| Dear Friends,
As you may know, I'll be playing with my Sextet along with James Taylor and the US Navy Choir at the Kennedy Library in Boston tomorrow afternoon, on the 50th anniversary of the assassination of President Kennedy. We've just received the script to be read during the memorial telecast (shown below). The words come from President Kennedy's speeches, and have evoked for me powerful memories of that era. I'd like to share it with you and let you know how the web telecast can be viewed.  A Nation Remembers: A Tribute to President John F. Kennedy  from the JFK Library website: On November 22, 2013, from 1:30 p.m. to 2:20 p.m. (ET), the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library will present a televised and webcast musical tribute to President John F. Kennedy, featuring performances in the Library's glass pavilion, a space which Jacqueline Kennedy envisioned as a place for reflection. Additionally, there will be a selection of excerpts read from President Kennedy's most historic speeches, and a moment of silence at 2:00 p.m. ET, when the President's death was announced to the nation 50 years ago. In an effort to allow anyone in the world to join this remembrance, this event will be exclusively for an online audience. There will be no physical audience during these performances – simply the backdrop of the sea that the President loved so dearly. Webcast To view the live webcast, visit jfklibrary.org. TV Coverage National
ABC News
CBS News
NBC News
MSNBC
CNN
CSPAN Local
NECN
WCVB
WHDH
WBZ
WWLP Springfield CSPAN and WCVB-5 (Boston’s ABC affiliate) have also indicated that they plan to air the program live in its entirety. ABC.com is planning to take the feed live for their online coverage. Tribute Program, Words by John F. Kennedy A Nation Remembers:
A Tribute to President John Fitzgerald Kennedy
November 22, 2013
1:30 p.m. Paul Winter Solo Governor Deval Patrick
Commonwealth of Massachusetts (reader) 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. It appeals to their pride, not to their pocketbook--it holds out the promise of more sacrifice instead of more security. But I tell you the New Frontier is here, whether we seek it or not. Beyond that frontier are the uncharted areas of science and space, unsolved problems of peace and war, unconquered pockets of ignorance and prejudice, unanswered questions of poverty and surplus. … I believe the times demand new invention, innovation, imagination, decision. I am asking each of you to be pioneers on that New Frontier. US Navy Choir – “Above the Hills of Time the Cross Is Gleaming" US Naval Commander Chris Cassidy
NASA Astronaut
US Navy SEAL (reader) What kind of peace do I mean? Not a Pax Americana enforced on the world by American weapons of war. Not the peace of the grave or the security of the slave. I am talking about genuine peace, the kind of peace that makes life on earth worth living, the kind that enables men and nations to grow and to hope and to build a better life for their children--not merely peace for Americans but peace for all men and women--not merely peace in our time but peace for all time. So, let us not be blind to our differences--but let us also direct attention to our common interests and to the means by which those differences can be resolved. And if we cannot end now our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity. For, in the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children's future. And we are all mortal. 8th Grade Devotion School Student (reader)
Children are the world's most valuable resource and its best hope for the future. James Taylor
Singer, Songwriter, Composer – “Never Die Young” Elaine Jones
Director Counsel Emeritus NAACP Legal Defense Fund
Peace Corps Volunteer, Turkey (reader) Our Peace Corps is not designed as an instrument of diplomacy or propaganda or ideological conflict. It is designed to permit our people to exercise more fully their responsibilities in the great common cause of world development. Life in the Peace Corps will not be easy. …Men and women will be expected to work and live alongside the nationals of the country in which they are stationed—doing the same work, eating the same food, talking the same language. But if the life will not be easy, it will be rich and satisfying. For every young American who participates in the Peace Corps—who works in a foreign land—will know that he or she is sharing in the great common task of bringing to man that decent way of life which is the foundation of freedom and a condition of peace. US Navy Choir – "Eternal Father, Strong to Save" Governor Deval Patrick
Please join me in a moment of silence in memory of John Fitzgerald Kennedy, 35th President of the United States. Paul Winter Sextet – Artist TBD (reader) If art is to nourish the roots of our culture, society must set the artist free to follow his vision wherever it takes him. We must never forget that art is not a form of propaganda; it is a form of truth. …The highest duty of the writer, the composer, the artist is to remain true to himself and to let the chips fall where they may. In serving his vision of the truth, the artist best serves his nation. … 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 reward achievement in the arts as we reward achievement in business or statecraft. And I look forward to an America which commands respect throughout the world not only for its strength but for its civilization as well. US Navy Choir – "America the Beautiful” US Naval Commander Chris Cassidy
NASA Astronaut
US Navy SEAL (reader) We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win.
Many years ago the great British explorer George Mallory, who was to die on Mount Everest, was asked why did he want to climb it. He said, "Because it is there." Well, space is there, and we're going to climb it, and the moon and the planets are there, and new hopes for knowledge and peace are there. And, therefore, as we set sail we ask God's blessing on the most hazardous and dangerous and greatest adventure on which man has ever embarked. James Taylor – “You Can Close Your Eyes” Elaine Jones
Director Counsel Emeritus NAACP Legal Defense Fund
Peace Corps Volunteer, Turkey (reader) We are confronted primarily with a moral issue. It is as old as the scriptures and is as clear as the American Constitution. The heart of the question is whether all Americans are to be afforded equal rights and equal opportunities, whether we are going to treat our fellow Americans as we want to be treated. If an American, because his skin is dark, cannot eat lunch in a restaurant open to the public, if he cannot send his children to the best public school available, if he cannot vote for the public officials who will represent him, if, in short, he cannot enjoy the full and free life which all of us want, then who among us would be content to have the color of his skin changed and stand in his place? Who among us would then be content with the counsels of patience and delay? One hundred years of delay have passed since President Lincoln freed the slaves, yet their heirs, their grandsons, are not fully free. They are not yet freed from the bonds of injustice. They are not yet freed from social and economic oppression. And this Nation, for all its hopes and all its boasts, will not be fully free until all its citizens are free. Paul Winter Sextet – “We Shall Overcome” Governor Deval Patrick
Commonwealth of Massachusetts (reader) 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. All this will not be finished in the first one hundred days. Nor will it be finished in the first one thousand days, nor in the life of this Administration, nor even perhaps in our lifetime on this planet. But let us begin. The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavor 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.
James Taylor and US Navy Choir – “Shower the People” With gratitude,
For living music,
Paul | 
No comments:
Post a Comment
Make a Nice Comment .....