Do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger men.
John F. Kennedy (via brooksbrothersamericandream)
September 12, 1962 — President John F. Kennedy speaks at Rice University Stadium, Houston, Texas, concerning the nation’s efforts in space exploration. In his speech the President discusses the necessity for the United States to become an international leader in space exploration and famously states, “We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.”
John and Jackie Kennedy getting ready for a ball, 1950s.
President Kennedy casually rests his hand on Jacqueline’s shoulder. This photo is just so full of love and mutual respect they had for one another.
“But why, some say, the moon? Why choose this as our goal? And they may well ask, why climb the highest mountain? Why, 35 years ago, fly the Atlantic? …
We choose to go to the Moon. We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard; because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills; because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one we intend to win …
Many years ago the great British explorer George Mallory, who was to die on Mount Everest, was asked why did he want to climb it. He said, ‘Because it is there.’ Well, space is there, and we’re going to climb it, and the Moon and the planets are there, and new hopes for knowledge and peace are there. And, therefore, as we set sail we ask God’s blessing on the most hazardous and dangerous and greatest adventure on which man has ever embarked.”
- President Kennedy speaks at Rice University on the American space program, September 12, 1962.
JFK’s boat, the Victura, is back at the JFK Library. The boat is located behind the museum, facing towards the ocean. Victura will be around until late fall. Stop by and take a look!
Assassinated Presidents:
- Abraham Lincoln was assassinated on April 14, 1865. Lincoln was killed by actor John Wilkes Booth, who was part of a larger conspiracy to kill the top three Federal government officials. Lincoln was shot in the back of his head in Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C., and he died the following morning. Vice President Andrew Johnson became President following Lincoln’s death.
- James Garfield was assassinated on July 2, 1881, only four months into his presidency. He was killed by Charles Guiteau, who wrote a speech about Garfield and believed it to be a major contributor to Garfield’s win of the election. Guiteau felt that he should be rewarded with a government position for his assistance, and when he wasn’t he was angry. Garfield was shot in the shoulder and the back the waiting room of the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad Station in Washington, D.C. He died eleven weeks later, and Vice President Chester A. Arthur became president.
- William McKinley was assassinated on September 6, 1901. The perpetrator was Leon Czolgosz, a man who thought his anarchist policies made it necessary to shoot McKinley, who he saw as an oppressor. He was shot in the abdomen in the Temple of Music in Buffalo, New York. He died a week later because of gangrene caused by his wounds, and Vice President Theodore Roosevelt filled his position as President.
- John F. Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963. There is great controversy surrounding who his assassin was because the most probable suspect, Lee Harvey Oswald, was killed by Jack Ruby before he could testify. However, after much investigation the Warren Commission determined that Lee Harvey Oswald had acted alone in shooting Kennedy in the head in Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas. He died the same dead and was pronounced dead in the emergency room, and Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson became President.
Watching lift-off from the White House
President John F. Kennedy, Jacqueline Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, and others watch the lift-off of the first American in space, Astronaut Alan Shepard. The television is in the Office of the President’s Secretary in White House. 5/5/61
-from the JFK Library
Presidential Candidate John Kennedy Speaks to the Greater Houston Ministerial Association, September 12, 1960
But because I am a Catholic, and no Catholic has ever been elected president, the real issues in this campaign have been obscured — perhaps deliberately, in some quarters less responsible than this. So it is apparently necessary for me to state once again not what kind of church I believe in — for that should be important only to me — but what kind of America I believe in.
I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute, where no Catholic prelate would tell the president (should he be Catholic) how to act, and no Protestant minister would tell his parishioners for whom to vote; where no church or church school is granted any public funds or political preference; and where no man is denied public office merely because his religion differs from the president who might appoint him or the people who might elect him.
What ever happened to the belief of absolute separation of state and church?
