A Time To Act

A Time To Act

Juvenile nonfiction
"John F. Kennedy loved to read about history.
But history isn't just in books--it's happening all around us.
And the people who make history aren't just famous leaders or
characters in stories.
They're real people, just like you.
Sometimes, they ARE you."
That first page of Shana Corey's A Time To Act: John F.
Kennedy's Big Speech very nicely sets the tone of the book. Kennedy
is pictured not only as a president, but as a human being dealing with
all kinds of responsibilities and alliances and concerns.
When Kennedy was running for president segregation was creating
separate and inequal schools and restricting black people's
participation in facets of life--even voting, that quintessential
privilege and responsibility of citizenship. People were working for
change. Kennedy said:
"The aim of the next president of the United States must be
to...achieve equal opportunity for Americans regardless of race. This
requires equal access to the voting booth, to the school room, and to
lunch counters."
As president, Kennedy did many bold things. Acting on civil
rights was not one of them. The Freedom Riders tried to integrate
buses. Martin Luther King Jr. was jailed in Birmingham. Children and
teens marched in protest. Finally Kennedy sent a strong civil rights
bill to Congress only a few months before he was killed.
A Time To Act is a good book because it shows a very much loved
president as a human with strengths and weaknesses, facing problems
and challenges day by day...
...like all the rest of us.
On a personal note, here in Penobscot County we are seeing signs of
spring. The snow mountains are receding. We're getting balmy temps
in the 40's. Soon the people who complained about the cold will be
kvetching about the heat. I call them seasonal grinches. My life is
a dizzying (for me) round of school, homework, campus group
involvement, hunting for the GA or job that will finance grad school,
writing, reading books to review, cat care, cooking, and spring
cleaning.
A great big shout out goes to the gang in UMaine's Career Center who
are guiding me through the scary job hunt process. They are not only
professionally competent and perpetually poised, but optimistic that
despite my huge gap in paid work history (child raising, you know),
left behindness in computer literacy, and post traumatic stress
triggered by job hunting we will work something out.
jules hathaway


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