LOS ANGELES -- John F. Kennedy was no saint as president -- and America is not God. But, indisputably, JFK did inspire countless people at home and around the world to aspire to a higher standard. When Kennedy implored Americans to "ask not what your country can do for you -- ask what you can do for your country," he was not suggesting torture.
That's the essence of an impassioned message from Theodore Sorensen, JFK's special counsel and gold-standard speechwriter. "Future historians studying the decline and fall of America will mark this as the time the tide began to turn," he told graduates of The New School in a commencement speech in New York. "Today I weep for the country I love . . . this is a cry from the heart."
Sorensen penned many of JFK's famous speeches and was perhaps professionally closer to the assassinated president than anyone except brother Robert. Sorensen is a hard-core Democrat, to be sure, but his speech did not mention the current president or the notorious prison in Iraq by name.