Don't heed Kennedy; Ask what your country can do for you

“Ask not,” said John F. Kennedy, the man whose presidency was cut short by a lunacy, “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.”

Kennedy was, of course, goading no one else but the Americans. The complete version of that scintillating phrase goes: “And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.” He was in no way speaking to a Filipino audience because he was not in the Philippines; nor did he have a Filipino ancestry; nor was his skin brown or his nose flat.

The Filipinos, therefore, are under no obligation to heed Kennedy’s invitation. By all means, they can ask their government what it can do for them. They must not, however, feel as though they are mendicant, for they are not.