The Icelandic Canadian - 01.12.1963, Side 15

THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
13
John F. Kennedy: Courage and Vision
Where there is no vision the people perish.’’ — Proverbs 29:18
“There is yet, to whoever is eligible among us, the prophetic vision,
the joy of being tossed in the brave turmoil of these times.” — Walt Whitman
In his book, “Profiles in Courage’’, John F. Kennedy wrote: “The courage
of life is often a less dramatic spectacle than the courage of a final moment.”
When that courage of life is possessed by a man of high intellectual
qualities and undoubted moral strength, whose training has been for selfless
service, a vision begins to form and combines with that courage. If that man is
placed in a position of great power with heavy world issues to face, the vision
will crystalize and give direction to his every public task, which nothing can
bend or disturb. Each step taken will be as that vision directs. Each overt act
of public service will reach the hearts of men, individually rather than col-
lectively. This will continue to register in human minds as deeds on highest
levels are performed. Then some climactic event may happen which, because of
its suddenness and world impact, will reveal to the collective mind of mankind
what had gradually, but surely, been taking place.
Such a climactic event took place at 12:30 p.m. on Friday, November 22,
1963, when John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the President of the United States of
America, was fatally shot.
Evidence of his courage “of a final moment” was provided in World War
II. A PT boat had been sliced in two by a Japanese destroyer. John Kennedy, a
lieutenant in charge of the boat, swam to a small island, three miles away, hold-
ing in his teeth a strap of the life belt of his seriously burnt engineer.
During the three years allotted the President to public service many
issues of world significance arose. Some events were created by this man of
vision; others were forced upon him.
Integration of the negroes was of the event-creating variety. Casting aside
all thoughts of political support in the deep south the President took a firm
stand against segregation. John Kennedy saw old age, the vagaries of youth, un
employment, the plight of the unskilled, in their stark realities. A New Frontier
rose before him.
Nikita Khrushchev has called West Berlin “a bone that must come out of
the Russian throat.” Kennedy made clear that the bone would remain there no
matter what the discomfort to Russia.
In Viet Nam a powerful family of his own religious faith obtained con-
trol. That faith, though deep and unshakeable in John Kennedy’s heart, did
not lead him off the path of duty.