Minneapolis spokesman., 1963-02-21

years after Con-
gress declared ~
our goal to be a
decent home and
a suitable envir-
onment for every
American family, Everett Lmeamm
we still have IS million Americans
living in substandard homes i
Our classrooms contain two mil
lion more children than they cam
properly have room for, taught by
80, 900 teachers not properly quail
fled to teach. One-third Of our
most promising high school grad
yates are financially unable to con-
tinue the development Of their tai
ents Medical research has
achieved new wonders-but these
wonders are too often beyond the
reach Of too many people, owing
to lack Of income particularly
among the aged), a lack Of hos
pital beds, a lack Of nursing homes
and a lack of doctors and dentists
Organized and juvenile crimes
cost the taxpayers millions Of doll
lars every year. =. The denial
Of constitutional rights to some Of
our fellow Americans on account
Of race-at the ballot box and
elsewhere - disturbs the national
conscience The present state
of the economy Is disturbing -.
OF some five and a half million
Americans without jobs, more than
one million have been searching for
work for more than four months"
So the New Frontier was ushered
in with tremendous fanfare and
with great promise. Two years
later, after almost every proposal
to improve the situation described
so eloquently had been defeated in
Congress, President Kennedy stat
ed on Jan. IA, 1868 in his second
state Of the union message, "Hav-
ing observed steady improvement
in the opportunities and well-being
Of our citizens - can report to
you that the state of this old but
youthful union, in the 175tn year
Of its life, Is good"
Something Is obviously wrong.
If the nation was in such dire
straits in January of 1861, the
condition Of the nation certainly
can not be considered good" in
January 1868. Because Of this con-
tradiction, one wonders what Ken
nedy's detectives really are. Using
the power OF the office Of PresiI
dent to institute social reform GER
tainly does not seem to be one of
them. This is especially empha-
sized by his revealing remark
quoted recently by New Republic
that there is no sense in raising
hell and then not being successful"
When one wishes to do such great
things as the New Frontier sug-
gests, one must expect to be de-
feated occasionally.
It is evident that the state OF
the union message in January,
1851 was not based on sincere
motivation but merely to give hope
to the citizenry that something
would be accomplished. This was
necessary to maintain consistency
with the type Of campaign that
had been waged.
Soon afterward however, Ken
nedy in effect abandoned his New
Frontier by refusing to give It the
type Of leadership it would require.
In place Of his excellent reforms,
he began to cultivate a personal
image Of himself to the public.
This image that is being created
is similar to the image that royal
ty in other countries have before
the populace. This image, which
emphasizes Jaclde's hairdo more
than Medicare, is only useful for
whipping up patriotism to protect
United States investments in un-
derdeveloped countries. This image
is not useful for promoting social
reform because its publicity de-
pends on the very forces that op-
pose social reform.