Ask Not…

Shorter George Will:  "Ask what you can do to help yourself, and screw everyone else.  Do unto others and grab as much as you can along the way, before they get around to doing unto you, that's the conservative way." 

Well, that was refreshingly honest and up front, wasn't it?

H/T to Redshift and AZ Matt for the discussion on the Will op-ed.  The above YouTube is the second half of Kennedy's inaugural address (link to full written text and audio as well), wherein he says the following:

Now the trumpet summons us again — not as a call to bear arms, though arms we need; not as a call to battle, though embattled we are — but a call to bear the burden of a long twilight struggle, year in and year out, "rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation" — a struggle against the common enemies of man: tyranny, poverty, disease, and war itself.

Can we forge against these enemies a grand and global alliance, North and South, East and West, that can assure a more fruitful life for all mankind? Will you join in that historic effort?

In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shrink from this responsibility — I welcome it. I do not believe that any of us would exchange places with any other people or any other generation. The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavour will light our country and all who serve it — and the glow from that fire can truly light the world.

And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country.

My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.

Ahhh, the good old days when leaders actually tried to lead, to call our nation forth to do the work necessary to secure access to peace and prosperity for all, and not just the gated community few.  (The first part of the Kennedy inaugural on YouTube can be found here, for those who would like to watch the whole of it.)

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