Carolyn Kay of MakeThemAccountable.com was kind enough to sent along a few tidbits from Brent Budowsky's outstanding channeling of JFK. The full piece is posted at BuzzFlash.com and a few choice tidbits follow:
My fellow Americans:
On November 22 four decades ago I left you, and for those of you who think of me, let me ask a personal favor: reflect for a moment on the world we lived in, the things we believed in, the deeds we did, and the Nation we left in trust for you.
I was born as America was winning the First World War, was young when America won the Second World War, and was President when America was winning the battle of ideas that led to our victory in the Cold War...
Think back on those days: the foot of Soviet communism on the neck of Eastern Europe. The danger of nuclear extermination in the air. Little children in America were taught to hide under their desks in school, as though they would not be incinerated if the radioactive bombs fell. Little children under communism grew up to fear the knock on the door, in the dark of their night, when Mom and Dad could disappear.
But we triumphed; America triumphed; freedom triumphed. The world became a much better place. The young children in America no longer had to hide under their desks. The children in Europe no longer had to fear the knock on the door in the middle of the night...
[A]lways remember that our great weapon is not the power of our shock and awe bombing, or our preemptive wars. It is the great truth of the power of our ideas. We must always be militarily strong, but the force of our ideas is always more powerful than the reckless use of force...
Read the whole thing - it really is an awesome paean to what I hope we aspire - not to mention great fodder for the 2008 campaign season!
Cross posted at MyDD.