Today, the 61st anniversary of John F. Kennedy’s 1963 Commencement Speech at American University - JFK's Peace Speech - is once again flying successfully under the radar of corporate news. In fact try Googling it, not that I regularly - OK ever - use pro-government censorship Google search engines, or its subsidiary companies, like YouTube. You’d think that today of all days, there would be at least a mention. Of course with tensions ratcheted up in Ukraine and the Middle East, a vision for Americans getting along with Russia would not have made the cut for contemporary main stream war discourse.
So, anyway, here’s a video mention and a transcript. Let’s hope it’s not the last, and a change maker in leadership is listening.
So, anyway, here’s a video mention and a transcript. Let’s hope it’s not the last, and a change maker in leadership is listening.
So let us not be blind to our differences, but let us also direct attention to our common interests and the means by which those differences can be resolved. And if we cannot end now our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity. For, in the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children’s futures. And we are all mortal.
John F. Kennedy, June 10, 1963
The author of this post is Gene Marx, Lifetime Member of Veterans For Peace and Bellingham Chapter 111 Communications Coordinator.