First, let me make it very clear that I don’t usually accept challenges or follow prompts. My internal system just doesn’t operate that way. I don’t know why it does or doesn’t do things, but have long since stopped trying to understand my internal logic and just accept it.
That being said, Doug Branson of Elusive Trope nominated me for this 3 Day, 3 Quote challenge and because I do post quotes on occasion I thought it was within reason that I could comply. Besides, I like his site, as I like many sites, and thought why not? Now I had posted a quote very recently from the Martin Ritt film The Front which is a really good film about the McCarthy witch hunts, a dark period of American history, and one somewhat appropriate to revisit now that the climate of the US is filled with fear and finger pointing. So I wasn’t going to start today.
BUT since November 22nd is also a day with strong resonance for us born long ago enough to remember who I consider the last great president of the United States, whose life was cut short this day and thus robbed us in the States of a chance of a different future. His name is, of course, John F. Kennedy. And I still get choked up thinking of him and my other political hero, his brother Bobby. Those were the days I had real hope for my country. And unfortunately what followed has been a very mixed bag of leaders and one wrong-headed decision after another.
SO my first quote on this first day of attempting to fulfill this challenge is by him.
“Let us not seek the Republican answer or the Democratic answer, but the right answer. Let us not seek to fix the blame for the past. Let us accept our own responsibility for the future.” John Fitzgerald Kennedy
Leonard Durso 
Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country-JFK
Right.
Interesting quote to use from Kennedy, especially from someone who is ” Ashamed to be an American”
Why? I admire leaders like the Kennedys but I don’t see anyone to admire today. What I see today is not the America I was raised to believe in.
What an appropriate quote for these trying times.
Thank you. I thought so, too.
Love the quote.
Thank you. So do I obviously.
He was no saint, but who is? He was, however, a leader, which is a rare thing these days. I often wonder where we would be today had he not been taken from us.
Of course he wasn’t a saint in his personal life but his vision of America is one we haven’t seen since, at least not in action, just empty words from lesser leaders.
Yes. An interesting side note is that Aldous Huxley and C.S. Lewis died on the same day. The world took a hard hit 52 years ago today.
That it did.
Great quote, as been said, for these times. It also makes me think of Bobby, gunned down before he could even make it to the White House, and his speech in Indianapolis (if you don’t mind me adding my own quote) on the day of MLK Jr. assassination: “What we need in the United States is not division; what we need in the United States is not hatred; what we need in the United States is not violence and lawlessness, but is love, and wisdom, and compassion toward one another, and a feeling of justice toward those who still suffer within our country, whether they be white or whether they be black.” To update the ending, whether they be Christian or Jewish or Muslin or Buddhist or Hindu or atheist or any other faith.
Beautiful quote from a moving speech. And a very appropriate addition which I’m sure he would have approved.
A perfect quote to share from an inspiring leader who lit the fire for involvement as well as change for a whole generation. It’s heartbreaking to see that vision disintegrate as fear mongers whip up the crowds into America’s own version of fascism. Anita
Yes, America is no longer the country I grew up in. At least not if you judge it by the people running for public office.
I admired the Kennedy family, as well as Malcolm X, MLK, Jr., Gandhi and a few others you may not respect today, but I do.
Great post with meaning to it. I liked the Bobby Kennedy quote, too. (Plus the additions of other faiths and people. )
It seems to me we do not have the same quality of leaders anymore. At least not in the US. And that saddens me. Though I can’t help but think countries get the leaders they want. And that perhaps saddens me even more.