There is perhaps no more stark difference between the two men than part of President Kennedy’s speech at Amherst College a month before his death:
I look forward to a great future for America, a future in which our country will match its military strength with our moral restraint, its wealth with our wisdom, its power with our purpose. I look forward to an America which will not be afraid of grace and beauty, which will protect the beauty of our natural environment, which will preserve the great old American houses and squares and parks of our national past, and which will build handsome and balanced cities for our future
I look forward to an America which will reward achievement in the arts as we reward achievement in business or statecraft. I look forward to an America which will steadily raise the standards of artistic accomplishment and which will steadily enlarge cultural opportunities for all of our citizens. And I look forward to an American which commands respect throughout the world not only for its strength but for its civilization as well.
The first performance in the Kennedy Center was the premier of Leonard Bertstein’s Mass at the opening gala in the Opera House on September 5, 1971. The Concert Hall opened the next day with a performance by the National Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Antal Dorati, one of our country’s most celebrated conductors.
Ilia “El Matador” Topuria and Justin “The Highlight” Gaethje are wrestlers who performed in their own way Sunday night. One of the fighters, after his event, threw a slur at Michelle Obama, referring to her as “a man.’ CNN reported that Trump quietly smiled.
As for the Kennedy Center, Trump is interested in it only if he has his name on it above Kennedy’s name.
Unless I am free to do what I do better than anyone else, bring this Institution back, physically, financially, and artistically, I have no interest in continuing what could only be a hopeless journey into “NEVER NEVER LAND, Therefore, based on the fact that the Radical Left Democrats care more about opposing your favorite President, ME, than saving a dying Performing Arts Center, almost all of which lose large amounts of money throughout the Country, we are going to be working with Congress to transfer this failing Institution back to them so they can make a determination as to what to do with it.
The 80-year old petulant child takes his ball and goes home because everybody else won’t play his rules.
I urge you to take seven minutes to look at the video of part of a fund raising event held on November 29, 1962 for development of a National Cultural Center, now again known as the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. I hope many of you find yourselves uplifted a little bit by a better man and a better president.
John F. Kennedy’s name is on numerous institutions, buildings, and institutes because other people believed what he said when he spoke of what we can be as a better, more optimistic nation. So far, Donald Trump’s name is on buildings only because he puts it there or demands them to be put there, or else.
The contrast between the Kennedy Center and the giant claw that was erected for cage fight could not be a starker illustration of the difference between Kennedy’s dream and Trump’s reality.
This is why old people are valuable. We can tell you during this time that many believe is a national nightmare about a time when a President encouraged us to dream of a country known for its civilization as well as its strength.