By: John Shattuck, Chief Executive Officer of the Kennedy Library Foundation
John F. Kennedy’s call to public service is sounding once again across America. At a time when the winds of change are stirring the country and the election of a new president is approaching, the Kennedy Library has become a major center of public discussion about the challenges facing the United States and the world. Inspired by Senator Edward Kennedy, and led by our president, Caroline Kennedy, and chairman, Paul Kirk, the Kennedy Library Foundation through its programs has amplified that ringing challenge in President Kennedy’s Inaugural Address that sounds as relevant today as when it was first made: “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.”
The Kennedy Library has hosted a huge variety of programs and activities over the first six months of 2008 under the banner of President Kennedy’s call to serve. Among our recent highlights:
separate visits by Prime Ministers Gordon Brown of Great Britain and Bertie Ahearn of Ireland;
a national conference to commemorate the 40th anniversary of Robert Kennedy’s presidential campaign;
a celebration of the public service of Ted Sorensen;
Profile in Courage Awards to the state officials who made unpopular decisions to protect voting rights in Ohio and California, and to a former governor who overturned the legacy of racism and poverty in the educational system of Mississippi;
eighteen public forums on subjects ranging from the role of the United Nations in protecting human rights to the challenges of gang violence in inner-city neighborhoods, each of which was broadcast on WBUR, Boston’s National Public Radio station, and many of which were televised nationally on C-SPAN;
a wide range of roundtable conferences on such diverse topics as public education in the city of Boston, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, and peacemaking in Northern Ireland;
immigration ceremonies in which hundreds of people from every part of the globe were sworn in as new American citizens in the place dedicated to a president who spoke proudly and often of his Irish immigrant roots, and whose brother, Senator Edward Kennedy, has done more to sustain the tradition of immigration in America than any other national leader;
scores of educational programs for students and teachers from throughout New England; and
a treasure trove of historical resources now available worldwide to scholars, students and the general public through the internet on our growing web site and digital archive.
Our response to the call to serve extends beyond the Kennedy Library. This spring the Kennedy Library Foundation began working with the twelve other foundations supporting presidential libraries from Hoover through the current president. In mid-April, we convened the first meeting of these foundations to take stock of all the presidential libraries and compare information about their programs and activities, and the vast, diverse, domestic and international public they serve. Following the meeting, which I co-chaired, the foundations are preparing an inventory of the private-sector support provided to each library, and have requested that the National Archives prepare a similar report on the status of federal support for the core functions of presidential libraries, especially archival processing and preservation. The foundations will meet again after the presidential election to plan further steps and approaches to the new Administration and Congress, with the aim of strengthening the entire presidential library system.