“The Forgotten White House” monument of “The American Family” — Editorial

“

“The

Forgotten

White

House”

monument

of

“The

American

Family”

by Samuel E. Warren Jr.

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue – The White House. Number 10 Downing Street – is usually known to Americans, as the Official Residence of the British Prime Minister.

When crisis strikes citizens of the world, turn to the official world famous addresses for guidance.

International news network satellite trucks rush to the scene. Television reporters and radio reporters fall out and scramble to get as close as possible for an official statement or reaction. Newspaper and magazines send their reporters and photographers to wade into the ranks and find a spot to get the official words into the print media.

Crisis always turns these buildings into the most important structures on the planet. No one ever rushes to the U.S. Capitol Building – the offices of Congress. No one ever rushes to Buckingham Palace – the impressive symbol of the British monarchy.

People in times of crisis, expect leadership. Thus, citizens turn to the structure, where a leader emerges and provides the common sense and intelligence to assure citizens that the action is being taken and there is a plan to end the crisis.

In peacetime, the world famous addresses, perform their functions and citizens take out their cameras and smile at the noble tourist attractions.

Camp David

Sometimes, other locations appear in the global news media headlines like Camp David in the United States – the official country retreat of the President of the United States of America and his guests, but Camp David is not open to the general public.

United States Army General Dwight David Eisenhower, named the location, “Camp David” to honor his father and grandson, both named “David.” Of course, the general had been elected president. Camp David is one of those locations in the world that sometimes rises to global prominence.

In September 1978, President James Earl Carter Jr., “Jimmy Carter” hosted the Camp David Accords, at the retreat, between Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar al-Sadat.

“The Forgotten White House”

“The Forgotten White House” at Hyannis Port, Massachusetts is one of those global beacons of democracy whose light would erupt through the crisis of confusion and darkness. It served as an international beacon of confidence and conviction in the midst of chaos and confusion.

A “Summer White House” of the Kennedy Administration, Hyannis Port would appear in international media headlines and the “Kennedy Compound” became the “Camelot” that would not pass into history.

Unlike “Official United States Government buildings, sites, locations and real estate – the Kennedy Compound was a summer home of the Kennedy family that always captured the imaginations of Americans on the street.

The Kennedy Compound in Hyannis Port represented the “American Family” at a time when the concept of “family in America” was only a reality in Hollywood movies and Laura Ingalls Wilder, “Little House On The Prairie” books.

At the end of World War II, people knew the concept of family had changed in America and began using the term “Nuclear Family.” But, the detonation came with the Vietnam War, divorces escalated and the deaths in Vietnam made “single parent families,” the rule, rather than the exception. The concept of “family” was gone in America.

Grandfathers, grandmothers, aunts and uncles and “The Extended Family Concept” of America was left to historians to arrange a possible exhibit at the Smithsonian Institution – probably, somewhere near the dinosaurs.

An American way of life had vanished. However, the concept of “family in America” still reigned at the Kennedy Compound. Times of great celebration and tragedy sent members of the Kennedy family to the Kennedy Compound in Hyannis Port.

“America’s Noble Family”

I have heard Brits smile and call the Kennedy family, “America’s Royal Family.” With all due respect to Her Majesty’s “subjects,” these British citizens missed the point completely. America is a nation of tourist attractions – we don’t need a royal family to capture market share of the tourism industry.

The Kennedy family was always “America’s Noble Family,” no matter what celebration, crisis or tragedy struck that family or the nation, the family members would return to the compound and in a few days would emerge to once again serve as living symbols of strength, conviction and commitment to family.

The Kennedy Compound at Hyannis Port, Massachusetts served as the eternal symbol “Family Can Survive And Thrive.”

Joseph Patrick “Joe” Kennedy Senior and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy owned the real estate that was a summer home to their sons: President of the United States of America John Fitzgerald Kennedy, United States Attorney General and Democrat Presidential Party Nominee Robert Kennedy and United States Senator Edward Kennedy.

For decades, Americans could watch the Kennedy family – fathers, mothers, aunts, uncles, sons, daughters, cousins, nieces, nephews and relatives – in times of tragedy or triumph make the pilgrimage to Hyannis Port.

The Kennedy Compound’s importance – to this American – is that the Kennedy Compound at Hyannis Port seemed a “Jerusalem” and that “Holy Land” always seemed to allow a Kennedy family member to rise up to any challenge.

A Kennedy family member would emerge with the knowledge that their family stood shoulder-to-shoulder with them. “An attack on one Kennedy seemed an attack on all” to include in-laws. Alexander Dumas,’ “Three Musketeers” – “One For All, And All For One” was an American reality and the family name was, “Kennedy.”

No matter what the world threw at a Kennedy, the family stood beside, never behind, to withstand the slings and arrows of controversy and criticism. Like the Washington Monument and The Statue of Liberty, the Kennedy Compound was “A National Symbol of Strength and Perseverance”

The United States has many buildings that are listed as the birthplace of a president. But, the United States Government does not have any buildings that serve as a symbol of “The American Family.”

The Kennedy Compound at Hyannis Port, Massachusetts is that symbol of “The American Family”

With the death of Senator Edward Kennedy it was announced that the Kennedy Compound would be donated to charity.

“The American Jerusalem” finally succumbs to the sands of history.

“The Holy Land of Family” becomes an eroding pyramid in the searing sunlight of the reality of American real estate.

It is sad that the United States Government would not attempt to purchase a truly national monument.

Now, future generations of Americans will hear the stories of immigrant families that came to America and the families of the farms and in the villages that transformed a vast real estate wilderness into a great nation and shrug off what sounds like historical fiction.

Americans, in time, will think of families as mythical creations of units of people, who simply shared common beliefs and economic interests.

Future American generations may not realize that the reality of the American family dissolved into the reality of lone individuals adrift in the “Oceans of Life,” without love, guidance, a rudder or a beacon of a distant lighthouse to shine through the daily chaos of humanity.

Sam