The 100th Birthday of John F. Kennedy falls today on Memorial Day

This year’s Memorial Day also happens to be the 100th Birthday of John F. Kennedy. Born May 29, 1917, he was the 35th president of the United States, and himself a WWII veteran of the Navy. A quick study, having learning from the Bay of Pigs debacle and negotiations with the then Soviet Union to get missiles out of Cuba, under pressure from Freedom Riders, Martin Luther King, Jr, and many others, Kennedy turned his attention to Civil Rights. It was only after his assassination in November 1963 that his successor Lyndon B. Johnson was able to get passed through Congress the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. [We might remember today just what types of discrimination were outlawed.]

Memorial Day is a time to pause and remember those who died as soldiers, Marines, Airmen and women, sailors, Coast and National Guard persons. We thank them. Today might also, perhaps, be a time to recommit ourselves to giving back for their service by offering an hour a week pro bono psychotherapy to the family members, or veterans who remain, through, for example, Tampa Bay Institute for Psychoanalytic Studies’ Veterans Family Initiative.  Many clinicians in the Tampa Bay area have generously given of their time and expertise to help families and wounded warriors afford much needed mental health services. We thank them as well.