I was reading The New York Times this past Sunday and a picture captioned "The proposed Kennedy sculpture" drew me to its accompanying article. A sculptor in Massachusetts wants to erect a memorial to John F. Kennedy in Hyannis. I'm in agreement with that -- this is New England after all; if you stand still long enough a plaque will be cast and affixed to your chest, pigeons will flock and people will seek you out, guidebooks in hand. However, the sculptor, one David Lewis, was also impressed by the death of John F. Kennedy, Jr. and "felt that Mr. Kennedy [Jr.] should be honored along with his father." Here is where Mr. Lewis misses the point.
That point, obviously, is for what, exactly, would Kennedy, Jr. be honored? I'm searching my memory of public servants and their deeds and nothing is being returned from the memory data register about Kennedy, Jr. So, it seems he would be honored for breathing an average of 12 times per minute and having the good fortune of being born into a celebrated family. Before the party line Democrats and American royalists get their backs up, let me say that I'm as sensitive as the next person; I saw the mournful 1963 picture of young John-John saluting his father's casket and I was touched. It was a sorrowful image, and if that child grew to continue his father's public service, if he served in the Congress, or joined the armed forces, or sacrificed his time and money helping the people of America, then I would say honor him. Instead, I say question the reasoning behind the idea to honor someone whose chief assets were his celebrity and a splashy political magazine.
In a country apparently unconcerned with real heroism it is common place to honor accomplishments that include the ability to endure late nights, beautiful, New York women and inherited money. We also herald someone that hits a baseball three and a half times out of ten, runs a sub 10 second 100-yard dash aided by steroids, or returns a maximum yield to stockholders at the expense of a few unlucky SUV occupants. Our values are mixed up. I'm not talking about William Bennett's revirgining; I mean the values for which we erect statues in the first place. You know those I mean. Iwo Jima. The Lincoln Memorial. The Richard Neville Hall memorial in Baker Library. We've forgotten how to recognize genuine people performing authentic, valuable service to America and the world.
Kennedy, Jr. embodies this misdirection in America. He is remembered as if his life meant more to this country than it did to the newsstands where his magazine was displayed. America mourned his celebrity after he flew his plane into the Atlantic. The Secretary of Defense, William Cohen, sent a naval destroyer to carry Kennedy, Jr's. family and his ashes, and as it steamed through the cold waters off Martha's Vineyard those ashes were sprinkled onto the ocean that claimed his body.
Think about that for a minute. A United States Navy warship with its full complement of sailors, all volunteers, commandeered and sent to sea to escort the mortal remains of someone who never served in the armed forces or in any public office. What was Cohen thinking? For that matter, what was the family thinking? Surely they didn't believe the deployment of public money, material and military honor was deserved? The families of service members killed in training accidents each year deserve that sort of care. They are real heroes. They volunteer for the long hours, regimentation, isolation and danger. They should be honored with a destroyer escort, but what they most often get is an overworked honor guard from the nearest military base. Is there not something wrong here? Indeed there is.
Remember this, it is crucial, it is the point. John F. Kennedy, Jr. carried two passengers along with him in that small airplane. They were sisters, Lauren and Carolyn Bessette, and that is the real tragedy. Kennedy, Jr's. ill-considered flight left a family suddenly bereft of two children. Who remembers those women? They died that day just as surely as John-John did, yet it is his memory that is honored with statues and barrels of squandered ink. The destruction of the Bessette family makes the extravagant teeth gnashing and concomitant exaggeration of Kennedy, Jr's. importance even more dismaying. We need to rethink our definition of value and fame. We need to reconsider who is deserving of statuary in a public place.
