“Aymay Ethay Orcefay
Ebay Ithway Ouyay”
-Pig Latin For- “I Was A Teenage Republican”
by Edward C. Truax
What the government isn’t telling you, what doctors won’t
reveal, what geniuses have long theorized about, and you yourself have always suspected...
If you’re wondering where this story is going, and thinking that we
shouldn’t go there, I’ll surrender to your better judgment and change topics.
However, exiting those established first impressions will require a note of honesty. Hey,
I was winging it. I have something that I feel is important to say, but I lacked a good
lead. So I backed up and spun the headline. I just wanted something that would really grab
the readers. I reached a little; okay, so my spin was a bit much. It was a stress kind of
thing. Everyone has a falling down day. Now, back to the future.
Four years ago last month I visited Washington, D.C. to hear Maya
Angelou read a poem entitled "On the Pulse of Morning," as well as to watch
William Jefferson Clinton recite the Oath of Office. Politics has always been sort of an
escaping subject for me, but poetry is something that I feel comfortable writing about.
Possibly Edie Brickell and The New Bohemians expressed it best in one of their songs...
"I’m not aware of too many things, but I know what I know if you know what I
mean." From the moment that Ms. Angelou opened her inaugural poem with the words
"a rock, a river, a tree, hosts to species long since departed..." I was
thrilled. The feeling of being in, and witnessing a truly historic moment, quickened our
collective heartbeats.
During my early childhood my mother would sit on the floor beside me to
make sure that I watched important television events such as those first Gemini rockets
blasting into space and the splash downs of the Mercury capsules. Such events and their
broadcasts are now fragmented and kaleidoscoped along with millions of others. Yet one
remains a constant, it is that of John Fitzgerald Kennedy’s inaugural address in
1961. The inauguration was preceded by a poem written and recited by Robert Frost, a poet
in the twilight years of his life. Old news-reel footage from the obis of time has
revisited that event and brought clarity and focus to the reminisce. What we did not know
on that blustery day in January of 1961 was that something had gone wrong. Poet Frost was
shivering in the bitter cold air as he approached the podium to begin his reading. Those
who watched that day were witnesses to a rubicon in time, which the nation was about to
pass over.
Sharing the stage with Robert Frost was the outgoing President, former
Five Star General Dwight David Eisenhower, the presence of that which had been. Sitting
close by in sullen, yet dignified silence, was Richard Milhous Nixon, the outgoing
Vice-President and second place finisher in the race for the Oval Office. The feeling then
was that he was symbolic of that which might have been. Then there was President-elect
Kennedy himself, representative of all that could and would be. Or so it seemed. As the
inaugural crowd fell silent, the wind whipped and began to flutter the poem about. In
irritated confusion, Robert Frost made a few unsuccessful attempts at it and then
abandoned the official version, opting to recite another which he knew by heart. He then
abruptly walked away. Mr. Kennedy’s turn came to speak; the hush remained in the
crowd. In a dramatic moment of spontaneous gesture, Mr. Kennedy, who had watched poet
Frost’s struggle with fate, stripped off his overcoat and strode to the microphones
in a business suit, foregoing the tuxedo and top hat of established protocol. The new
frontier was born.
In the history of the American presidency which dates from the election
of our first Commander in Chief, John Hanson (1781-1789) to Bill Clinton (1993- ), few if
any have matched or surpassed the oratory skills reached by President Kennedy (1961-1963)
on that day. He was, after all, a Pulitzer prize winning author. His remarks are now
carved in the granite stone which a grateful nation placed as a monument around a grave
which would cruelly take him from them a thousand or so days later. Almost as if the
ghosts of a nation had demanded such a speech before they could let go and rest, it was
delivered. His most memorable line might be among the first "Today a torch has been
passed to a new generation of Americans..." A torch.
Mr. Nixon, who, like a phoenix would rise up out of the ashes of that
once promising time and become president (1969-1974), was himself a Pulitzer prize winning
author in his own right, capable of great literary reach and communication. Yet one should
wonder of the effects Mr. Kennedy’s words had on the deeply disappointed Richard
Nixon. He himself wanted, and had come so close, to being the one raising his hand and
reciting the Oath of Office that day. Give appropriate consideration, if you will, to the
comparative similarities between President Kennedy’s inaugural remarks and those of
President Nixon’s eight years later. I will suggest that this is more than an
interesting observation, yet any real explanation is beyond my grasp.
Kennedy: Let the word go forth, to friend and foe
alike...
NIXON: Let this message be heard, by strong and weak
alike...
Kennedy: Let every nation know...
NIXON: Let all nations know...
Kennedy: To those nations who would make themselves our
adversary, we offer not a pledge but a request; that both sides begin anew the quest for
peace...
NIXON: To those who would be our adversaries, we invite
to a peaceful competition...
Kennedy: We dare not tempt them with weakness, for only
when our arms are strong beyond doubt can we be certain beyond doubt that they will not be
employed...
NIXON: But to all those who would be tempted by
weakness, let us leave no doubt that we will be as strong as we need to be...
Kennedy: We observe not a victory of party, but a
celebration of freedom...
NIXON: In the orderly transfer of power, we celebrate
the unity that keeps us free...
Did the brilliant mind of President Nixon plagiarize the hell out of
President Kennedy’s speech? Or was he sending a message to someone, something out
there? I’m not sure. Politics has always been a subject of escape for me, but poetry
is something I feel comfortable writing about. So what then of that poem written but never
fully delivered by Robert Frost? Well I found it, hear it is.
Summoning artist to participate
In the august occasions of the state
Seems something artist ought to celebrate.
It makes the prophet in us all presage
The glory of a next Augustan age
Of a power leading from its strength
and pride,
Of young ambition eager to be tried,
Firm in out free beliefs without dismay,
In any game the nations want to play.
A golden age of poetry and power
of which this noonday’s the
beginning hour.
*Paul Vathias is a Harrisburg resident who won the Pulitzer
Prize for this photograph of JFK and IKE, taken in Gettysburg. Thank you Paul for sharing
your memories with our readers. |
