We are not here to curse the darkness; we are here to light a candle. As Winston Churchill said on taking office some twenty years ago: If we open a quarrel between the present and the past, we shall be in danger of losing the future.

Today our concern must be with that future. For the world is changing. The old era is ending. The old ways will not do.

Abroad, the balance of power is shifting. New and more terrible weapons are coming into use.

One-third of the world may be free, but one-third is the victim of a cruel repression, and the other third is rocked by poverty and hunger and disease.

The world has been close to war before, but now man, who’s survived all previous threats to his existence, has taken into his mortal hands the power to exterminate his species seven times over.

Here at home the future is equally revolutionary. The New Deal and the Fair Deal were bold measures for their generations, but now this is a new generation.

A technological output and explosion on the farm has led to an output explosion. An urban population revolution has overcrowded our schools and cluttered our cities and crowded our slums.

A peaceful revolution for human rights, demanding an end to racial discrimination in all parts of our community life, has strained at the leashes imposed by a timid executive leadership.

It is time, in short — It is time, in short for a new generation of leadership. All over the world, particularly in the newer nations, young men are coming to power, men who are not bound by the traditions of the past, men who are not blinded by the old fears and hates and rivalries– young men who can cast off the old slogans and the old delusions.

The Republican nominee, of course, is a young man. But his approach is as old as McKinley. His party is the party of the past, the party of memory. His speeches are generalities from Poor Richard’s Almanac. Their platform — Their platform, made up of old, left-over Democratic planks, has the courage of our old convictions. Their pledge is to the status quo; and today there is no status quo.

For I stand here tonight facing west on what was once the last frontier. From the lands that stretch three thousand miles behind us, the pioneers gave up their safety, their comfort and sometimes their lives to build our new West. They were not the captives of their own doubts, nor the prisoners of their own price tags. They were determined to make the new world strong and free — an example to the world, to overcome its hazards and its hardships, to conquer the enemies that threatened from within and without.

Some would say that those struggles are all over, that all the horizons have been explored, that all the battles have been won, that there is no longer an American frontier. But I trust that no one in this assemblage would agree with that sentiment; for the problems are not all solved and the battles are not all won; and we stand today on the edge of a New Frontier — the frontier of the 1960’s, the frontier of unknown opportunities and perils, the frontier of unfilled hopes and unfilled threats.

Woodrow Wilson’s New Freedom promised our nation a new political and economic framework. Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal promised security and succor to those in need. But the New Frontier of which I speak is not a set of promises. It is a set of challenges.

It sums up not what I intend to offer to the American people, but what I intend to ask of them. It appeals to our pride, not our security. It holds out the promise of more sacrifice instead of more security.

The New Frontier is here whether we seek it or not.

Beyond that frontier are uncharted areas of science and space, unsolved problems of peace and war, unconquered problems of ignorance and prejudice, unanswered questions of poverty and surplus. It would be easier to shrink from that new frontier, to look to the safe mediocrity of the past, to be lulled by good intentions and high rhetoric — and those who prefer that course should not vote for me or the Democratic Party.

But I believe that the times require imagination and courage and perseverance. I’m asking each of you to be pioneers towards that New Frontier. My call is to the young in heart, regardless of age–to the stout in spirit, regardless of Party, to all who respond to the scriptural call: “Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be [thou] dismayed.”

For courage , not complacency, is our need today; leadership, not salesmanship. And the only valid test of leadership is the ability to lead, and lead vigorously.

There may be those who wish to hear more — more promises to this group or that, more harsh rhetoric about the men in the Kremlin as a substitute for policy, more assurances of a golden future, where taxes are always low and the subsidies are always high. But my promises are in the platform that you have adopted. Our ends will not be won by rhetoric, and we can have faith in the future only if we have faith in ourselves.

For the harsh facts of the matter are that we stand at this frontier at a turning-point of history. We must prove all over again to a watching world, as we said on a most conspicuous stage, whether this nation, conceived as it is with its freedom of choice, its breadth of opportunity, its range of alternatives, can compete with the single-minded advance of the Communist system.

Can a nation organized and governed such as ours endure?

That is the real question.

Have we the nerve and the will? Can we carry through in an age where we will witness not only new breakthroughs in weapons of destruction, but also a race for mastery of the sky and the rain, the ocean and the tides, the far side of space, and the inside of men’s minds?

That is the question of the New Frontier.

That is the choice our nation must make — a choice that lies not merely between two men or two parties, but between the public interest and private comfort, between national greatness and national decline, between the fresh air of progress and the stale, dank atmosphere of “normalcy,” between dedication of mediocrity.

All mankind waits upon our decision. A whole world looks to see what we shall do. And we cannot fail that trust. And we cannot fail to try.

Forty-eight years ago, John F. Kennedy spoke these words (among others, slightly edited) at the Democratic National Convention, to accept the nomination of his party in the upcoming Presidential election. No matter what judgement we pass on JFK the man or JFK the President, his words were true in 1960 and, leaving aside some dated references to Communism and a “young” Republican nominee, they are no less true today.

Once more, we stand on the brink of a New Frontier. Now it is not a meaningless conflict between oligarchies that threatens to destroy the world, but our own short-sighted greed, malicious ignorance, and petty fear. Technological developments have us poised on the edge of finding revolutionary new ways to organize social and economic activity, but established interests seek to nip these innovations in the bud. A groundswell of popular support for civil rights regardless of race, sexuality, gender, or religion is facing opposition by not only timid but outright hostile executive and legislative leadership. Voter participation in America is best described as “minimal”, as a far-right Republican Party and unprincipled Democratic Party compete to see who can turn the most people away from the process of democracy.

Once more, the reactionary, backward-looking proponents of conservative thinking and past mediocrity tell us that there are no more struggles, no new horizons, no more good battles to fight, no further discoveries. It is the way it is, and nothing will ever change that. Doom-sayers feed us endless litanies of woe, chastising the public for getting it wrong, but failing to show them how to get it right.

Now, as in 1960, we face challenges that require imagination and perseverance. We are again at a turning point in history, forced to choose between a glorious future of wisdom and exploration and a dark future of despair and stagnation. We must again choose “between the public interest and private comfort, between national greatness and national decline, between the fresh air of progress and the stale, dank atmosphere of “normalcy,” between dedication of mediocrity.”

If we progressives wish to see our ideology prosper and thrive, we must challenge the electorate. Show them the vision of a brighter tomorrow, and dare them to help us make it real. That’s why I think Obama must be the Democratic candidate for President. While his policies are far from ideal, he potentially has the vision and charisma needed to shatter the fatal complacency of the Bush, Clinton, and Reagan years.

This diary was inspired by Darwyn Cooke’s DC: The New Frontier (also on Wikipedia). Those seeking a damn good read, accompanied by some thought-provoking commentary on contemporary and historic American culture and politics through the medium of classic superhero stores, should seek out the graphic novels. Cooke closes the series with a moving narration derived from Kennedy’s speech, which never fails to inspire me. Meeting Darwyn again at the Halifax premier of the animated adaptation of this series was my motivation for writing this diary.

After all, the world is changing. The old era is ending. The old ways will not do.

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