TALKING IT OVER
HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON
July 21,
1999
Let me share with you some of the words John F. Kennedy Jr. said the
last time he was at the White House. It was March of 1998, and he had come to
Washington for a screening of Tom Hanks' 12-hour HBO special, "From the Earth
to the Moon," about the history of the Apollo space program.
"I'm honored to be here at the White House," he said, "just a few yards
from where President Kennedy made the decision to send Americans to the moon
and return them safely back to the U.S. before the decade of the 1960s was
over. In hindsight, the choice looked obvious, but at the time, it was, in a
very real sense, President Kennedy's alone, made against the opposition of
conservatives who thought the priority should be warheads, and liberals who
called the project 'Moondoggle' and believed the money should be better spent
on social services ...
"But today, there is an American flag on a windless plain on the moon,
because the challenge to explore space stirred something deep and indelible in
the American character. And while all the dire predictions never came true, and
the technological payoff can be found in everything -- from computers to
freeze-dried foods to scratch-proof sunglasses -- we are richer as a nation
with the vivid memory of that first step on the moon."
Kennedy went on to call the space program his father's "proudest
legacy." This week, we celebrate that legacy by marking the 30th anniversary of
Apollo 11, which landed a man on the moon for the first time, and we salute
Col. Eileen Collins, the first woman to command a space shuttle mission. Today,
every NASA astronaut recognizes and remembers President Kennedy's legacy. So,
it was with special sadness this weekend that Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin
spoke at the Kennedy Space Center after hearing the shocking news that John
Kennedy's airplane had disappeared over Martha's Vineyard. "Our hearts," he
said, "go out to the family that has started so much, achieved so much,
suffered and sacrificed so much, and now has even further uncertainty."
Indeed, the hearts of the entire nation go out to the Kennedy family, as
well as to the family of Carolyn Bessette Kennedy and her sister, Lauren. For
just as we have carried the picture of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walking
on the moon, so, too, have we carried the picture of John Kennedy Jr., just 3
years old, saluting the cordon that carried his father's coffin into St.
Matthew's Cathedral that bleak November day, 36 years ago.
As an adult, John's public persona was tinged with glamour and
adventure. But those who knew him well knew a man who carried his father's and
mother's legacy with grace -- a man who lived his life according to the
Biblical edict so often repeated by his grandmother Rose: "And from everyone
who has been given much shall much be required." His own legacy surely will
include a strong devotion to public service and the rights of the
underprivileged, the underrepresented and the underserved. I met John and his
wife, Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, many times, but I'll never forget that final
visit to the White House for the HBO screening. Everyone was moved by John's
words about his father's contribution to the space program.
But what I remember most came after all the other guests had gone home,
when we asked John and Carolyn whether they would like a tour of the White
House. John, as it turned out, had not been there since 1963, and had trouble
sorting out what he remembered from what he had seen only in pictures. We
showed him the room where he slept, and we walked around the grounds where he
and his sister played. In the Oval Office, he saw the President's desk -- the
same desk under which he was caught by a photographer playing hide-and-seek as
a toddler -- and the garden named in honor of his mother, Jacqueline Kennedy.
The John Kennedy I met at the White House was elegant and eloquent -- a
man who had lost so much as a child, but who went on to live a life filled with
love, adventure, accomplishment and, as he said, "relative normalcy."
From the Special Olympics to the Peace Corps, from laws that have raised
the minimum wage and extended health insurance to more working families, to
promises that have sent men -- and now women -- into space, the Kennedy family
for decades has inspired us, led us and moved our nation forward. My prayers --
and the prayers of the entire nation -- are with them today.
COPYRIGHT 1997 CREATORS SYNDICATE, INC.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
|
