John Kerry, a Lifetime of Wasted Opportunities
by Michael Ashbury
Tuesday, October 19, 2004
Unlike the average American, John Forbes Kerry was born into a family of wealth and privilege. His mother, Rosemary Forbes, was a French national, and heiress to the Forbes family fortune. Her father James Grant Forbes was born in Shanghai, China. Family members, including her father were leading opium dealers in China during the Opium War accumulating a considerable fortune.
With support of the Forbes wealth, John Kerry had the opportunity of the finest education being trained at boarding schools in Switzerland and Massachusetts, including the prestigious St. Paul school in New Hampshire. He relished the advantages of wealth spending his summers in Europe, especially the posh Forbes estate in France. After preparatory school, the Forbes wealth enabled John Kerry to attend Yale University.
Then John Kerry went to Vietnam to--in his words--serve his country, though only after being turned down for a requested deferment. He had the opportunity to become a respected leader and though he gained recognition with heroic decorations he was the only swift-boat sailor ever to leave Vietnam without completing the standard one-year tour of duty, other than those who were seriously wounded or killed. His departure was described as reassignment following the receipt of three (questionable) Purple Hearts under naval regulations.
However, the officer-in-charge, Thomas Wright, states that he requested that Kerry be removed from his boat group because he had trouble getting Kerry to follow orders. Thousands of true Vietnam heroes not only fulfilled their year assignments, but also signed up two or more tours.
On return from Vietnam Kerry had the opportunity to use his hero status to foster an end to the war, but he chose to denigrate his fellow soldiers with false claims probably extending the war with additional deaths and continued persecution of POWs.
Married in 1970, John Kerry and his wife, Julia, had two daughters. He had the opportunity to be a devoted husband and father. However, when Julia was suffering from severe depression and was suicidal, John decided that she stood in the way of his political ambitions and he moved out. Then when he married Theresa he petitioned the church to have his 18-year marriage annulled as if it never existed and the children were illegitimate.
Elected to the Senate in 1984, John Kerry had the opportunity to introduce and fight for legislation to benefit the people of Massachusetts and the nation. Yet after 20 years, he can only point to 11 bills that became law and carry his name. How significant was this legislative effort? He can only claim action on bills to:
- Provide grants to woman-owned small businesses (1999),
- Name a federal building in Waltham, Massachusetts (1994),
- A save-the-dolphins measure (1994)
- Fund the National Sea Grant College Program, (1991)
- Grant a visa and admission to Kil Joon Yu Callahan. (1987)
- Award a congressional gold medal to Jackie Robinson (2003)
- Increase the maximum research grants for small businesses (2001)
- To make the week of Oct. 22 – Oct. 28, 1989 ''World Population Awareness Week.'' (1989)
- To renew ''World Population Awareness Week'' for 1991, (1991)
- To make Nov. 13, 1992 ''Vietnam Veterans Memorial 10th Anniversary Day.'' (1992)
- To make Sept. 18, 1992 ''National POW/MIA Recognition Day.''
In 1991 John Kerry, a decorated veteran, had the opportunity to resolve the fate of POWs and MIAs in Vietnam as chairman of the Senate Select Committee on P.O.W./ M.I.A. Affairs. Yet reports are that he carried out a subterfuge of shredding documents, suppressing testimony, and sanitizing the committee's final report in an effort to normalize relations with Vietnam.
And finally as a dedicated man of the Middle Class, John Kerry had the opportunity to improve people's lives over the past 20 years. Yet he voted a total of 22 times not to reduce the marriage penalty. He voted 18 times against expanding the child tax credit, and a total of 350 times he voted to increase the taxes or to keep taxes from being reduced on the middle class.
Given a life of privilege, John Kerry could have used this opportunity to improve the lives of those less fortunate in this country and around the world. However, driven more by ego than personal sacrifice, John Kerry has wasted this life of opportunity. |
