During a ceremony marking what would have been President John F. Kennedy’s 100th birthday, Congressman Joe Kennedy III spoke at his great uncle’s birthplace in Brookline yesterday. Here’s a transcript of his prepared remarks…
Thank you Professor Logevall for that kind introduction, and for your elegant description of my great-uncle’s work.
To the National Parks Service, the Town of Brookline and the countless dear friends gathered in the audience today, thank you for this thoughtful, poignant tribute.
It is hard to express how meaningful it is, so suffice it to say: my family and I are deeply grateful.
This street is particularly familiar to me. My wife and I brought our daughter Ellie home right around the corner, to the first house we shared as a family. Though we’ve since moved, this neighborhood will always hold a special chapter in our story.
Ladies and gentlemen, there has been an incredible outpouring of inspiring words shared about my great-uncle in the months, weeks and days leading up to this centennial.
When you have a family as big as mine you learn pretty quickly not to speak on their behalf. But I think I can safely say that few words resonate as deeply with us as the ones that come from here. Brookline. Boston. Massachusetts. Home.
Because if there is one thing we know about President John F. Kennedy it is how proud he was of where he came from. His family. His heritage. His hometown.
This bold and beautiful Commonwealth. This brilliant country, which gave his ancestors the opportunities that dreams are made off.
That pride wove and wound its way through everything he did. In the voice of a man who would deliver sweeping prose with a sharp Boston accent. The heart of a man who traveled from sea to shining sea but found no match for the magic of Cape Cod’s shores. No substitute for the wisdom of an Irish-Catholic mother. And no equal to his beloved City on a Hill.
President Kennedy’s pride was honest and sure-footed. Expansive, inclusive and infectious.
It’s a feeling most of us know. When you are humbled to be a part of something. When you offer a piece of yourself to a person or place or cause because you believe in it that deeply. When you care about something enough that you will give it everything you have and then search the bottom of your soul for just a little bit more.
That feeling gives you more than pride – it gives you purpose.
No one understood that as instinctively as John F. Kennedy. It was the lesson of a lifetime for a boy who made his way from the dining room table of a big Irish family to the bunks and brotherhood of the US Navy, to the tight-knit chambers of the US Senate… all the way to the highest helm of a messy, mighty, melting pot of a country.
That stubborn edict of our patriotism: I cannot separate my fate from yours. By choice or chance, our lives are connected. And that makes your despair mine. My triumph, yours.
But President Kennedy didn’t just ask the American public for blind buy-in to the common good. He offered them something in return.
He was not only the President who implored a generation to serve. He was the President who promised them a country worthy of their service.
A nation fearless enough to conquer the moon. A government confident enough to carry the weak on its strong shoulders. A system fair enough that no man, woman or child could be told they mattered less than their neighbor. And a citizenry determined enough that they would offer themselves as ambassadors for peace to the darkest corners of our globe.
It worked. A generation jumped off the sidelines and raced to be a part of it all – inspired by a President who told them that he needed them on the field. That none of us can do it alone. That he would gratefully accept whatever it is they had to offer, no matter how simple or small.
Today, we search for that patriotism, that common cause. There are moments we see it surely: In the lives we honor each Memorial Day. In the heroes that continue to put themselves on the line so the rest of us live safe and free. In the songs and flags. The slogans and holidays. Symbols, yes, but important reminders of the shared history that binds us to each other.
But our shared future… right now it can feel tenuous. Today we face leadership that seems intent on dividing Americans up, rather than pulling us together. One system for the powerful, the wealthy, the healthy. Another for the sick and struggling and suffering. One country for those who pray to a certain God, love a certain person, look a certain way. And another, lesser country for everyone else.
It is hard – for many of us – to be proud of that.
But in times of doubt and division, this centennial reminds us of our saving grace. That same surety that underscored President Kennedy’s enduring faith in what this country was capable of: human beings are exceptional.
Our simple existence crowns the universe.
We are imperfect. We are flawed and fragile. We can be selfish and cruel. But – and this he believed fiercely – in the moments that matter most, we exceed expectations.
We expand and extend. We rescue, we protect, and we survive. We give, we open, we heal, we help. We choose to be heroes.
And that – more than any law or leader, more than even the most powerful movements and moments in history – that is what drives us towards progress.
It takes time and persistence and resistance and patience. But no single person, no bully, no stubborn monster like prejudice or injustice… in the end none of it, can match the small, personal, courageous ways that we choose goodness every single day.
Because we all want to be proud of how we spend this precious time on Earth.
Thank you. From my family and myself, we are humbled, grateful and inspired by your presence and friendship.
Enjoy the day!
