Dedication of the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library (1993)

we got to push it thank you very much my name is Charles daily I have the honor of working here I welcome you on behalf of the staffs of the Kennedy Library and Foundation throughout the years in which we were transforming the dream of a new museum into reality two persons have been our special guides Steve Smith encouraged us not to be content with what we had find as that was his spirit and memory and the memory of his constant drive to do better are inside us today it when sauce Berg the chairman of the foundation Museum Committee combined his talents as designer referee judge jury and lightning rod in ways that pushed us toward the excellence with which this museum honors the legacy of President Kennedy did I thank you very much as I present to you at a representative of the Kennedy Library Foundation board I think of a Marine Corps a legend about Colonel John Glenn or first astronaut an old earthbound Marine asked him what are your last thoughts before blast-off and he said is that count went down ten nine eight I said to myself John his whole damned contraptions put together by low bidders in he was lucky in the museum project we didn't want to depend upon luck we were able to go with the best not the cheapest design team because of the private seed money raised by the Kennedy Library Foundation whose directors are here today and whose chairman Paul Kirk I present to you with great pleasure thank you very much Chuck Daly does more than work here Chuck's dedication and leadership and day-to-day commitment to this institution is what makes days like this possible and Chuck we thank you for it mr. president welcome back you honor us not only by your presence but by in your public career responding to the inspirational call of John Kennedy's called public service you honor his memory as well by addressing the tough issues taking them head-on and with courage so we're delighted you're part of this day when the president arrived there were several members of the Kennedy family out there to greet him I couldn't count them but they were many when you look across the family every one of whom is committed and dedicated to some important issue whether it be political a public social that can make a difference and the numbers are important but the commitment is just as important the other thing I marvel about is the pride that the Kennedys take in one another when the president arrived the Harvard band was playing and I said to Eunice I hope that Yale's most prominent citizen an alumnus won't be upset that the Harvard band is playing without a blink she said Sarge won't mind he loves that band well it's great to be here in this actually in this convention atmosphere at the spirit that we have it even reminds me that for the were a few days that I had fun as chairman of the Democratic Party but the convention of 1992 was a great one as well and you remember the message of the song that was played on that great night don't stop thinking about tomorrow and in many ways that's what the ceremony is about today a little less than 15 years ago this library was open the museum museum was open and obviously it was to honor probably the most exciting and inspirational thousand days and the history of American politics of perhaps in world history and those of us who were blessed to have lived through that chapter could come back here and reflect and recall and the chords of memory would resonate about how wonderful it was and how much we wish that that could continue but about five years ago the family in the board recalling John Kennedy's admonition that wisdom requires the long view ask the question what about tomorrow what about those who weren't blessed to live at that time and need to understand the importance of that chapter in history so it was a little bit like going back to the future and thanks to the genius of IDI and Caroline and the team that they put together the question was how to relate to those who weren't born then or maybe are not yet born and the answer now is in this museum we're from the very beginning to the end you were there to hear John Kennedy's own oral history it is in fact his autobiography it is lively and exciting and we hope that those who are listening will come back here many times and it's my belief that many years from now perhaps and the town of Hope Arkansas or perhaps somewhere in the Little Rock there will be a Clinton library and perhaps in the early segments of that history will be that footage which closes out our own Museum where President Clinton stands in the Rose Garden and talks about the inspiration which John Kennedy gave to him in the call which he answered to public life so we think we have brought this museum really to a new frontier and can now pass it along to a new generation of Americans into future generations so through the Friends of the library the board of directors of the library my thanks for all your support and all the help you've given it is now my privilege and pleasure to welcome not introduce a man who was a household word in America and brings the news and information to the national audience he took the time to fly in the red-eye this morning from reporting on the ravages of the tragic fires in California to be with us he's a great American in his own right please welcome Tom Brokaw doesn't thank you all very much I am very pleased to be with you it does take unusual circumstances for me to be on this side of that lineup over there and I must tell you that even after 33 years I'm more than a little surprised to find myself here the night of john f kennedy's greatest political triumph his election as president of the united states i was a college dropout living at home doing our jobs that my father lined up most of which involve heavy lifting i'm sorry to say the night of the election i've stayed up all night long and my parents tiny living room watching on our black-and-white television said the returns and to the last boat was in although i had long been passionate about politics it wasn't until that night that I fully realized how I could pursue my own passions through this exciting new medium of journalism on television and with the election of John Kennedy I also understood that my impatience to get on with life was about to be resolved for now there was a new place in America for the young there was a new sense of urgency born in my generation and I found among my peers even those who did not share his ideology a new sense of a possible I also felt a small personal connection to President Kennedy and that is that as president he made his only trip to my home state of South Dakota on the day that Meredith and I were married he did not come for our ceremony unfortunately he came instead to dedicate a dam we would have been happy to have had him as our guest but we knew even then that we couldn't afford to feed the members of the White House press corps so it's just as well that he did the invocation for this celebrating movement will be given to us by Donald moanin Reverend and the president of Boston College god of history loving God we gather this autumn day to recreate in sound and image those memorable years three decades ago when John Fitzgerald Kennedy 35th President of the United States inspired us with the bright promise of a new frontier and challenged us with what we could do for our country let the legacy he established ignite the enthusiasm of a new generation so that with courage and optimism we may meet the challenges that trouble and test our times god of wisdom you have told us through your inspired word that anyone among you who aspires to greatness must serve the rest and whoever wants to rank first among you must serve the needs of all help us we apprai to achieve this greatness to serve the needs of all by commitment to public service in healing our nation's ills both of body and of soul by promoting peace and justice among all your people wherever they may be with President Kennedy we know that all this will not be finished in 100 days nor a thousand days nor even perhaps in our lifetime on this planet but he insisted that we must begin God of love with your gracious assistance and captured again with the spirit and shrined in these walls let us go forth from this time and this place and as a nation in the company of a new president let us begin amen Thank You father morning when John Kennedy returned from World War two to run for Congress from the second district it was as all Kennedy matters are a family affair and it wasn't easy at the beginning after all this very young very wealthy outsider had to earn his place with the working-class families of the other Cambridge well away from Harvard Yard 40 years later when his nephew decided to run for that seat which had been occupied in the interim by the beloved Thomas P Tip O'Neill the Kennedy name recognition was no longer a problem the family was still there and in this case hard to believe even more siblings and cousins and then fu brought the same energy and the same commitment to the concerns of the working-class constituency ladies and gentlemen Joseph Kennedy the second son of Robert and Ethel Kennedy thank you thank you very much first of all I want to thank my uncle Ted and my mother and Jackie and all of the members of my family the last time that we dedicated this library and asked a president to come and join us I gave a speech I didn't think I was ever going to get ass back here again but I I don't have a long speech today what I do have is a message from my heart to our president mr. president on behalf of my mother and all of my brothers and sisters and all of the members of the Kennedy family and all of the people that are here with you today many of the people that you see out in this audiences where John and Robert Kennedy's James John and Robert Kennedy's Max John and Robert Kennedy's George's these are the people that made their success as possible these are the people who fought so hard through so many of those tough and difficult battles that you've been through and you perhaps more than anyone else here knows the struggles and what it what you go through to attain the position that you've got and then to be able to deal with the problems that our country faces it was these people here who helped my father and my uncle get through their tough times and so there is no greater group of people to celebrate this day and to celebrate President Clinton's joining with us than all of you and we thank you for joining with us this morning mr. president you have paid tribute to the memory of John and Robert Kennedy you came to both their graves before your inauguration you came to visit my father's grave on the 25th anniversary of his death you've come to this library you have welcomed every one of my brothers and sisters and all of our family into your presidency and we very very much appreciate all the heartfelt welcome that we have sensed from your persona and from your friendship we also have a message and that is that I believe somewhere in this universe my father is smiling down upon today's events because I think that that big smile he used to give so many of us that he would smile upon your presidency because you have taken on so many of the fights that he would have been proud to join with you and stand with you this is John Kennedy's library but it's also Robert Kennedy's library my brother Michael serves on the board of directors and there are many people that believe very strongly in what John and Robert Kennedy stood for just a few miles from here there are so many poor people that are continuing to struggle today that need the health care that you're trying to provide that need the jobs the good jobs that you're trying to get them that need to have somebody who stands up against all the lobbyists and all the wealthy and powerful interests that take place in Washington and you have done that and because of that and because of the fact that you have graced us with your presence we want you to know from the bottom of our hearts how much we welcome we thank you for your commitment you know that you have struggles to face that there are many forces that will try to knock you down and to try to take you on and will try to fight you because you're standing up for the people that need helping him and we pledge that we will join with you in that struggle we will fight with you and we will take them on and we will win and we will win because what you are doing is right and because the need for us to join as you have done so kindly with the memories of John and Robert Kennedy and the legacy that they have left us is so meaningful to each and every one this thank you very much for coming when her mother and father were in the White House she was the daughter that every parent longed to have and 30 years later that has not changed she is that very rare very public person the one who maintains her privacy with charm and grace and dignity and as you might expect this place and all that it represents is her heartbeat here at this library she is the keeper of the flame as president of the John F Kennedy Library Foundation Madam President Caroline one thank all of you for coming to celebrate this special day with us the Kennedy Library was the first Presidential Library to have him using him and for my mother and my uncle Bobby it Steve and Teddy and aunt Maya Pat and all of those who gave so much to make this place a living tribute to President Kennedy museum was intended to be a place where people could learn about his administration and come away sharing his belief that we can do better and that we each must try the most important reason we began the new museum was that we realized that more and more of our visitors had not lived through the Kennedy years and in fact most of them had not even been born we decided that the best way for them to understand the Kennedy administration was to hear about it from President Kennedy himself in his own words so we've tried to put the visitor back in time to experience the excitement of election night the tension of the campaign and the crises which confronted the president perhaps the most important exhibit to us though is the legacy area where visitors are reminded that November 1963 was not the end but that there are still so many things that need to be done there visitors interested in public service can find out about volunteer programs that need their help now growing up it always meant a lot to me when people would say your father changed my life he asked me to help our country and to me President Kennedy lives on in those that he inspired to enter public life and those that they in turn inspire and that's why we're so grateful to you mr. president for coming today you're inspiring a new generation of people to believe that politics is a noble profession and your presence here really represents a triumph of hope for the future over nostalgia for the past we hope that visitors will leave the new museum with a sense the President Kennedy's ID ilysm his commitment to public service and his twinkle and my own children are just beginning to ask about their grandfather and I look forward to bringing them here thank you very much when China of Kennedy ran for president he was the little brother delegated to go off of the ski slopes and ski down the ski jumps and ride the bucking Broncos of Wyoming for his brothers campaign and when he ran for the US Senate from this state he had not just a de facto campaign manager but a man looking over every move from the Oval Office in the White House and he dared not lose now widely regarded as the Senate's senator now the senior member of the Kennedy family political and personal the senior senator from the state of Massachusetts the Commonwealth Senator Edward M very much President Clinton first of all I want to thank you for being with us today and your generous presence at Jack's library and Bobby's means a great deal to all of us in the Kennedy family and to so many others who remember my brother and who still treasure the brief years he had with us his thousand days in the White House were a fleeting span that left a lasting mark but of all he did my brother would take the highest pride in the legions of young Americans he inspired and whose lives he touched and changed especially the teenage young man from hope who shook his hand in the Rose Garden a generation ago and who has come here today as president of the United States and my hope mr. president is that a generation from now on some future occasion very much like this another young president will honor you as you have honored jack I also speak for someone who cannot be here but who knows about this joyful remembrance of her son she will watch the tape of these proceedings and they will gladden her heart my mother Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy as Supreme Court justice Oliver Wendell Holmes once wrote explaining his own inspiration in life through our great good fortune in our youth our hearts were touched with fire great parents can do that for their children great teachers can do that for their students and great leaders can do that for an entire nation and the world ask not what your country can do for you he said and millions asked what they could do for their country and did it the best of the old frontier became the defining quality of the new frontier and it is gratifying that one of President Clinton's first initiatives in office was to summon us anew to service and not to selfishness my brother would be proud of you mr. president and so are we President Kennedy sense of idealism was made all the more compelling by his sense of perspective he never saw himself as the indispensable man although for his time and place perhaps he was he took the issue seriously but he never took himself too seriously he brought a gift of grace and wit to everything he did he loved the famous Gallup poll which found that mothers still wanted their children to grow up to be President as long as they didn't have to get involved in politics and once pushing a switch to start a river project he said I don't know whether I'm going to start the project or blow up Massachusetts and talking to summer interns at the White House he said sometimes I wish I just had a summer job here too and I'm sure you occasionally know that feeling as well mr. president in creating this new museum that we dedicate today we have tried to make Jack's years of hope and action and laughter come alive again so that those who never knew my brother can experience at least in some small way a sense of what he was and why his present so moved the nation and the world we can name many reasons from the new economics that ended years of recession and stagnation to the Peace Corps to the alliance for progress that swept our own hemisphere with the pledge that all of us could advance together there was it bin ein Berliner that proved no wall was high enough to block out the guiding star of liberty and that someday as he believed that wall too would come down there was the mission to the moon that launched Humanity on history's newest voyage of discovery there was the Cuban Missile Crisis at the high-water mark of Soviet aggression and then there was the nuclear test ban treaty that marked the first and most difficult journey back from the abyss of nuclear war and here at home there was the long overdue reaffirmation that civil rights is the unfinished business of America there was the renewed commitment nearly two hundred years after the Declaration of Independence said all of us are created equal that when we say all it is time for us to mean all but more than anything else larger than any other single achievement was this he brought us one of those periodic revivals of spirit that have kept our nation young and true for more than two centuries of its age we as a people saw ourselves and our mission in a bright new light off to Jackson and Lincoln and then again after the two Roosevelts and so it was with John Kennedy he brought us a belief that we were equal to any challenge the greatest challenge of all was to be faithful to our best ideals and with courage he led us in a time where one full step could have doomed the world itself he said the torch had been passed the torch was he said he felt real it for a whole generation and more for all who knew my brother or knew of him in those days it was a shining renewal that no Expo facto revisionism can ever deny our problems are man-made made by man he said in his famous commencement address at American University in June of 1963 and therefore they can be solved by man for Jack commencement is what America is all about the words he loved and lived by were from his favorite book pilgrims way by John Buchan public life is regarded as the crown of a career and to young person's it is the worthy establish in' politics is still the greatest and the most honorable adventure but in the years after he was taken that confidence seen to be taken as well America entered a long winter of disconnect disc disconnect and our family lost another brother who had picked up Jack's fallen standard and held it high until he left us too still we always knew the spring time would come once more and so it has as President Kennedy said in his inaugural address in words inscribed in this beautiful new Museum and in our hearts all this will not be finished in the first 100 days nor will it be finished in the first 1000 days nor the lifetime of this administration nor even perhaps in our lifetime on this planet but let us begin it is my great honor now to introduce the man who has summoned America to begin again the president of the United States okay thank you thank you very much thank you very much thank you thank you very much senator Kennedy for though those moving words and your friendship and your leadership Jackie and Caroline and John and all the members of the Kennedy family here assembled congressman Kennedy I thank you for those fine remarks distinguished senators and members of Congress and governors here present and all of the rest of you who share a part of this historic day I want you to know that I felt very much at home today when I got out of the car and the Harvard band was paying the Yale song and it reminded me of the time when President Kennedy got a degree from Yale and he said he had the best of all worlds at Harvard education in a Yale degree I had the Harvard band in the Yale song Harvard has higher standards they haven't offered me a degree yet but for some of us music is more important than degrees the great champion of Irish mythology was the young warrior qu Helen according to legend he was a hero without peer among mortals one day a priest told him you will be splendid and renowned but short-lived qu Helen replied it is a wonderful thing if I am but one day and one night in the world provided that my fame and beads live after me why ku Holland's legend John Kennedy's fleeting time among us remains a singular story in the history of our great nation he was our president for only a thousand days but has has been said so eloquently by members of his family he changed the way we think about our country our world and our own obligations to the future he dared Americans to join him on an adventure he called the new frontier listen now to what he said then 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 the American people but what I intend to ask of them he inspired millions of us to take a very personal responsibility for moving our country forward and for advancing the cause of freedom throughout the world he convinced us that our efforts would be both exciting and rewarding he reminded us that our democracy at its best is a bold and daring adventure three decades have passed since President Kennedy's three years in office but his legacy endures in the new frontiers we still explore think of his religious appeal for tolerance is appeal for religious tolerance to the Houston Baptist ministers and remember that just this week we passed in the Senate senator Kennedy's Religious Freedom Restoration Act think of the appeal he made for basic civil rights and remember that it was just this year that we passed the motor voter Act which was the most important piece of civil rights legislation passed in a long time and that we now have I am proud to say the most racially diverse Administration in the history of the United States from his creation of the Peace Corps to the creation of the National Service Corps which drew inspiration from City Year here in his own hometown of Boston we see a common thread of challenging our young people to a higher calling from his launching of the space program to the preservation in pursuit of the space station this year we see a continued willingness of Americans even in difficult economic time to explore the outer reaches of our universe from his quest for healthcare security for our elderly Americans to the quest for health security for all Americans embodied in the bill that the first lady and I presented at Congress this week we see a seamless thread of determination finally to solve one of the most persistent domestic problems in the history of the United States from his pursuit of a nuclear test ban treaty to our efforts to stem the proliferation of all weapons of mass destruction to actually dismantle much of the world's nuclear arsenal we see a common effort for America to be leading the cause of human preservation against nuclear annihilation John Kennedy embodied an expansive can-do outlet port events beyond our shores as well as the challenges at home he believed that billions of lives depend upon our leadership and our ideals and in turn that our own security and prosperity are tied to reaching out to the rest of the world that is why his picture still hangs today in homes not only in the Irish wards of Boston and Chicago but also in villages and towns from Africa to Latin America John Kennedy's early years were a time when most Americans did not believe we should be much engaged in the world America turned inward after World War one unwilling to assume the new burdens of the peace a return to normalcy it was called but in truth it was a retreat from the hard-won fields of victory no firemen in Boston would dare turn off the hose prematurely and leave a smoldering house but that is exactly what America did in the 1920s in the 1930s and we paid the price in a draconian piece and restricted trade and higher tariffs and a Great Depression and lost jobs ruined lives the rise of fascism abroad and a terrible second world war that took the lives of more American young people at any war except for our own Civil War Jack Kennedy came home from that Second World War with a lifelong lesson America could not withdraw from the world unless we work to shape events we will be shaped by them often in ways that put us at great risk a new generation of Americans after the Second World War learned that lesson with him together they rebuilt Japan and Europe and contained Soviet expansionism they founded the institutions of post-war security in clarity and by choosing to reach out rather than turn inward they brought the American people a period of economic growth and security unparalleled in our history the great middle class was built and the American Dream was born in the lives of Americans not merely in the eyes of their parents today we stand at a similar moment of high decision the end of the Cold War has left a world of change in its wake the Soviet empire in the Soviet Union itself for no more Russia wants our nuclear adversary is now our partner in reducing the nuclear threat and an expanding democracy ancient animosities in the Middle East are yielding to the promise of peace a transformation made tangible to billions of people last month in a simple stunning handshake after decades of apartheid the Nobel Prize for Peace has gone to two leaders of different colors working for one non-racial democracy in South Africa these shifts have been accompanied in many cases pushed by other great changes in the world those brought about by the communications revolution in the new global marketplace entrepreneurial and spirit intensely competitive and as fast-moving as life itself we see the consequences all around us here in America and our workplaces our families our cities and towns some of those consequences are not at all promising the promise of peace freedom and democracy is still thwarted in many places in the world the promise of prosperity is an illusion to millions of people not only in poor countries but increasingly in wealthy countries here at home is in all other rich countries we have had our difficulties in creating jobs and raising incomes technology in the moment is not leading to growth in prosperity for millions of our people we see that in rising sets of insecurities all across America people more insecurity about their jobs their health care their communities their children's education and their very safety the new global economy is dominated by the ah cracy but marred by wars and oppressions it is expanded by new technologies and vast new horizons but limited by slow growth and stagnant jobs and incomes nonetheless this new global economy is our new frontier our generation must now decide justice John Kennedy and his generation had to decide at the end of World War two whether we will harness the galloping changes of our time in the best tradition of John Kennedy and the post-war generation to the well-being of the American people our withdraw from the world and recoiled from our own problems as we did after World War one will we be the Americans of the 1920s or will we be the Americans of the late 40s and early 50s will we be the Americans who lifted John Kennedy to the presidency are the Americans who turned away from the world and paid the price President Kennedy understood these challenges of change he believed in opening the worlds trading system but he also believed we needed to help America's workers who did not win from the expansion of trade to adjust to the rigors of that trade and international competition in 1962 to help workers adjust when they lost their jobs because of trade so that they could then get jobs that would be created by an expanded global economy John Kennedy proposed and the Congress created the Trade Adjustment Assistance Program and he said listen to this in 1962 economic isolation and political leadership are wholly incompatible the United States has encouraged sweeping changes in free world economic patterns in order to strengthen the forces of freedom but we cannot ourselves stand still we must adapt our own economy to the imperatives of a changing world and once more assert our leadership once again we must make clear to the American people that our success at home relies on our engagement abroad that we must face our problems at home and reach out to the world at the same time even more than in President Kennedy's day the line between foreign and domestic interest is rapidly disappearing millions of our best jobs are tied to our ability to trade and sell our products around the world and our ability to create millions more depends clearly on our ability to work with our friends and neighbors and partners to expand global economic opportunities that is why we must compete and not retreat by more than ever before a concern for what happens within our borders down to the smallest rural town are the most thriving neighborhood in any city depends upon a concern for what we do beyond our borders over recent months that imperative has been at the core of this administration's agenda we've worked a support reform in Russia and the other states of the former Soviet Union we put our relations with Japan on a new foundation that pays more attention to the economic dynamics of the relationship between our two nations we push for a new worldwide trade accord through the GATT talks but there is no better example of what we have tried to do to reach out to the world in our attempt to secure an agreement for a North American free trade zone with Canada and Mexico one that can create one that could create 200,000 new jobs for this country by 1995 open a vast new market make 90 million friends and set a stage for moving to embrace all of Latin America 700 million people strong in a trading unit that will being prosperity to them and to us last night in New York I told an audience of corporate executives that if they want Americans to support free trade instead of oppose it at a time of great insecurity they should support the Americans who will not only win but who will be temporarily dislocated that they should support a new more modern version of Trade Adjustment Assistance that will work for this time that they had no right to ask the American people any of them even one of them to sacrifice unless we were going to make a common investment so that we could grow in the spirit of common community interest in this country and with Latin America but today I say to you that our choice is about even more than dollars that just as business people must take care of workers and invest in their future Americans as a whole without regard to their economic standing must understand that our national destiny depends upon our continuing to reach out that's why here in Boston congressman Kennedy his predecessor speaker O'Neill from the congressional seat that John Kennedy once occupied have endorsed this new expansion of America's interest and I believe if President Kennedy were still representing that seat in Congress he would endorse it as well if you remember when President Kennedy endorsed the Alliance for Progress the Latin American countries were moving toward more accountable government and more open economies and then a lot of reversals took place in Latin America went into a period of real upheaval political repression economic devastation it is all changing again now their efforts are being rewarded more and more democracies of a second fastest-growing region of the world and a real desire to be our close friends President Roosevelt advocated a good neighbor party policy toward Latin America President Kennedy called it the Alliance for Progress we know we know that we cannot have a bad neighbor policy we know that we cannot have an alliance to protect ourselves at their expense we know that the people who want to buy our products and share our future ought to have a chance to help us to solve our problems at home even as we help them to pursue their own destiny let us not send a signal by defeating this agreement that we are turning our backs on our neighbors and the rest of the world let us reach out to the people here in our home throughout America who do not support these endeavors because they have been ravaged by the economic changes of the last 15 years and they have not had their cries their pains their frustrations heated by their national government let us heed them but let us not adopt a remedy for their just complaints that makes their problems worse let us extend ourselves in the world and invest in their future here at home we can do both that is the right answer Mr Justice Holmes was quoted by Senator Kennedy he once said that we must all be involved in the action and passion of our time for fear of being judged not to have lived no one would ever level that indictment against John Kennedy this is our decisive moment this is the end of the Cold War this is the dawn of the 21st century there are many complex frustrating problems which have very simple and profound and often painful impacts in the lives of the people that we have all struggled to serve but in these moments we have to reach deep into ourselves to our deepest values to our strongest spirit and reach out not shrink back in these moments our character is tested as individuals and as a nation the problems we shared they are widely shared by other advanced nations no one has all the answers but we do know one thing we will never find the answer if we don't continue on the journey if we turn back to a proven path of failure we will never know what we might have become in a new and different age where thankfully hopefully my daughter our children and our grandchildren will at least be free to the fear of nuclear destruction and where at least most of the competition we face will be based on what is in our minds not what is in our hands and the forms of weapons I tell you my fellow Americans for all the difficulties of this age this is an age many generations of our predecessors would have prayed to live in these are the challenges so many of our predecessors would have longed to embrace how can we turn away from them what we owed John Kennedy today at this museum is to make the museum come alive not only in our memories but in our actions let us embrace the future with bigger let us say we can never expect too little of ourselves networks never demand too little of each other let us never walk away from the legacy of generation of Americans who themselves have paved the way let us be more like those Americans who came home after the Second World War and less like those who withdrew after the first world war the 21st century can be our century if we approach it with the bigger the determination the wisdom and the sheer confidence and joy of life that John Kennedy brought to America in 1960 thank you and god bless you we would all be remiss certainly I would be if we did not formally acknowledge the presence on the stage today as well of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis just as the memory of John F Kennedy keeps so many Forever Young so does the music of one of the most popular and gifted singers of that time and of now ladies and gentlemen Rosemary Clooney oh Beautiful for spacious skies for amber waves for purple mountains Majesty above the fruited Plains America Oh merica God shed His grace on and Crown thy good with Brotherhood from sea to shining Oh beautiful for Heroes proved in liberating strife who more than self their country loved and mercy more than life America America may God thy gold refine till all success be nobleness and every gain divine AMERICA AMERICA God shed His grace on and pounds I could with Brotherhood from sea to shining sea I'd like I'd like to save the verse to mr. brilliance anthem and would you join in on the chorus please while the storm clouds gather far across the sea let us swear allegiance to a land that's free let us all be grateful for a land so fair as we raise our voices in a solemn stand beside and ride through the night with the light from above from the mountains to the prairies to the oceans white with rosemary told me before we gathered out here that the president once said to her you know you're my favorite singer and she said to him all you just say that to me because my last name is Clooney and he said well that helps we gather here today to celebrate the memory and legacy of a president of course and this great library and museum is a fitting tribute to a man who brought great style as well as great vision and energy and compassion to the White House on the other hand if we didn't have this magnificent Complex we'd still have the greatest living repository on all parts of John F Kennedy the user-friendly curator of the museum Dave powers come per week thank you Tom now that was great mr. president distinguished guests ladies and gentlemen I now declare the new Museum of the John F Kennedy Library officially open that's really open please remain please remain seated until President Clinton and his party leap of the museum as you wait there will be a wonderful movie on President Kennedy's trip to Island and you may recognize some of your relatives in Galway and Wexford in Limerick thank you work popular breaking cosplay and the Earth Day of Alabama for the nautical with people we like this dropping worded presidential telegraph disagree with the crafted items to be and Elliott Capital Area tomorrow morning Malik let's go let's go

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Keywords: president, william, bill, jefferson, clinton, john, kennedy, library, presidential, dedication, ceremony, ceremonies, nara, national, archives, and, records, administration

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Length: 65min 19sec (3919 seconds)

Published: Mon May 06 2013