by Mo Guernon

On Friday, November 22, 1963, President John Kennedy was scheduled to deliver remarks to an audience gathered at the Dallas, Texas Trade Mart. Tragically, Kennedy was assassinated minutes before he was to make that speech. As a result, the document has been consigned to the dustbins of history, despite its visionary insights. The text includes startling portents of what is actually transpiring in contemporary American politics.

JFK’s dire warnings require solemn contemplation by all American patriots regardless of party loyalty or ideology, especially now when our country is politically polarized, when much of our electorate is abysmally uninformed about vital national issues and readily susceptible to the alluring but treacherous promises of cynical demagogues.

Time is our paramount adversary, for our fundamental rights – indeed our very survival as a free society — is in imminent jeopardy both from our foreign foes as well as from a host of pernicious domestic enemies.

Ponder the chilling excerpts below from President Kennedy’s undelivered speech that foretold the inevitable demise of a society in which rampant gullibility, apathy, cynicism, intolerance, recklessness, and self-indulgence prevail. We are there. The ultimate question we must resolve before it is too late is, “Whither the future, America?”

           “This link between leadership and learning is not only essential at the community level. It is even more indispensable in world affairs. Ignorance and misinformation can handicap the progress of a city or a company, but they can, if allowed to prevail in foreign policy, handicap this country’s security. In a world of complex and continuing problems, in a world full of frustrations and irritations, America’s leadership must be guided by the lights of learning and reason or else those who confuse rhetoric with reality and the plausible with the possible will gain the popular ascendancy with their seemingly swift and simple solutions to every world problem.

            “There will always be dissident voices heard in the land, expressing opposition without alternatives, finding fault but never favor, perceiving gloom on every side and seeking influence without responsibility.

“… other voices are heard in the land–voices preaching doctrines wholly unrelated to reality…doctrines which apparently assume that words will suffice…that vituperation is as good as victory and that peace is a sign of weakness. 

“We cannot expect that everyone, to use the phrase of a decade ago, will “talk sense to the American people.” But we can hope that fewer people will listen to nonsense.

“… the status of our strength and our security…clearly calls for the most responsible qualities of leadership and the most enlightened products of scholarship. For this Nation’s strength and security are not easily or cheaply obtained, nor are they quickly and simply explained. 

“Above all, words alone are not enough. The United States is a peaceful nation. And where our strength and determination are clear, our words need merely to convey conviction, not belligerence. If we are strong, our strength will speak for itself. If we are weak, words will be of no help.

“… in today’s world, freedom can be lost without a shot being fired, by ballots as well as bullets. The success of our leadership is dependent upon respect for our mission in the world…on a clearer recognition of the virtues of freedom as well as the evils of tyranny.

“Finally, it should be clear by now that a nation can be no stronger abroad than she is at home. Only an America which practices what it preaches about equal rights and social justice will be respected by those whose choice affects our future. Only an America which has fully educated its citizens is fully capable of tackling the complex problems and perceiving the hidden dangers of the world in which we live.

“We in this country, in this generation, are — by destiny rather than choice — the watchmen on the walls of world freedom. We ask, therefore, that we may be worthy of our power and responsibility, that we may exercise our strength with wisdom and restraint, and that we may achieve in our time and for all time the ancient vision of “peace on earth, good will toward men.” That must always be our goal, and the righteousness of our cause must always underlie our strength. For as was written long ago: “except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.”