In 1960, Richard Nixon and John Kennedy participated in the first general presidential debates.
So today, let’s quote John F Kennedy! So many good ones:
As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.
Or this, from the 1960 debate:
I want us to recapture that image. I want people in Latin America and Africa and Asia to start to look to America; to see how we’re doing things; to wonder what the resident of the United States is doing; and not to look at Khrushchev, or look at the Chinese Communists. That is the obligation upon our generation. In 1933, Franklin Roosevelt said in his inaugural that this generation of Americans has a rendezvous with destiny. I think our generation of Americans has the same rendezvous. The question now is: Can freedom be maintained under the most severe tack – attack it has ever known? I think it can be. And I think in the final analysis it depends upon what we do here. I think it’s time America started moving again. (For the whole 1960 debate transcript, go HERE. Look for the moment where Nixon has nothing to add!)
And of course:
My fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.
Or maybe my favorite:
Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.
(Family brag: he wrote a letter to my grandfather. I have it framed!!)
In every election, we have a great opportunity to talk about the past and the future. This election has, at times, felt strange. Maybe more than ever before, there are ideas at stake–about inclusion. About respect. About what makes an American. Yesterday, I realized I should be calling these posts Presidents without Politics. Our presidents are not rulers. They represent us. They must be able to speak for us and about us with clarity.
#OneADay #GreatPresidents #PresidentsWithoutPolitics