spite of obstacles and dangers and pressures-and that is the basis of all human morality.
For time and the world do not stand still. Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or the present are certain to miss the future.
A man may die, nations may rise and fall, but an idea lives on.
History is a relentless master. It has no present, only the past rushing into the future. To try to hold fast is to be swept aside.
I know there is a God - I see the storm coming and I see his hand in it - if he has a place then I am ready - we see the hand.
When power leads man toward arrogance, poetry reminds him of his limitations. When power narrows the area of man's concern, poetry reminds him of the richness and diversity of existence. When power corrupts, poetry cleanses.
A nation which has forgotten the quality of courage which in the past has been brought to public life is not as likely to insist upon or regard that quality in its chosen leaders today - and in fact we have forgotten.
I look forward to a great future for America - a future in which our country will match its military strength with our moral restraint, its wealth with our wisdom, its power with our purpose.
Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty.
Victory has a thousand fathers, but defeat is an orphan.
We dare not forget that we are the heirs of that first revolution.
And so, my fellow Americans... ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country. My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.
