New Twitter Project Connects JFK’s Words to Current Events

For Immediate Release: June 10, 2014
Media Contact: Rachel Flor (617) 514-1662, rachel.flor@jfklfoundation.org
www.jfklibrary.org

BOSTON, MA – On June 10, the anniversary of President John F. Kennedy’s seminal address at American University on the prospect of peace in the nuclear age, the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library launched a new Twitter account connecting President Kennedy’s words and ideas to modern issues and current events. The feed – @JFKsaid – will be populated entirely by quotations from the nation’s 35th President.

“We hope that this Twitter project will help people find inspiration from President Kennedy’s timeless words to solve today’s challenges,” said Heather Campion, CEO of the Kennedy Library Foundation. 

Following the Library’s successful historical Twitter feed project documenting Kennedy’s campaign and presidency in real time, @JFKsaid will insert quotations by President Kennedy into the contemporary conversations that take place on Twitter in order to illustrate their ongoing relevancy today. The posts will be chosen based on current events, trending topics on social media, and other modern connections. While some quotes will be posted on the anniversaries of major speeches, this project will not adhere to the chronological approach taken with the previous Twitter project. 

The followers of @JFKsaid will be encouraged to interact with the account by sharing their favorite quotations, phrases, or speeches that “JFK said,” and tagging the feed in their post. Even more, fans will be invited to draw their own connections between President Kennedy’s words and current events, which the Kennedy Library will then use to fuel future Twitter conversations.

Several of the history-making lines from President Kennedy’s June 10, 1963 commencement address at American University make up the inaugural tweets on the feed. In that speech, President Kennedy calls on the Soviet Union to work with the United States to achieve a nuclear test ban treaty and help reduce the international tensions and the specter of nuclear war at that time. The address sets forth an international challenge for world peace with his now iconic words:

“What kind of peace do we seek? Not a Pax Americana enforced on the world by American weapons of war. Not the peace of the grave or the security of the slave. I am talking about genuine peace, the kind of peace that makes life on earth worth living, the kind that enables men and nations to grow and to hope and to build a better life for their children--not merely peace for Americans but peace for all men and women--not merely peace in our time but peace for all time.”


* * *

The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum is a presidential library administered by the National Archives and Records Administration and supported, in part, by the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation. The John F. Kennedy Library Foundation is a 501(c)(3), non-profit organization founded in 1984 to provide financial support, staffing, and creative resources for the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum. 

The Library and Foundation seek to advance the study and understanding of President Kennedy's life and career and the times in which he lived; and to promote a greater appreciation of America's political and cultural heritage, the process of governing and the importance of public service.