thank you I got two rounds of applause
already when they put my headset on they
said I had the exact same head size as
Ed Glaeser which I said was really great
because he seemed smart so one of the
last things that you see when you leave
the Kennedy Library is this quote from
John F Kennedy a man may die nations may
rise and fall but an idea lives on and
the idea he was talking about was the
idea of America and that’s what I want
to talk to you about JFK’s idea of
America but first I want to tell you a
quick story so this is me in the front
of the golf cart next to the steering
wheel in 1962 ten months after this
photo was taken my father was planning
the campaign of his brother-in-law when
President Kennedy was killed in Dallas
this is my great-grandfather President
Kennedy’s grandfather PJ Kennedy who
sailed whose parents sailed right
through presidents Channel behind us
into Boston Harbor they came from
Ireland and PJ went to work on the
Boston docks at the age of 14 after they
died of cholera
so the Kennedys were immigrants and they
came to America to find refuge and
opportunity and this is PJ son in the
middle of this photo my grandfather he’s
standing on the lawn of the US Embassy
in England in 1939 he’s one of the
richest men in America one of the most
powerful diplomatic positions in the
world
Roosevelt’s ambassador to England before
the war so the Kennedys have become
successful in America to the left of my
grandfather as you look at this photo is
my mother and to her left is my aunt
rosemary who was diagnosed with an
intellectual disability and my
grandfather was told by the leading
doctors of her day his day that she
should have a lobotomy and part of her
brain
cut-out she was left severely disabled
for the rest of her life on the far
right of the photo is my aunt Kathleen
killed during a plane crash during the
war to her left towards the middle next
to my grandmother is my Uncle Joe a
Special Forces pilot killed in a bombing
raid over Germany and President Kennedy
to the far left of the photo comes home
from the war with a broken back his PT
boat was sunk in the Solomon Islands his
some of his crewmates were killed and he
spent days swimming between islands in
the dark until he and his crewmates were
finally rescued so my story begins with
an immigrant family that rises to
fortune and power and then encounters
suffering and wants to make meaning out
of it and this is where the story gets
interesting I think so William James the
founder of the field of psychology once
wrote an essay called what makes a life
significant and in that essay he said
that the solid meaning of life is always
the same eternal thing is the marriage
of some unhitch whole purpose with some
energy fealty and here’s the key phrase
some man or woman’s pains and there is
always an everywhere the possibility for
that marriage to happen the war changed
John F Kennedy and he found his own
habitual purpose he entered politics and
one of his greatest speeches the
American University speech was about
peace and about mortality in the final
analysis he said we all inhabit this
small planet we all breathe the same air
we all cherish our children’s future and
we are all mortal in the very same
Japanese commander that sank JFK’s boat
attended his inauguration in 1961 this
generation knew how to work together
they created the institution’s the
United Nations the World Bank the IMF
the European Union the arms control
regime they kept the world safe from a
major global war for the longest period
in modern history they went through a
tragedy together and ironically that
tragedy deepened their sense of
solidarity and commitment and dedication
to one another what’s missing in our
country right now is that sense of
solidarity and gratitude and it feels
lonely life expectancy is down for the
first time in our history a loss of
meaningful work an atmosphere of
division people feeling stressed in the
absence of community has led to 40,000
suicides and 60,000 opioid deaths this
year wealth inequality is at the highest
level in our nation’s history and we
seem to have become a nation of tribes
that talks at each other through
computer screens and on television but
not to each other but it’s possible that
we can get an insight from these
difficulties an insight that John F
Kennedy might have had when he lost his
brother and sister during the war and
almost died himself floating the Pacific
or an insight that I had sitting on my
uncle Robert Kennedy’s funeral train
looking out the window at the faces of
the millions of people that we passed by
an insight that life is incredibly
beautiful and also heartbreakingly sad
and that we are all bound together in
the words of dr. King an inescapable
network of mutuality John F Kennedy
believed in certain ideas one was the
idea of America the idea that we are not
defined only by our tribe our race our
religion or ethnicity or gender our
sexuality or any other social category
but ultimately by our common belief in
certain democratic constitutional
American and yes human ideals those
ideals are defined in
founding documents but they stretch all
the way back to the Greeks and Kennedy
admired the right to the pursuit of
happiness quality under the law freedom
of speech liberty and justice for all
when those ideals were not observed he
spoke out as in the case of civil rights
but he also believed that ideals and
arguments are not enough he believed in
service he put his life on the line and
gave everything for the country they
gave him in our family so much and so
did John McCain and John Lewis and
George Bush Senior the last American
president to serve in combat
Republicans and Democrats all of whom
got the Profiles in Courage Award right
here in this room for their service to
our country not in the military but for
their political courage they believed in
service too so yes the country is
different since JFK there have been
changes in the global economy there have
been changes in the diversity of our
nation the advent of social media and
talk television with their algorithms
and business models that divide us but
is there something that we can learn
from this generation that could help to
bring our country closer together I
think there is there is one thing that
John F Kennedy in every generation of
Americans did up until 1965 together
that was a melting pot for every part of
the country in every walk of life they
served in the military my uncle’s my
father and seven of my uncle’s served in
the Armed Forces and one died in the
Second World War they did something
together and we respect them for it and
even today the military is the most
respected institution in American life
and we thank these GIS with the GI Bill
which paid their college tuition so I’m
not advocating militarism but here’s an
idea how about a GI Bill for national
service how about paying the college
tuition of everyone who is willing to
work for their country working in a
school a national park helping with the
national
disaster or the elderly or the homeless
how about putting people together in
teams working on our nation’s problems
together
how about teaching our young people
citizenship and service and civics for
about 20 billion dollars less than half
the increase in this year’s defense
budget we could pay the college tuition
of all who are willing to serve imagine
what we could accomplish together you
know we might not agree on everything
but I hope we agree that patriotism and
shared sacrifice and worthwhile values
and that a country that is dedicated to
personal self advancement and self
aggrandizement is no country at all we
need each other to make it something
different it’s tempting to think of the
death of John F Kennedy and Robert
Kennedy and Martin Luther King both of
whom died fifty years ago this year as
tragic and they were tragic but the
spiritual tradition that they came from
is the tradition of tragic hope and the
Transfiguration of suffering and they
had the kind of hope that is not
dependent on expediency or circumstances
they dedicated themselves to certain
principles so a man may die nations may
rise and fall but an idea lives on civic
identity based on constitutional
principles and service the ideals of
America the John F Kennedy believed in
only live on if we believe in them too
together I’ll let I pick for the dog the
desert
eradicate disease half helium death and
and not what your country can do for you
as what you can do for your country
this country of the United States was
not built by those who waited and wish
to look behind them we set sail on this
new sea because there is new knowledge
to be gained and new right to be one let
the word go forth from this time and
place to friend and foe alike that the
torch has been passed to a new
generation of Americans and the glow
from that fire
[Music] [Applause]
already when they put my headset on they
said I had the exact same head size as
Ed Glaeser which I said was really great
because he seemed smart so one of the
last things that you see when you leave
the Kennedy Library is this quote from
John F Kennedy a man may die nations may
rise and fall but an idea lives on and
the idea he was talking about was the
idea of America and that’s what I want
to talk to you about JFK’s idea of
America but first I want to tell you a
quick story so this is me in the front
of the golf cart next to the steering
wheel in 1962 ten months after this
photo was taken my father was planning
the campaign of his brother-in-law when
President Kennedy was killed in Dallas
this is my great-grandfather President
Kennedy’s grandfather PJ Kennedy who
sailed whose parents sailed right
through presidents Channel behind us
into Boston Harbor they came from
Ireland and PJ went to work on the
Boston docks at the age of 14 after they
died of cholera
so the Kennedys were immigrants and they
came to America to find refuge and
opportunity and this is PJ son in the
middle of this photo my grandfather he’s
standing on the lawn of the US Embassy
in England in 1939 he’s one of the
richest men in America one of the most
powerful diplomatic positions in the
world
Roosevelt’s ambassador to England before
the war so the Kennedys have become
successful in America to the left of my
grandfather as you look at this photo is
my mother and to her left is my aunt
rosemary who was diagnosed with an
intellectual disability and my
grandfather was told by the leading
doctors of her day his day that she
should have a lobotomy and part of her
brain
cut-out she was left severely disabled
for the rest of her life on the far
right of the photo is my aunt Kathleen
killed during a plane crash during the
war to her left towards the middle next
to my grandmother is my Uncle Joe a
Special Forces pilot killed in a bombing
raid over Germany and President Kennedy
to the far left of the photo comes home
from the war with a broken back his PT
boat was sunk in the Solomon Islands his
some of his crewmates were killed and he
spent days swimming between islands in
the dark until he and his crewmates were
finally rescued so my story begins with
an immigrant family that rises to
fortune and power and then encounters
suffering and wants to make meaning out
of it and this is where the story gets
interesting I think so William James the
founder of the field of psychology once
wrote an essay called what makes a life
significant and in that essay he said
that the solid meaning of life is always
the same eternal thing is the marriage
of some unhitch whole purpose with some
energy fealty and here’s the key phrase
some man or woman’s pains and there is
always an everywhere the possibility for
that marriage to happen the war changed
John F Kennedy and he found his own
habitual purpose he entered politics and
one of his greatest speeches the
American University speech was about
peace and about mortality in the final
analysis he said we all inhabit this
small planet we all breathe the same air
we all cherish our children’s future and
we are all mortal in the very same
Japanese commander that sank JFK’s boat
attended his inauguration in 1961 this
generation knew how to work together
they created the institution’s the
United Nations the World Bank the IMF
the European Union the arms control
regime they kept the world safe from a
major global war for the longest period
in modern history they went through a
tragedy together and ironically that
tragedy deepened their sense of
solidarity and commitment and dedication
to one another what’s missing in our
country right now is that sense of
solidarity and gratitude and it feels
lonely life expectancy is down for the
first time in our history a loss of
meaningful work an atmosphere of
division people feeling stressed in the
absence of community has led to 40,000
suicides and 60,000 opioid deaths this
year wealth inequality is at the highest
level in our nation’s history and we
seem to have become a nation of tribes
that talks at each other through
computer screens and on television but
not to each other but it’s possible that
we can get an insight from these
difficulties an insight that John F
Kennedy might have had when he lost his
brother and sister during the war and
almost died himself floating the Pacific
or an insight that I had sitting on my
uncle Robert Kennedy’s funeral train
looking out the window at the faces of
the millions of people that we passed by
an insight that life is incredibly
beautiful and also heartbreakingly sad
and that we are all bound together in
the words of dr. King an inescapable
network of mutuality John F Kennedy
believed in certain ideas one was the
idea of America the idea that we are not
defined only by our tribe our race our
religion or ethnicity or gender our
sexuality or any other social category
but ultimately by our common belief in
certain democratic constitutional
American and yes human ideals those
ideals are defined in
founding documents but they stretch all
the way back to the Greeks and Kennedy
admired the right to the pursuit of
happiness quality under the law freedom
of speech liberty and justice for all
when those ideals were not observed he
spoke out as in the case of civil rights
but he also believed that ideals and
arguments are not enough he believed in
service he put his life on the line and
gave everything for the country they
gave him in our family so much and so
did John McCain and John Lewis and
George Bush Senior the last American
president to serve in combat
Republicans and Democrats all of whom
got the Profiles in Courage Award right
here in this room for their service to
our country not in the military but for
their political courage they believed in
service too so yes the country is
different since JFK there have been
changes in the global economy there have
been changes in the diversity of our
nation the advent of social media and
talk television with their algorithms
and business models that divide us but
is there something that we can learn
from this generation that could help to
bring our country closer together I
think there is there is one thing that
John F Kennedy in every generation of
Americans did up until 1965 together
that was a melting pot for every part of
the country in every walk of life they
served in the military my uncle’s my
father and seven of my uncle’s served in
the Armed Forces and one died in the
Second World War they did something
together and we respect them for it and
even today the military is the most
respected institution in American life
and we thank these GIS with the GI Bill
which paid their college tuition so I’m
not advocating militarism but here’s an
idea how about a GI Bill for national
service how about paying the college
tuition of everyone who is willing to
work for their country working in a
school a national park helping with the
national
disaster or the elderly or the homeless
how about putting people together in
teams working on our nation’s problems
together
how about teaching our young people
citizenship and service and civics for
about 20 billion dollars less than half
the increase in this year’s defense
budget we could pay the college tuition
of all who are willing to serve imagine
what we could accomplish together you
know we might not agree on everything
but I hope we agree that patriotism and
shared sacrifice and worthwhile values
and that a country that is dedicated to
personal self advancement and self
aggrandizement is no country at all we
need each other to make it something
different it’s tempting to think of the
death of John F Kennedy and Robert
Kennedy and Martin Luther King both of
whom died fifty years ago this year as
tragic and they were tragic but the
spiritual tradition that they came from
is the tradition of tragic hope and the
Transfiguration of suffering and they
had the kind of hope that is not
dependent on expediency or circumstances
they dedicated themselves to certain
principles so a man may die nations may
rise and fall but an idea lives on civic
identity based on constitutional
principles and service the ideals of
America the John F Kennedy believed in
only live on if we believe in them too
together I’ll let I pick for the dog the
desert
eradicate disease half helium death and
and not what your country can do for you
as what you can do for your country
this country of the United States was
not built by those who waited and wish
to look behind them we set sail on this
new sea because there is new knowledge
to be gained and new right to be one let
the word go forth from this time and
place to friend and foe alike that the
torch has been passed to a new
generation of Americans and the glow
from that fire
[Music] [Applause]
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