As the 50th anniversary of John Fitzgerald Kennedy's death at the hands of an assassin in Dallas, Texas on November 22 approaches, across the Cornfield and across the nation, people are remembering the years of Camelot, when a young, charismatic politician stole the hearts of Americans.
At the time, though many throughout the nation still were at odds with the President on policy issues, he had managed to capture the people's hearts as had his wife, Jackie, and children, Caroline and John-John. Speeches would denounce his politics and yes, even his religion, but would in the next breath extol what a determined, caring man and war hero JFK was.
A phrase which has become synonymous with the Kennedy years and the course of a nation was his appeal during his inaugural address on January 20, 1961: "And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country."
Today that concept, that idea, seems to be alien to many Americans and especially lost on most of our national elected officials.
The concept and its origin is steeped in debate. Some arguing it goes back a thousand years or more to Plato or Juvenal. Others cite President Warren G. Harding who made a similar statement to the Republican National Convention decades before. Others cite JFK's former school headmaster.
No matter the origin, the sentiment of the line is rooted in a belief shared since the foundation of this great nation - the idea of individual responsibility, individual fortitude, individual enterprise and individual ingenuity to build and sustain a nation unlike any other before it.
Ronald Reagan voiced a similar sentiment with his quip that government is the problem and not the answer. Kennedy recognized this. Kennedy knew government was only as effective as the people and what the people were willing to do for themselves and for country.
While JFK in his "New Frontier" speech to the 1960 Democratic National Convention made known his desire to expand on the more social platform instituted by Franklin Delano Roosevelt, he also was a pragmatist who understood the need for the individual doing his or her part and not relying solely on taking from or asking for government to provide the solutions and answers.
That concept, that sentiment, appears so lost in the political climate of today. It is lost not just with the Democratic Party of which JFK is a legacy, but also with Republicans who are far afield of either Abraham Lincoln or Reagan.
From the Cornfield, as we remember Kennedy, let us once more look inward and say with him, "Ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country."
And let it begin in the halls of Congress and in the White House.