KENNEDY THEN AND NOW

John F Kennedy uttered these famous words at his inaugural address Jan. 20, 1961: “Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country.” “ Let us never negotiate out Of fear, but let us never fear To negotiate.”

Now, let’s imagine those same thoughts but using today’s mind-numbing jargon: “Consider how your skill sets can be proactively deployed to add more brand value to the enterprise of the country.”

“Let us never negotiate out of fear, but let us never fear to negotiate.” “Going forward, let us strive for face time with our adversaries in order to achieve mission-critical success.”

Another example of graceful writing from Kennedy: “Liberty without learning is always in peril; learning without liberty is always in vain.” In today’s jargon: If you’re free, but you don’t bother to make the effort to learn anything or do anything really important with your freedom, then that’s dangerous, and you might lose it, but if you don’t have any freedom and you try to learn something that’s pretty much a no go.