The passing of the Mantle of Hope

[CRH]

Passing the Mantle of Hope

As I lay awake late I was thinking of the recent Kennedy endorsement of Barack Obama. My thoughts couldn't quite surround memories past and bring them to the surface with clarity.

I thought of the symbolic passing of the mantle of a political power whose zenith descended when political history forgot the hope nearly extinguished, by violent domestic terrorism from within.

First it was 'our old friend John', then Bobby. Both fell in a hail of bullets that shattered the natural evolution toward social and political change. There was a malevolence in the air struggling to suppress visions of peace and social justice. A very dark domestic malevolence lurking beneath government departments, commissions, journalism, then written history, all estranged from the truth.

As a people and nation we patched together an alternative history that failed to acknowledge intentions distorted, directions diverted, and dreams extinguished.

Events cause ripples that eventually rebound, those sacrificed on the alter of ideals are often placed on pedestals, then with enhanced lore become figures larger than life, rivaling sainthood. It is natural within the human psych, when we are engulfed with political and social torment, to preserve the last embers of hope with iconic memories.

However, a more profound reflection from the rebounding ripple allows us to return from iconic distortions, and respect and rejoice in the frailties and strengths of the human condition. John and Bobby Kennedy were both politicians, very human, ever evolving, and who most of the time were able to avoid the pitfalls inherent in the exercise of power. Perfect they were not, but always returning to search for a better way, they were.

An inescapable impression after reading the speeches of the two, is they were both a work in progress, not a set of policies and principles chiseled from inflexible stone.

When President Eisenhower passed the presidency to John Kennedy, he did so with trepidation, and warned in his Farewell to the Union Address of the danger presented by the Military Industrial Complex, of overwhelming the influence and power of the people; as so in the end, it did.

John Kennedy did not at first confront this power, but it was soon evident he was very aware of its manifestation through policy, and he began to overtly challenge the direction of its thrust. First he withdrew his support for the CIA fomented Bay of Pigs invasion, later he faced down cold war aggression with diplomacy backed by the projection of power, in the Cuban missile crisis. A short time later he demonstrated a 'profile in courage' when he publicly voiced a desire to pursue nuclear detente with the Soviet Union, an act viewed as a weakness by the national security apparatus and the Pentagon. John Kennedy again attempted to derail the best laid plans of the national security agenda when he signed a national security directive just before his assassination, calling for the withdrawal of all military advisers from the blossoming Viet Nam war venture. The directive was reversed by President Johnson, during the days of mourning for the murdered commander in chief.

JFKs actions were not all that was to become his shortened legacy, his speeches were also archived in history, and showed the evolution of a statesman in search of diplomacy as a solution in place of the projection of military might.

One of his greatest speeches just months before his death outlined his own brand of hope, a hope that was borne from the need for the citizens and the country to change how we perceived our world, and the diversity within.

It was this memory that was poking my sub conscience, a commencement address given at American University on June 10, 1963, the same university where Congressman Patrick Kennedy Caroline Kennedy and Senator Ted Kennedy passed the mantle of power to Senator Barack Obama.

http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/jfkamericanuniversityaddress.html

~~ snip ~~

I have, therefore, chosen this time and place to discuss a topic on which ignorance too often abounds and the truth too rarely perceived. And that is the most important topic on earth: peace. What kind of peace do I mean and what kind of a peace do we seek? Not a Pax Americana enforced on the world by American weapons of war. Not the peace of the grave or the security of the slave. I am talking about genuine peace, the kind of peace that makes life on earth worth living, and the kind that enables men and nations to grow, and to hope, and build a better life for their children -- not merely peace for Americans but peace for all men and women, not merely peace in our time but peace in all time.

~~ snip ~~

So let us not be blind to our differences, but let us also direct attention to our common interests and the means by which those differences can be resolved. And if we cannot end now our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity. For in the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children's futures. And we are all mortal.

~~ end excerpt ~~ The entire address is a must read if one is to understand the fear of the time, and the optimism and hope that was in need of inspiration.

I hope that in receiving the mantle of power Mr. Obama remembers the foundations of hope, cooperation and introspection presented in this address. Perhaps we can dare to learn to live within our diversity at home, and allow other countries and cultures to determine their own destiny.

Maybe somewhere in the audacity of hope is a fleeting thought that perhaps the citizens of Cuba deserve a life without embargo, or perhaps we could learn to respect the inherent rights of the citizens of Venezuela to elect their own leader and determine their government, free from fear of CIA intervention.

If the coat tails of this power propels Obama to the nomination and later victory in the general election, time and actions will be the test and history will be the judge, if the mantle was passed in the furtherance of the audacity of hope. Hope for all humans in all countries and in all cultures.

Thank you for reading.

[K Gardner]

1. K&R