Mayor uses JFK speech

He apologizes for using parts of JFK speech without credit

Ask not what Boynton can do for you? The city’s mayor, Steven Grant, says a speech of his took parts of John F. Kennedy’s 1961 inaugural speech verbatim without crediting JFK.

BOYNTON BEACH — When Boynton Beach’s new mayor delivered a speech after being sworn into office last month, it should have sounded familiar.

Mayor Steven Grant on Tuesday acknowledged to the Sun Sentinel he used parts of John F. Kennedy’s 1961 inaugural speech without crediting the former president in a speech he made during an April 19 meeting.

And at a city meeting Tuesday evening, Grant publicly apologized. “In my inaugural address, I did get help from JFK’s inaugural address,” he said. “I apologize for not giving credit when it was due sooner.”

At the meeting, resident David Katz accused Grant of plagiarism. “You plagiarized JFK,” he said. “It is not an innocent mistake. Of your 183 words only nine of them are your own.”

Grant’s speech was nearly identical to JFK’s. Both men said, “We observe today not a victory of party, but a celebration of freedom — symbolizing an end as well as a beginning — signifying renewal as well as change. For I have sworn before you and Almighty God the same solemn oath our forebears prescribed.”

Before Tuesday’s meeting, Grant said in an interview that there were “parts I took verbatim.”

“It is strikingly similar to JFK’s inaugural speech,” he said

Commissioner Joe Casello said he found it “troubling” that the mayor failed

to credit JFK.

“Plagiarism is a pretty serious thing,” Casello said. “I have no problem with someone using someone else’s work if credit is given, but to use it under false pretenses as though those are your words is ludicrous.”

But the mayor said he thought the speech was in the public domain and it was his way of paying tribute to the former president after recently reading his biography.

He said he in no way considered it an act of plagiarism. “Some people recognized it,” he said. “But I didn’t think it would come up two weeks after the initial speech.”

He said he thinks this shouldn’t hurt his credibility though.

“People use other people’s ideas all the time,” he said. “This is not a book report where I get graded. Then I would be in some trouble. I just used a historic speech to help write another speech.”

Grant