January 20, 1961--Jack Kennedy's Inauguration

One of the great moments of my life took place exactly 50 years ago today, on January 20, 1961. That day, John F. Kennedy was inaugurated as the 35th President of the United States. That day was a triumph for Irish Catholics like myself and my family. We felt that a new, vigorous day had dawned for America, and it was reflected in this handsome, young, vigorous man--a man like us, whose family had arisen in a few generations from the outcast post-famine Irish immigrants, to people with power and influence on our society and world. Of course my family was unlike the Kennedy's in so many ways. We were working class, Dad a factory worker, Mom a housewife, living in a tiny tract house in a suburb of Cleveland. But we felt as if they were family: the Coughlin's and the Kennedy's. How's that!

On that day 50 years ago, I listened to Robert Frost read a poem, "The Gift Outright," as part of the ceremony. The venerable old lion of American letters tried to read some new verse off the page. But in the cold, clear glare of a perfect day (after the day before's paralyzing blizzard), Robert Frost couldn't see his own words. So he set the new text aside and recited from heart, from Robert Frost's big heart, his great poem "The Gift Outright" --a poem how we as new Americans had to win the land that we had lived on as colonials. Frost's reading was indeed a gift outright to the new president and to the country.

Jack Kennedy's inaugural address, probably co-written with the brilliant Ted Sorenson, certainly is one of the greatest speeches in American history, up there with Abraham Lincoln's "Gettysburg Address" and Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech. Tonight I watched a video replay of the speech, and it still gives me shivers, still speaks to the needs of America and the world.

Jack Kennedy, as we found out, was as flawed a man as you and me. But he was a great man too. And his legacy, his words and ideals, live in me, and countless others, today.#

For an article on Robert Frost's reading, check out this link:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2010-09-26-jfk-poet-robert-frost_N.htm

The Wikipedia entry on JFK's speech is at this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inaugural_address_of_John_F._Kennedy

The Wikipedia article may not be 100% correct (in part because of its claim that Ted Sorenson wrote the speech; I'm almost sure this speech was a close collaboration between JFK and Ted Sorenson).