Assumption Preparatory School - Memini Yearbook (Worcester, MA)

Page 8 text:

IN MEMORIAM What did the passing of John Fitzgerald Kennedy mean to our nation. In some senses, seemingly very little. The torch is passed. We have our new president. Our cabinet. Con¬ gress and Supreme Court remain unchanged. The govern¬ ment process goes on. But ours is a nation of individuals, not of cogs. In these terms, what did we lose? A man whose wisdom seemed to belie his years, whose foresight sur¬ passed the myopic limits of many, whose outspoken solici¬ tude for justice pricked the conscience of a nation, whose pervasive wit brightened many an otherwise routine state function, whose unflinching resolution in the face of coer¬ cion met well the Communist challenge. In these terms our loss is inestimable and it is in these terms that Americans prefer to measure human value. Society needs up forces; he definitely was a strong one. But beyond these qualities, he showed American youth an example of dedication to the ideal of service. He did not need to busy himself with a career in public service, but he did, willingly,- if he had not, he would more than likely be alive today. As he phrased it himself in his 1962 State of the Union address, We sometimes chafe at the burden of our obligations, the complexity of our decisions, the agony of our choices. But there is no comfort or security for us in evasion, no solution in abdication, no relief in irresponsibil¬ ity. As he spoke, so he lived; as he lived, so he died. It is therefore essential that we include John Fitzgerald Kennedy in any thinking we do about the MEN WE WANT TO Be.