Watch out for Jack Schlossberg

About 10 days before his famous grandfather’s 102nd birth anniversary, 26-year-old John Bouvier Kennedy Schlossberg or “Jack” ascended the stage at the I.M. Pei-designed JFK Museum and Library in Boston to hand out, with his parents beside him, the Profile in Courage Award to US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Most of us know who Jack’s grandfather and namesake is, the one president in this world who  has captured the imagination and admiration of generations. From Paris to Vienna, to a little town in Italy called Spello, there is either an avenue, a bust, or a plaza named after the 35th president of the United States, John F. Kennedy.

The Profile in Courage Award was created in 1989 by members of President Kennedy’s family to honor President John F. Kennedy and to recognize and celebrate the quality of political courage that he “admired most.” The award is named for JFK’s 1957 Pulitzer prize-winning book, Profiles in Courage, which recounts the stories of eight US Senators who were willing to risk their careers for their principles.

I knew of President Kennedy only through library books (I was normally the first name on the borrower’s card if there was a new book on him) and my mom Sonia’s trove of Life and Look magazines. And yet I grew up admiring him, even when his imperfections hit the ceiling fan.

US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi receives the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award. With her in photo are (from left) Edwin Schlossberg, Ambassador Caroline Kennedy and Jack and Tatiana Schlossberg. Photo from www.jfklibrary.org

His ideals were timeless and universal — just say these two words “Ask not…” and, if there were a “name that quote” instead of a “name that tune” contest, you’d have a winner in a millisecond who could name that quote and the person who seared it into eternity. Regardless of which country you come from.

My grade school social studies teacher told our class Kennedy stopped World War III and subsequent readings and movies (like The Missiles of October, even the mini-series The Kennedys) showed just how. It is said Kennedy stared down Khrushchev and it was the latter who blinked. To many who were inspired by him into entering politics, Kennedy’s other big achievement was his restoration of faith in politics as a noble profession and a calling to public service.

In fact, if you visit the JFK Library (which I am proud to have visited twice, each visit like a “pilgrimage” to the shrine of my very human idol), you will see emblazoned the words that the library is dedicated to JFK and “to all those who through the art of politics seek a new and better world.”

It speaks not just to Americans, but to everyone in this planet.

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JFK Jr., who I fancied as my Prince Charming, was cut down in his prime — at 39, he was even younger than his father was when a small plane he was piloting crashed in the Atlantic Ocean. I believe he would have accepted the torch of leadership at the right time. Why, he even introduced his uncle Sen. Ted Kennedy at one Democratic National Convention in 1988. JFK Jr. wasn’t destiny’s child, after all.

Who knows if destiny favors the third John, the millennial, son of JFK’s only surviving heir Ambassador Caroline Kennedy and her husband Edwin Schlossberg. You could see the pride in the eyes of shy Caroline when she introduced her only son during the Profile in Courage Awards Night last May 19. If Jack the millennial decides to enter public service, the family tradition and distinction, I think she will not flinch, no matter the risks. At the moment, Jack is studying at the Harvard Law School. JFK studied at Harvard, too.

In his speech introducing Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Jack Schlossberg said that as his cousin Congressman Joe Kennedy told him, “(Pelosi) believes political power isn’t to have and hold, it’s to be used to because government can make lives better.”

Jack called her  “the most important woman in American politics, and a profile in courage if there ever was one — Speaker Nancy Pelosi.”

“When we think of political courage, we often imagine someone standing up for what’s right when no one else will, who does so in the face of intense opposition, and who then suffers the consequences — defeated, run out of town, but with their integrity intact and their conscience clear.

US President John F. Kennedy aboard the US Coast Guard yacht Manitou off the coast of Maine on Aug. 11, 1962. Photo by Robert Knudsen/www.jfklibrary.org

“That’s one way to do it, but I like Speaker Pelosi’s model better,” Jack pointed out. Because Pelosi doesn’t lose. She wins. (Jack  may have a brilliant speechwriter, but here’s hoping he got his grandpa’s eloquence as well.)

Listen to him: “A 17-term Congresswoman, and twice-elected Speaker of the House of Representatives, hers is career of courage, spanning decades of change and challenge, inspiring hope and withstanding hate, delivering victories and surviving setbacks, all in service to our country…

“After working in politics for a decade, she was first elected to the House 1987, one of just 23 women elected that year. She  hasn’t lost a race since. In 2002, she became House minority leader, the highest-ranking woman in Congressional history. In 2006, she became the first-ever female speaker, a title she reclaimed earlier this year.

“She’s responsible for major legislative achievements, and chief among these is the Affordable Care Act.

“There’s a reason why presidents had tried and failed to pass healthcare reform for more than 70 years — to borrow a phrase, not because it was easy, it’s because it was really, really hard.” But Pelosi did it.

To this, Pelosi, who attended JFK’s inauguration in January 1961, responded: “I’ve seen many people with conviction and commitment to their ideals. But what’s important is the third ‘C’: The courage to act upon those ideals. In my public life I have seen leaders who understood that their duty was not to do what was easy, but what was right.”

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Public service, as Pelosi noted, is in the Kennedys’ DNA. And, as Caroline herself revealed, her grandmother Rose Kennedy believed, “Politics is family.” You can’t go places in politics without the support of your family. That DNA is in Jack, and he seems to be supported by family in his dreams.

President Kennedy and wife Jacqueline with their children JFK Jr. and Caroline play with their dogs at Brambletyde house on Squaw Island in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts. Photo by Cecil Stoughton/www.jfklibrary.org

Watch out for Jack Kennedy Schlossberg. On stage, with his parents and sister Tatiana in a museum named after his  grandfather, he’s headed for the moon. Incidentally, it was JFK who promised that man will go there.

(You may e-mail me at [email protected].Follow me on Instagram @joanneraeramirez.)