professor liebstrum wrote:
Dan, The BBC say basically he was a young charismatic president whose tenancy was slow , promised civil rights, didn't deliver.

The crime things have really been played down.

It's good to get the impressions from all sorts of Americans,

Russ
Hey Prof! I think it can be summed up thusly:

Kennedy wasn't around long enough to make a huge impression. His sudden absence did. 
Young charismatic people can uplift other people to action, such was the Peace Corp. That 
agency did make limited progress but I think the wheels of capitalism have done much to undo 
any progress, such as it is.

Those two-plus years may have had their share of magic, but consider the Bay of Pigs, which 
largely was put into play by the previous administration ( sound familiar? ), then Tsar Bomba, 
followed by the Cuban Missile Crisis. No wonder the conspiracy theorists went nuts. Not only 
that, quite sure many commoners as us were worried this event was a flashpoint. Note WWI.

Vietnam? Who knows. Speculation at best. Probably wishful thinking on the part of the canonizers.

Very likeable, seemingly earnest man despite his and his family's faults. So much junk has been 
written it's impossible to get a clear picture of his time in office. To me it seems it depended on your 
stage in life. For some, it was pure eggshell time. For others, it was Party Time. Depends upon who 
you talk to. I like to think that in the end, JFK planted seeds. Seeds for thought and seeds for action. 
JFK didn't really have enough time to water his ideas. But I suppose none of us really do. It reminds 
me of a "Christmas" thought, now that that's around the corner:

"There is never enough time to do or say all the things that we would wish. The thing is to try to do as 
much as you can in the time that you have. Remember Scrooge, time is short, and suddenly, you're not 
here any more."

Just goes to show that no matter how "civilized" we'd like to think we are, we're only as civilized as our ability 
to peaceably transfer power from one official to another.

Some less-seen perspectives:












A Fine is a tax when you do wrong. 
A Tax is a fine when you do well.