The Kennedys on my mind... again

Over the weekend, I was transfixed by a feature on the History channel entitled, It’s good to be President. It was a thesis, really, on why American presidents  from Franklin Delano Roosevelt to Barack Obama, have it good. John F. Kennedy may have been the only exception for obvious reasons, but if history is the judge, then JFK never had it so good still. According to the feature, the assassinated 35th president of the United States has the highest average approval rating among all US presidents in modern history. And to think he was only president for a thousand days. JFK and the Beatles have one thing in common  they exited at their peak.

Harry Truman had the highest post-election approval rating, and Bill Clinton, the highest approval rating for an exiting president. I think Clinton’s experience shows that ultimately, the citizenry will be forgiving of your trespasses if you delivered on your campaign promises and made life better for them because of what you did outside your bedroom. (Now if you were a priest or a pastor, that would have been a different story…)

Being the most powerful person on earth is the main, maybe the only reason, why a US president has it good. Though the framers of the US Constitution intended for Congress to be the most powerful branch of the US government, the Executive evolved into being the true seat of power. Being in a position to make a difference, and being in a position to empower millions in their pursuit of happiness  that is what makes the presidency worth it. When FDR, who presided over the years when the US was at war and bankrupt, was asked if he could still sleep well at night despite all the difficult decisions he had to make, he answered yes, he actually did. The fact that he was in a position to make all those life-altering decisions, and make them so that life may be better for millions, made it all worth it for him. I mean, just listen to all those know-it-all commentators giving their bit on how to run a country  when you’re president, you actually get to practice what you can only dream of preaching.

Kennedy, who was depicted as having the best relationship with the press (reporters would agree to redo a supposedly “live” interview if JFK didn’t seem pleased with how it went) was once asked if the presidency was all about making difficult decisions. He said yes, because if the decision weren’t difficult, it would already have been made, and the matter settled, at a lower level. Now doesn’t that make a lot of sense?

I found myself sitting through the entire feature because up to now, I can’t get enough footage of the photogenic John Kennedy and his wife Jacqueline and their adorable children Caroline and John, who looked like poster children for today’s Osh Kosh B’ Gosh ads.

In real life, the Kennedys  from the patriarch Joe Kennedy to Maria Shriver are like actors in a soap opera. Their lives weave around a plot that even the best storytellers can’t imagine.

I’m eagerly awaiting the Philippine premiere this September of The Kennedys, History’s first-ever docudrama. Compiled in eight must-see episodes, the docudrama uses important public events as a backdrop to this revealing insider’s look at the lives, loves and losses of the iconic family.

Featuring a stellar cast that includes Greg Kinnear as JFK (am not sure if Kinnear, whom I remember most for his role in the Jack Nicholson starrer As Good as It Gets, is the right choice for JFK, but I’ll wait and see), Katie Holmes as Jacqueline Kennedy and Tom Wilkinson as Joseph P. Kennedy Sr., the Jon Cassar-directed movie series touches on the epic achievements, private failures, loyalties, resentments and betrayals that marked this unforgettable family saga. 

The series, according to the History channel, highlights the pivotal role of patriarch Joe Kennedy Sr. as the dominant father whose will his sons must bend to, and the man responsible for building America’s most prominent political dynasty of the 20th century.

Deeply devastated after failing to become America’s first Catholic president, Joe Sr. grooms his eldest son, Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. to succeed him. His dreams, however, are once again shattered as his golden child is killed in battle. Joe Sr. then pushes his other son, charismatic John “Jack” F. Kennedy, to the forefront, eager for him to win the elections at all costs and finally fulfill his lifelong bid for presidency.

The docudrama also focuses on the key moments of the Kennedy administration the Bay of Pigs, civil rights, the Berlin Wall and the Cuban missile crisis  which trace the maturation process of John F. Kennedy from inexperienced mishandler of events, to a statesman who keeps the world from exploding in October 1962. Jack and his brother Robert “Bobby” Kennedy (who managed JFK’s Senate campaign and served as Attorney General when he became president) become the two most influential men in America.  

But the worst happens  Jack is assassinated, and soon the Kennedy clan falls apart.

The tragic story of The Kennedys comes full circle with Joe Sr., old, weak, and crippled embodying the man who once ruled a universe of his own creation, now trapped in a body that has become his personal prison. Despite doing everything to write and ensure his family’s remarkable history, he could not alter fate. Joe Sr. succeeded in making sure his sons reach the highest levels of power and prestige but the cost was incalculable.

A Greek drama like no other.

‘Sorry’

The bishops have said sorry for receiving money from government to purchase vehicles in their desire to help the poor, and for the pain it may have caused Catholics who were confused and disappointed by the act.

PCSO chairman Margie Juico has apologized to the bishops for the perception that all the vehicles they purchased with money from the agency were Pajeros, and explained “Pajeros” could have been a generic term used by some people (not Margie herself) to refer to SUVs.

GMA once said “I am sorry” for something she did during the election campaign in 2004, but said it was not to alter the results of the election. She was proclaimed winner of the elections.

Media mogul Rupert Murdoch has said “We are sorry” for the alleged phone hacking perpetrated by one of his publications, News of the World, in Britain.

Erich Segal immortalized the line, “Love means never having to say you’re sorry.” Several marriage counselors have taken pains to debunk his assertion.

Saying “sorry” is welcome because it is a word from the dictionary of humble pie. It takes courage to say sorry, it takes wisdom to say sorry when it is the last thing you want to say.

A friend once posted on Facebook that one of the most humbling and yet panic-laden moments in our life is the moment we realize in the middle of an argument that we are wrong; when we see the other’s point but don’t want to show it. And so we belabor our point even if we know, and even if our eyes show it, that we have lost the moral ground to continue the argument.

Another post says, “Saying sorry isn’t necessarily an admission of guilt; it simply shows that we value a relationship more than our ego.” True, true!

 “Sorry” is a one-word sentence that means a paragraph  but you have to lace it with the truth.

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