Did JFK "Steal" the Words for his "Ask Not What Your Country Can Do for You" quote?

Al-Hewar Center ^

[Coleus]

And when John F. Kennedy memorably exhorted Americans: "Ask not what your country can do for you, but ask what you can do for your country," was he consciously quoting words written by Gibran and addressed to the people of Syria and Lebanon half a century earlier?

 

http://www.cs.umb.edu/jfklibrary/j012061.htm

 

http://www.4umi.com/gibran/

 

http://www.bartleby.com/73/766.html

 

http://www.alhewar.com/Gibran.html

[Coleus]

FYI, I was surprised when I heard about this and thought some Freepers may be interested.

[Skwidd]

"When something is said and said well, have no scruple."

[farmfriend]

ping

[Revolting cat!]

Well, at least he didn't steal:

"Ich bin ein jelly doughnut"

[steplock]

Actually a lot of speech makers repeat 'good lines' from previous speeches.

They even re-tell old jokes. Are the jokes 'plagerized'? I guess technically they are.

[Inyokern]

I seem to remember reading that the statement was first made by Warren G. Harding.

[jscd3]

Since the words were probably written for JFK by Ted Sorenson, I'd say that Jack was not guilty...

[Revolting cat!]

Heck, most politician speeches since the Kennedy time (and before in this country) have been written by speech writers. Most books by politicians and celebrities are written by ghost writers.

Ivana Trump, if you remember her, once published some romance novels, which, as it turned out during a press conference promoting one of them, she hadn't even read! Don't think for a minute that Hitlery Rodham is any different as an "author". It's a ghost writer world! (And we luv it and we luv being fooled by it1!)

[Burkeman1]

I have heard that before. That when JFK said that quote he was really saying "I am a Jelly Donut". Is that true or an Urban Myth?

[Revolting cat!]

It's no urban myth. Kennedy actually said in a speech in West Berlin "Ich bin ein Berliner". Trouble is (or was) that for the native Germans a "Berliner" referred to a kind of a jelly doughnut, a roll with some jelly inside it. It's a cliched reference by now.

But there is a revisionist history, as there is for everything, isn't there, and it was covered a few years ago by an article in the Wall Street Journal, I think, where the author argued that indeed the residents of Berlin would have understood "Berliner" as JFK (or his speech writer) had intended it. There must be some references to the whole story in the Net.

[dix]

Those Dems are some kind of a piece of work.

[BoomerBob]

FWIW... I too was curious about this and once asked my German professor (a West Berliner himself) and he said that the "Ich bin..." sentence was acceptable, and understood by the citizenry.

[Burkeman1]

The whole crux of the story rests on "Berliner"- that is proper in English to say a resident of Berlin- but is it proper in German? I don't think so. I have always loved this story.

[Palladin]

The quote is originally from Cicero.

JFK never had an original thought in his life.

Democrats are brainless plagiarists.

[Coleus]

Yep, the problem is that the media and schools, keep on drumming that speech down our throats. It's even in the National BSA Woodbadge course where they talk about communication and quoted all democrats including Kennedy and FDR, never Reagan.

Speech writers using "their own" material is good as well as giving credit to a someone else's quote as many do. Kennedy did NOT give credit to Gibran. Any decent person would have.

What Kennedy should have said, "In the words of Gibran, 'Ask not what your country....'", he did not.

If the ghost writer stole someone else's quotes that is wrong too. The problem is not who is writing the speech or the book, it's what quotes that are stolen, that's the problem. Kennedy or his writer who wrote the speech should have credited Gibran.

[Burkeman1]

But he saved his PT crew with a coconut! I know because it is in the Smithsonian! Hogwash. The Kennedy family myth is one big lie.

[Revolting cat!]

On a related matter, Bob Dylan has been accused of major plagiarism on his most recent studio disk Love and Theft. Here's one link. (There are many others, by the way, and an article in the same Wall Street Journal describing the matter a few months ago.)

[InterceptPoint]

"Ich bin ein jelly doughnut"

The fact that one of JFK's most famous quotes was really screwed up is not well known. It was explained to me by an Englishmen who had lived in Germany long enough to know what a "Berliner" is and yes a "Berliner" is a jelly donut.

[Congressman Billybob]

In German, "ein Berliner" means a jelly doughnut. Had he said just "Berliner" without the "ein" it would have meant "a resident of Berlin."

Congressman Billybob

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