John F. Kennedy gave the commencement address at Yale University in 1962. Words Kennedy spoke more than 60 years ago are meaningful today.
…For the great enemy of truth is very often not the lie–deliberate, contrived and dishonest–but the myth–persistent, persuasive, and unrealistic. Too often we hold fast to the cliches of our forebears. We subject all facts to a prefabricated set of interpretations. We enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought.
…Mythology distracts us everywhere–in government as in business, in politics as in economics, in foreign affairs as in domestic affairs…
Nearly 150 years ago Thomas Jefferson wrote, “The new circumstances under which we are placed call for new words, new phrases, and for the transfer of old words to new objects.” New words, new phrases, the transfer of old words to new objects–that is truer today than it was in the time of Jefferson, because the role of this country is so vastly more significant.
…You are part of the world and you must participate in these days of our years in the solution of the problems that pour upon us, requiring the most sophisticated and technical judgment; and as we work in consonance to meet the authentic problems of our times, we will generate a vision and an energy which will demonstrate anew to the world the superior vitality and strength of the free society.

Categories: USA


I needed a “router”. Buddy had a spare.
I wanted to edge woodwork. His enabled a PC.
From memory: Childhood hero, Bucky Fuller, of geodesic dome fame stopped all communication for 2-3 years in his 60s to study words and their meaning.
His rational?
When I say anything in the future I want to be sure I am using the right words so there can be no confusion of meaning.
Elections are won by every ear hearing what they want to hear.
Cutting taxes was the promise. 🙂 Good deal. 🙂
For the wealthy and corporations. 😦 It just didn’t include you. 😦
The definition meanings of all the benign political labels have been villified
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JFK said, “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.”
Today the President’s message is clearly, “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what your country can do for me.”
I believe Mr. Oswald’s aim was off by sixty years.
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