Forum: Service to our country ought to come ahead of party

By Ken W. White / Herald Forum

On Jan. 20, 1961, when I was 11 years old, John F. Kennedy took the oath of office to become the country’s 35th President of the United States.

On that day, it was 20-degree weather with deep snow in Washington, D.C.; 20,000 people huddled in the cold to hear the new president, full of youth and vigor, deliver a landmark speech.

Kennedy’s inaugural address was the first to be delivered in color to a televised audience. My family did not have a color TV but I heard the words in color. Even before the Beatles, JFK brought brilliance and excitement to my young mind. His presence was fresh and called out to someone who would later become interested in teaching and history. I did not read the newspaper much, let alone every day, but was tuned into change. I knew that the Woolworth’s lunch counter in Greensboro, N.C., like the one on Colby Avenue in downtown Everett, was desegregated six months before.

I later learned that even elementary school children had written to Kennedy with their reactions to his ideas. On that day, I had not but I did react. I felt the president had personally said to me, “Ask not what the country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.” On that day I decided to become a teacher.

On this day, I am retired after teaching for more than 40 years and I ask: What happened to Kennedy’s vision of patriotism as national service?

On this day, it seems lost.

Mostly.

I don’t mean “service” only in a military sense, but service to fellow Americans in need. Service to our nation’s people, not to a political party. Service not necessarily risking one’s life, which is the most noble, but service that risks one’s political alliances, reputation and close personal friendships. Service that keeps to the ideals of a democratic America and not to one’s self.

As example, former vice president Dick Cheney and his daughter, former Rep. Liz Cheney, are longtime Republicans, strong proponents of conservatism, dedicated. Years earlier, I would have asked, “dedicated to what?” Personal power, money or partisanship? Perhaps. But recently they chose nation over the party they supported, and I knew they were dedicated to America first. They stood up in service to America and to its democratic heart and soul when most needed.

On that day, both Cheneys showed the true nature of American conservatism, of conserving American values, conserving American freedom, conserving American independence.

Unfortunately, the Cheneys are unlike many other Republicans who see patriotism as partisanship and who give blind loyalty to one political party and a self-centered man. They are unlike Republican and Snohomish County Council member Nate Nehring. The Herald recently reported that Nehring has endorsed a Kennedy of a much different heart and mind than JFK (“Whidbey Island candidate: U.S. Rep deserves ‘firing squad,’ The Herald Sept. 14).

Nehring told The Herald he plans to vote for Carrie Kennedy, a Republican candidate in the 10th Legislative District race for the state House, this November. Kennedy, who lives on Whidbey Island, in 2021 called for a Democratic U.S. member of Congress to be in “front of a firing squad.” for which she was banned from Twitter. Kennedy has posted to Facebook that she believes that those who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, are “innocent,” and has posted support for other extremist groups.

Why does Nehring plan to vote for Kennedy? Only because she is a Republican?

In a dangerous atmosphere of violent rhetoric and attempted assassinations, where both political parties have at least called for less agitated language, Nehring has put extreme partisanship over country.

On this day on Election Day, every American needs to ask: What can I do for my country? Is it to support a politician who puts party over country or an extremist who threatens the very safety and well-being of all Americans?

No, on this day, Americans deserve and need to do better.

Ken W. White lives in Arlington.