“Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country.”
56 years ago today, 22 November 1963, as a young police inspector on duty in Ndola in the then Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia) and dealing with rioting which had broken out in one of the main African townships following the burning of identification passes of those opposed to voting in the upcoming election for a new government.
I remember the day well, not because of the rioting, but because later that day news filtered through of the assassination of President J.F. Kennedy, the 35th President of the United States.
President Kennedy had been shot and killed while driving through Dallas in Texas where he had gone campaigning.
President Kennedy will forever be linked to the Solomon Islands for it was in 1943 when in the US Navy that his patrol boat, PT-109- was sunk after being rammed by a Japanese destroyer which was then heading north on its return from its base at Kolomnangara.
Kennedy was rescued in sea off the Solomon Islands by a couple of local coastwatchers, Biuku Gasa and Eroni Kumana who brought him safely ashore.
When he became President of the United States, during his inaugural address he said, “Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country.”
He challenged every American to contribute in some way to the public good.
His words of advice hold good today.
Yours sincerely
Frank Short
