October 12

"History is a relentless master. It has no present, only the past rushing into the future. To try to hold fast is to be swept aside."

John F. Kennedy, 35th President, 1961-1963. Sentiment echoed at Kennedy's nomination acceptance speech July 15, 1960. His speech in Los Angeles has been called ,"The New Frontier Speech." The Cold War and the Space Race with Russia were looming on the horizon, as was ongoing tension in the Middle East, and civil unrest was growing at home in the United States. "...We are not here to curse the darkness; we are here to light a candle. As Winston Churchill said on taking office some twenty years ago: If we open a quarrel between the present and the past, we shall be in danger of losing the future. Today our concern must be with that future. For the world is changing. The old era is ending. The old ways will not do. Abroad, the balance of power is shifting. New and more terrible weapons are coming into use. One-third of the world may be free, but one-third is the victim of a cruel repression, and the other third is rocked by poverty and hunger and disease. Communist influence has penetrated into Asia; it stands in the Middle East; and now festers some ninety miles off the coast of Florida. Friends have slipped into neutrality and neutrals have slipped into hostility...A technological output and explosion on the farm has led to an output explosion. An urban population revolution has overcrowded our schools and cluttered our cities and crowded our slums. A peaceful revolution for human rights, demanding an end to racial discrimination in all parts of our community life, has strained at the leashes imposed by a timid executive leadership. It is time, in short, for a new generation of leadership.(This line was echoed in 1992 by Bill Clinton, a Kennedy admirer, and expanded to also say, "it is time for a new gender of leadership.")