Tuesday 9 November 2010

His words sparked a hundred million dreams

"Too many Americans have lost their way, their will and their sense of historic purpose. It is time, in short, for a new generation of leadership - new men to cope with new problems and new opportunities. I stand tonight facing west on what was once the last frontier.

"From the lands that stretch three thousand miles behind me, the pioneers of old gave up their safety, their comfort and sometimes their lives to build a new world here in the West. They were mot captives of their own doubts, the prisoners of their own price tags. Their motto was not 'every man for himself' - but all for the common cause'.

"We stand today on the edge of a new frontier - the frontier of the 1960s - a frontier of unknown opportunities and perils - a frontier of unfulfilled hopes and threats."

These were the words John F. Kennedy used, stood in the Los Angeles Coliseum, to accept the nomination of the Democrat Party to run for President in 1960. These words were as much Ted Sorensen's as they were JFK's.

Sorensen was JFK's speechwriter, senior counsel and closest adviser, other than brother Bobby. His words were the melody to JFK's thousand day presidency.

Yesterday marked 50 years since the election of John F. Kennedy, sadly Ted Sorensen died earlier this month but his words live on.  

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