Would U.S. President John F. Kennedy have supported #YesAllWomen? Would he be fighting to #BringBackOurGirls?
More than 50 years after his untimely death, Kennedy has joined Twitter. And we’ll finally know where he stands on the bigger issues of our Twittering times. Well, sort of.
The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library is relaunching its popular @JFKsaid Twitter account on Tuesday to connect Kennedy’s words to current events on Twitter. The account, which has 33,300 followers, had previously been used to live-tweet Kennedy's presidency, but ended on Nov. 22, the date of his assassination.
“We hope that this Twitter project will help people find inspiration from President Kennedy’s timeless words to solve today’s challenges,” Heather Campion, CEO of the Kennedy Library Foundation, told Mashable in an emailed statement. A release continued:
Following the Library’s successful historical Twitter feed project documenting Kennedy’s campaign and presidency in real-time, @JFKsaid will insert quotations by President Kennedy into the contemporary conversations that take place on Twitter in order to illustrate their ongoing relevancy today. The posts will be chosen based on current events, trending topics on social media, and other modern connections. While some quotes will be posted on the anniversaries of major speeches, this project will not adhere to the chronological approach taken with the previous Twitter project.
On Tuesday, which was the anniversary of Kennedy’s American University address on the prospect of peace in a nuclear age, the account tweeted a series of powerful — and, yes, relevant — quotes from his speech.
Let us not be blind to our differences--but let us also direct attention to our common interests.— JFKsaid (@JFKsaid) June 10, 2014
The account then jumped into the #bankonstudents debate, where supporters of the Bank on Students Emergency Loan Refinancing Act are calling on members of U.S. Congress to give borrowers the opportunity to refinance their student loan debts.
There is no greater asset in this country than an educated man or woman. #bankonstudents— JFKsaid (@JFKsaid) June 10, 2014
“Though we can’t connect JFK with every breaking story (Belieber’s Day, for example),” Megan Piccirillo, spokesperson for the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation, told Mashable, “we are hoping that people will realize how relevant President Kennedy’s words still remain today.”
The account joins others that live-tweet history, many of which Mashable has covered, including a handful that documented D-Day in real-time.
Kennedy is in good company: 25 of his fellow deceased presidents are on Twitter — though @JFKsaid is the most serious of the bunch.
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