Getting Inspired

As my academic visit at Harvard is approaching to its end, I have hard time splitting my time between work and enjoying Cambridge and Boston. On Wednesday I decided to devote my limited time to the latter. I took the metro (or “T” (train) as they call it here) to Southern Boston where you can find state archives, University of Massachusetts and JFK Presidential Library and Museum. My destination was the museum celebrating the inspiring leadership of John F. Kennedy. Obviously, an important and almost obligatory destination for someone studying at the Harvard Kennedy School (JFK himself graduated from Harvard in 1940).

I.M. Pei has designed the great building at the banks of Columbia Point Peninsula (the same architect who did the glass pyramid of Louvre). You can easily spend three hours in the museum and the views over Boston Harbor islands are also worth contemplation.

I think it is difficult to make an interesting museum dedicated to a political personage but JFK Museum was a success (see their excellent website to have a glimpse of the museum and many sources about JFK). I guided myself through the rooms following his career from being a senator to a presidential candidate and to becoming the 35th President of the USA, discovering his vast political as well as ideological legacy. The collection consisted mainly of interesting videos of his speeches, photos, and gifts he received from other heads of states. I don’t know if it was the fact that I knew he would be assassinated in a few years that his speeches seemed somehow extremely emotional and meaningful, I was probably partly reflecting on them in the context of his short presidency. All in all, the museum did a good job in turning me to a JFK fan…

The museum opened in 1979 and a new wing (also by I.M. Pei) was built in 1991. Now a huge American flag hangs there at the end of the museum tour.

Of course the 1960s were full of amazing political happenings from Cold War, discovering the space to finishing racial segregation and Cuban missile crisis, so JFK had many opportunities to make these memorable speeches in a context that in itself was something spectacular. I doubt that passing the health care bill will ever be as emotional event than the moment when the first two black students entered the University of Alabama signalling the end of segregation in the Southern states. However, JFK somehow managed to turn these historical events even more touching using excellent rhetorical tricks and words that even after 40 years make you admire him. His inauguration speech in 1961, during the craziest years of Cold War and increasing recognition of developmental issues in faraway countries, pleaded for peace, freedom and welfare with an idealism and conviction that Obama can only dream of (although you can find many similarities in their discourses, such as the emphasis on hope). It seems that America of today is far from what he stated then: “If society cannot help the many that are poor, it cannot help the few that are rich.” The speech is probably more known of the phrase "ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country" that I heard small school kids repeating in the museum.

Skip to 4min30 where it starts to be more interesting and still relevant for our societies!

So when, after watching these inspiring speeches he gave next to Berlin wall or in Washington, the museum visitor arrives to the room dedicated to the 22^nd November 1963, one cannot avoid some tears emerging. He was the youngest president in the USA to have been elected and the youngest one to die.

Considering his short presidency, this part of his inaugural address seems even truer and above all, even sadder.