"There is, of course, no place in America where reason and firmness are more clearly pointed out than here in North Carolina. All Americans can profit from what happened in this state a century ago. It was this state, firmly fixed in the traditions of the South, which sought a way of reason in a troubled and dangerous world. Yet when the war came, North Carolina provided a fourth of all of the Confederate soldiers who made the supreme sacrifice in those years. And it won the right to the slogan, “First at Bethel, farthest to the front at Gettysburg and Chickamauga, last at Appomattox.”
President JF Kennedy
Oct. 1961, UNC Chapel Hill
I was in the audience in Kenan Stadium for that speech at the age of 8. Can't say I remember much of what was said. Thanks for that.
ReplyDeleteDavid
Just wonderful and thanks.
DeleteBack before ignorance, bigotry and hate took over the Democratic Party; JFK would be banned from today's Democratic Party. He campaigned on an "America First" foreign policy, interventionist foreign wars and actually instituted Constitutional money by having his Treasury Dept print "United States Notes" backed by silver which would've eventually put the Federal Reserve out of business in the U.S. He was a supporter of 2nd Amendment rights for the purpose of protecting against government tyranny and an opponent of the "Deep State". --Ron W
ReplyDeletePerfect example of our fallen country.
DeleteAnd how far have we (not us, them) fallen? I've posted this before, but it fits here, presidential candidate John F. Kennedy speaking in Raleigh, North Carolina, Sept 17, 1960:
ReplyDelete"I come here to North Carolina to set before you the goals for America and to ask you to join with me in rebuilding our strength in leading America across its New Frontier. For, as a New Englander, I recognize that the South is still the land of Washington, who made our Nation - of Jefferson, who shaped its directions - and of Robert E. Lee who, after gallant failure, urged those who had followed him in bravery to re-unite America in purpose and courage."
--Ron W
Washington, who made our Nation - of Jefferson, who shaped its directions - and of Robert E. Lee who, after gallant failure,
DeleteLeaders today pale in comparison to those of yore.
Perhaps if LBJ and his foreign-collaborator friends hadn't cut JFK's career short we might not be in the mess we're in today.
ReplyDelete