John F. Kennedy Archives » Lynda Waddington

30May 2016 by Lynda Waddington

Use actions to thank veterans

Gazette Column

Not only is it important this Memorial Day to honor fallen veterans, we should offer more than words to those still living. Last year was the 150th anniversary of the end of the Civil War, our country’s bloodiest conflict. Roughly 500,000 Union and Confederate soldiers died, says the U.S. Department of Defense. Yet born of that grief was Decoration Day, now known as Memorial Day. We set the day aside to honor those who have paid the ultimate sacrifice. Families and volunteers honor the fallen by cleaning and decorating their graves, marking them with flags. But even as we pause to remember, we must acknowledge that a single day of ceremony isn’t enough. On Memorial Day and throughout the rest of the year, the dead — and the families they…

28Sep 2015 by Lynda Waddington

Too bad Barack Obama isn’t a Muslim

Gazette Column

The first U.S. visit by Pope Francis made clear that most Americans have finally sat aside anti-Catholic prejudice, a process that began decades ago. John F. Kennedy, a Roman Catholic, knew what he was getting into when he began his 1960 presidential bid. Before him, only one Catholic, former New York Gov. Al Smith, had been a presidential nominee for a major U.S. political party. Smith’s 1928 campaign fractured under rumors that he’d construct a tunnel connecting the Vatican to the White House or that he’d amend the Constitution to make Catholicism the national religion. That year Iowa’s own Herbert Hoover, raised a Quaker, was elevated above Smith and into the White House. It was due to this history, I believe, that Kennedy chose to take his candidacy to the…