To most people, poetry and politics look like two totally different matters. As a matter of fact, few politicians in history appear to be able to master poetry; and rarely can poets become politicians.

JF Kennedy, however, may well be such an exception. He considered himself “an idealist without illusions” and he has not been shy about articulating his visions and ideals on various important areas about humanities, which range from “the strategy to pursue world peace”; “civil rights”; “exploration into space”, “education”, “the role of art, aesthetics and poetry in society” and many other things as well.

Indeed, JF Kennedy was one of the few US Presidents who seem to have a coherent and articulated vision about both the foreign and domestic affairs of the United States as well as the major fabrics of human societies. More importantly, if these visions can be achieved, they should be very good for not only the United States but probably also to the Humanities as a whole.  But perhaps the more important of all is that,  JF Kennedy has been courageous enough to dedicate to kick-starting “the first single step” of many such grand visions while knowing well that “All this will not be finished in….. even perhaps our lifetime on this planet.”

In short, it appears to us that JF Kennedy has helped to draw up the grand visions and blue-prints for many important journeys for the humanities and has succeeded in kick starting the first step of such journeys. He has used the term “Let us Begin” which we see as an invitation for all Humanities to carry on these journeys. We do believe that it is very worthwhile indeed for the rest of the Humanities to carry on with these journeys.