When you follow politics as closely as I do or as long as I have, it’s very easy to become cynical, especially given what’s been passing for “leadership” in Washington these days.
So when my wife and I prepared to embark last weekend on our first vacation in well over two years, I was fully prepared to forget about politics completely and just enjoy a week at the Cape. Unfortunately, the town I chose to book for our trip would make that impossible.
Hyannis, Massachusetts, not far from the summer home of the Kennedy family, and one of my few political heroes, President John F. Kennedy, who would have turned 100 this past May 29.
Not many know this, but the Kennedys have been something of an obsession of mine since childhood. When I was very young, my family lived on Smith Street in Greenfield. The Sadlowskis were our next door neighbors. They were a childless elderly couple and Mrs. Sadlowski took quite a shine to me. Who could blame her? I was pretty adorable back then.
I used to go over and visit a couple of times a week, and one day, she pulled out a photo album which chronicled the day Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas. This was more than just a collection of old, yellowing newspaper clippings. These were real glossy photos that had to have been taken by a professional shutterbug who was standing on the street that day.
While she showed me the photos, Mrs. Sadlowski told me the story of the JFK years, complete with the Camelot legend, and the magic it created, and how those shots changed the course of our country’s history forever. She clearly loved the guy and the way she told the story, along with those photos, really put the bug in me.
I began to read everything I could find on Kennedy, mostly on the assassination. One of my sisters made my year when she bought me the “Kennedy Family Scrapbook” one birthday. My parents didn’t mind — they were big JFK fans, especially being from Brookline, which was also Kennedy’s hometown — although I think my mother found it a bit goulish that her youngest son was so obsessed with one of the worst assassinations in American history.
As I got older and my interest in politics and journalism grew, I became more interested in the Kennedy “mystique” and the transformative impact his 1960 election and subsequent murder had on the country. I was also amazed by the stuff he managed to get away with, especially when it came to other women.
I came of age politically post-Watergate, where press coverage of presidents had become much more adversarial than it had been in Kennedy’s time. If he’d had to run in the days of the 24-hour news cycle, his presidential aspirations would probably have ended with Inga Arvad, a Danish beauty with whom JFK had a fling that began long before he ever thought about entering politics.
In fact, “Inga-Binga,” as Kennedy supposedly referred to her, was a supposed Nazi spy during WWII. Imagine Hannity or O’Reilly getting their hands on that nugget? He’d have been done like dinner long before the first primary.
He also would likely never have gotten the nomination in today’s political climate, no matter how much cash his old man spread around. Though he was technically a Democrat, Kennedy would have been considered a centrist by today’s standards.
Some feel he would be a Republican today, but I’m not sure I buy that. Despite his belief in a strong national defense, Kennedy believed government could be an instrument of social good, and would never have embraced the “slash and burn” mentality which is so much a part of the current GOP platform.
The fact that he got to the White House how he did, when he did, only adds to the legend, which is as strong today as it was when he was taken from us 54 years ago. Whether you agreed with his positions or not, I think most agree that Kennedy harkens back to a time when people still trusted their government. Things weren’t perfect, but there was a spirit of unity in the country and between the two major political parties.
Sure, they had differences, and there was partisanship, but it wasn’t the blood sport we see today. And until that stops, we are never going to experience the sentiment expressed in what may have been Kennedy’s greatest speech, delivered at American University the summer before his death.
“For in the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet,” Kennedy said. “We all breathe the same air, we all cherish our children’s future, and we are all mortal.”
They may have been aimed at the Soviet’s then, but those words are truer today in this country than ever. Perhaps one day, our leaders will choose to heed them, and we can become the kind of country so many hoped we would during those brief shining moments known as Camelot.
Chris Collins is the Franklin County News Bureau Chief for WHAI, WPVQ and WHMP Radio. He is a former staff reporter for The Recorder, and is a Greenfield native.