Drop A Line

Speaking of politics, Ted Sorensen just died.  One of the most significant speechwriters of our time, he helped JFK write his inaugural address, which included the line: "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country."  Sorensen insisted Kennedy wrote those words himself.

I don't doubt Sorenson, and the line sums up for many a certain idealism that died somewhere along the way.  But I've always had trouble with it.  I think Milton Friedman put it best:

President Kennedy said, "Ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country."... Neither half of that statement expresses a relation between the citizen and his government that is worthy of the ideals of free men in a free society. "What your country can do for you" implies that the government is the patron, the citizen the ward. "What you can do for your country" assumes that the government is the master, the citizen the servant.