Still Asking, 50 Years Later
On January 20, 1961, the youngest man ever elected as leader of the free world took the oath of office and was inaugurated as the 35th President of the United States. Shortly thereafter, John Fitzgerald Kennedy addressed an anxious Cold-War era America. His 15-minute discourse inspired his audience and became an integral part of his legacy.
In anticipation of the 50th anniversary of her father’s inauguration, Caroline Kennedy, who was three when he was elected, will announce a newly redesigned Web site at a January 13, 2011, press conference in the nation’s capitol. The new Web site represents the first phase of “Access to a Legacy,” a four-year, $10-million-dollar project to digitize the JFK Library and Museum’s vast archives.
The most widely recognized and well-remembered sentence of the 1961 inaugural speech was Kennedy’s clarion call to his fellow countrymen to think beyond the borders of personal benefit and contribute to the cause of common good.
“Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.”
In what was arguably the most famous sentence the president ever spoke, Americans were reminded how easily unchecked individual interest becomes all-consuming self-centeredness. Kennedy’s alternative would require all to consider serving a cause greater than, “What’s in it for me?”
By all reports, the President’s statement was well-received and resonated with the American people. Many believe JFK’s 1961 inaugural address galvanized a generation.
For five decades the derivation of the famous “Ask not” turn of phrase has been debated.
Theodore (Ted) Sorensen served as Special Counsel and Advisor in the Kennedy Administration. He is perhaps best known for his genius as Kennedy’s primary speech writer. The “Ask not” line of the inaugural address was naturally attributed to him. Through the years, reporters routinely asked Sorensen if he wrote the call to service in the famous line, but he consistently credited it to Kennedy himself. However, some remained unconvinced. In his 2008 memoir, Counselor: A Life at the Edge of History Sorensen wrote, “Having no satisfactory answer, I long ago started answering the oft-repeated question as to its authorship with the smiling retort: ‘Ask not.’”
The archives at the JFK Presidential Library acknowledge that Kennedy’s turn of phrase was novel, but the concept was not original. Similar thoughts are expressed in a variety of sources that Kennedy may have encountered in his education. The following is from the library’s Web site:
In A Thousand Days (Houghton Mifflin, 1965) Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. relates in a footnote on page 4, that John Kennedy kept a loose leaf notebook of quotations, and that as early as 1945 he had entered a quotation ascribed to the 18th century French philosopher Jean Jacques Rousseau: “As soon as any man says of the affairs of state, What does it matter to me?, the state may be given up as lost.” (no source cited).
Van Wyck Brooks’ New England: Indian Summer (1940) contains remarks made by the Mayor of Haverhill, Massachusetts at the funeral of John Greenleaf Whittier in which is the following: “Here may we be reminded that man is most honored, not by that which a city may do for him, but by that which he has done for the city.”
And Supreme Court Justice, Oliver Wendell Holmes in a Memorial Day address in 1884 stated: “It is now the moment when by common consent we pause to become conscious of our national life and to rejoice in it, to recall what our country has done for each of us, and to ask ourselves what we can do for our country in return.”
The concept President Kennedy asked his fellow countrymen to consider coincides with a key component of the Judeo-Christian ethic. A willingness to turn from selfishness to sacrifice and service for the concern of others is consistent with the change in perspective asked of those who would seek the mind of Christ (Philippians 2:2-5).
The apostle Paul called upon the first followers of Christ to present themselves as living sacrifices in service to God (Romans 12:1-2).
The Apostolic Writings also offer advice on the subject of “asking.” In Matthew 7:7-8 Jesus invites His followers to ask for what they need. His half-brother James admonishes those who ask to consider their motives. Selfish agendas cause one to ask amiss resulting in contention and strife (James 4: 1-3). Right asking is depicted as accompanied by right doing (1 John 3:22).
In one sense, the new President challenged his generation—whether Christian or Jew—to prove the premise of a statement attributed to Jesus by the apostle Paul. “It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35), a statement that built on the words of the Psalms (Psalms.41:1-3, 112:5-9).
Kennedy’s concern reached beyond the borders of America. He called upon the citizens of the world to think about the tomorrow they wanted to see and challenged them to work together for the freedom of humankind.
As one might expect, the President’s inaugural address was filled with visionary promise and potential. But was his articulate view the right way forward, or just great rhetoric? Have we been historically short-sighted by selfishness? Will an era of ever-increasing entitlements ebb into an age of austerity? Has humanity been asking amiss for a very long time?
As we commemorate the 50th anniversary of President Kennedy’s inauguration, perhaps we should revisit his famous turn of phrase. Will we continue to live our lives motivated by self-centeredness or commit to outgoing concern for our fellowman?
Among the many documents the JFK library will release online this month is the earliest surviving draft of the 1961 inaugural address with a handwritten note by Ted Sorenson. His recommendation was accepted and became the closing line of JFK’s prepared remarks:
Finally, whether you are citizens of America or citizens of the world, ask of us here the same high standards of strength and sacrifice which we ask of you. With a good conscience our only sure reward, with history the final judge of our deeds, let us go forth to lead the land we love, asking His blessing and His help, but knowing that here on earth God's work must truly be our own.
Could it be that the future of peace and prosperity the world longs for can only be realized when God’s work truly becomes our own?