True Celebrity: The Kennedy Legacy
by: Richard S. Clifton

Saturday Ramblins, Vol. 2, No. 15 (July 31, 1999)

In the wake of the deaths of John F. Kennedy, Jr., his wife Carolyn and her sister, Lauren Bessette, the media had a field day. Within moments of the first bulletin that broke a quiet and warm Saturday morning with the chilling news that John's plane was missing, media pundits tripped over themselves trying to get in front of cameras.

Hours of continuous television coverage, pages of print in expanded newspaper editions were based on two facts: JFK, Jr.'s plane was missing and luggage and a few airplane parts had washed up on a beach on Martha's Vineyard. That was all the "news" there was. Everything else was "fill," as we in the media like to say.

And what was this "fill?" Talk of the Kennedy legacy coupled with memories of Camelot and a curse on the on the family. This misses the point and is an example of the media at their worst. It's simple exploitation and a great injustice against a family whose private grief has always been public.

In an age filled with false celebrity, ridiculous public trappings such as silly entourages and outrageous demands placed on public places for people who are known simply for being known, the Kennedys have always stood apart.

True, we were charmed by Jack Kennedy and his beautiful wife when they entered the White House. We were equally struck with great sadness when an assassin's bullet cut the President down in 1963. We were shocked when his brother Robert suffered the same fate five years later. But this doesn't suggest any curse on the family, just fate and circumstances. After all, we can point to many families in our own circle of acquaintances who have suffered as the Kennedys have suffered.

Three Kennedy brothers have given their lives in the service of their country: Joe, Jr. (lost over the English Channel during World War II), Jack and Bobby. Their legacy is not one of a mythical kingdom of yore. Their legacy is one of service, service to their country and to their fellow citizen.

The tragedy came in not what was, but what could have been in this service. The same sadness prevails in the death of John (or should). Like them or not, every Kennedy lived two things. First, they believed they were citizens of their own time and should passionately enter into those times. Secondly, as JFK's words echoed in his inaugural address so many years ago, they looked at things not as they are but as they could be. In other words, they asked not "why?" but "why not?" That, and service, are the true Kennedy legacies. That promise, cut short in the lives of several members of the family is what we, as a nation, should mourn.

Most of us never knew John, Jr. or his father, or Jackie. If we think we knew them through the media, especially the tabloids, we are sadly mistaken. The Kennedys we admire most did not achieve their celebrity through good looks, money, or the advantages of birth. They used these things to strive and achieve not for themselves, but for the betterment of all Americans.

John F. Kennedy, Jr. was not just a man of promise, but one who was continuing the Kennedy legacy in his own way, as his own man. Whether he would have followed his father and uncles into a life of public service is something the Kennedy watchers will debate forever.

What we lost was not a friend or family member. Only the Kennedy family and friends experienced that loss. (We must remember here, too, that the Bessette family and their friends lost twice as much.) What we lost was the difference a young man following in a legacy of more than 50 years of service to this country might have made. For that we grieve; for that we mourn.

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