JFK: Timeless lessons

For a certain generation, the Kennedy years — however few of them there were — remain a vivid memory of a youthful president and a tragic ending. For that generation, the very notion that today would be the 100th birthday of John Fitzgerald Kennedy is something of an unfathomable calculation.

And yet for generations that followed, the 35th president — the one who remains forever young — is known largely through the programs he set in motion during those 1,037 days in office, the national priorities he set. He preached the gospel of public service — “Ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country . ... ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.”

And the Peace Corps was born — and lives on today.

He preached the gospel of science. “We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.” It would not happen in his too-short lifetime. But it would happen.

In the midst of the Cold War he would preach the gospel of civility and strength: “So let us begin anew — remembering on both sides that civility is not a sign of weakness, and sincerity is always subject to proof. Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate.”

Today Kennedy’s words and his legacy are celebrated still in the gem that is his presidential library at the tip of Columbia Point, overlooking the ocean he loved. It remains an enduring gift to the community, to the 50,000 school children who engage in its programs each year, and to the thousands of visitors who attend its lectures and tour its exhibits.

This centennial year celebration has a ways to go yet — and, yes, there will be cake today. But there are lessons still to be learned here — timeless lessons for the next generation of leaders.