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By Aaron Vance, Class of 2017
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| Aaron Vance |
Being in my first semester in the McConnell Center, I was very unaware of the presence of Dr. Barbara Perry. Never to disparage any of our lecturers, I was quite unaware of her connection to the Center, and everything that she would bring to her lecture and seminar. Needless to say though, it nicely characterizes my first semester in the McConnell Scholars Program. Her lecture on Rose Kennedy brought much insight into the world of the Kennedys, but her commentary on her own world, is where she really hit home. When talking afterwards she had said, “My Nana had a picture of Kennedy hanging in her living room.” Although there is an age difference, I was surprised to find this commonality between us, because my Nana kept her picture of Kennedy nestled between the pictures of her family.
This may not seem very monumental in any regards, but it did give me a glimpse of insight and allow me to relate to Dr. Perry across a different spectrum. Now, I was no longer chalking it up to my grandmother being crazy, but an intense love that swept the Catholic community of America with the advent of our 35th President. I couldn’t help but think that all the Nanas of the world would be essentially gawking over Jack Kennedy, and could only imagine what his mother Rose would have thought of that. And, as I still read into Dr. Perry’s biography of Rose I am starting to now understand truly how she might have felt over such an idea and the true power of the Kennedy image.
This conceptualizing of the Kennedy image didn’t prompt the Vatican to beatify JFK or call him a martyr, but it all but did for the millions of Catholics in America in the 1960s. Confined to the Irish Wards and the many other political spheres of influence, the Catholics had now found a voice, and the community would be overtaken by this fervor as it continued to traverse across different cultural groups. As their influence grew and even fell, the Kennedys would never lose their prominence as they championed their causes and sought to revolutionize America.
But as for Rose, I am sure she would definitely revel in the fact that multitudes of women would place the picture of her son in their homes. They would welcome the Kennedys into their families the best they could, as they would enter into the politics no longer feeling disenfranchised. Many can find inspiration from the Kennedy family whether it is Dr. Perry, our Nanas, or even myself.
Aaron Vance is a freshman McConnell Scholar at the University of Louisville. He is studying History, Political Science and Anthropology.