The Power of Citizenship: Why John F. Kennedy Matters to a New Generation by Scott Reich

Author:Scott Reich [Reich, Scott]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Politics, History, Political Science, Civics & Citizenship
ISBN: 9781939529374
Google: _cOtAAAAQBAJ
Goodreads: 23230513
Publisher: BenBella Books
Published: 2013-10-15T00:00:00+00:00

Embracing the Tenets of Citizenship

Kennedy challenged his audience to consider the views of the previous generation and to lift their sights higher. Embracing this challenge to build upon the deeds of past generations, he understood, was a key requirement for being a good citizen.

A basic component of this notion—borne out in his vision of détente—was the constant need to reappraise and question. To make progress, one—whether an individual or a nation—must continually assess the attitudes and actions that led to the current moment and then either continue along the same path or shift gears as needed to move forward. It is essential to the achievement of an improved national status.

In seeking peace, therefore, Kennedy did not reach for the unattainable, a revolution in human nature—he did not conjure magic formulas in the coming rounds of diplomacy—but rather he challenged his listeners to accept the prospect of change as a necessary step toward progress. This required a “dynamic peace—not static, [but] changing to meet the challenge of each new generation. For peace is a process—a way of solving problems.”23

In his inaugural address, Kennedy placed himself outside and above the endemic conflicts of the day by employing the anaphora “Let both sides. . . .” But in this speech two and a half years later, Kennedy—carrying his audience along with him—gazed down on the intractable conflicts of the day, moderating between two warring sides, prevailing in the conflict, and transcending its significance in meaning and application. Kennedy defined peace as a “process”—an indefinite projection of hope and progress into a vast unknown future.

Kennedy quoted a biblical prophecy that reflected the approach he brought to the Cold War: “The wicked flee when no man pursueth.” In other words, the United States could alter the attitudes and approaches of the Soviets by not pursuing the “war” in traditional terms. By changing American attitudes toward the Cold War, Kennedy surmised, he could alter international discourse favorably, transforming the conflict in nuanced ways. Indeed, Soviet waging of the Cold War would change and help redefine a new world order with new emphasis on communal progress and interdependence—or at least peaceful competition. In his redefining of the Cold War as a quest for mutual cooperation and deeper understanding, the challenges could be reshaped by those interests that brought the superpowers together. This reshaping, Kennedy asserted, could help erase the political boundaries man had created in favor of global appraisals of life in the twentieth century—not just in the United States or the Soviet Union, but anywhere and in any age.

At its foundation, this notion laid the framework for the precepts of global citizenship in a new age marked by solidarity and shared progress. “Let us not be blind to our differences,” Kennedy implored, “but let us also direct attention to our common interests and to the means by which those differences can be resolved.” Doing so would require new negotiations—without fear and without a fear of negotiation—with an eye toward the things that united the two sides, not a focus on belaboring those things that divided them.

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