By Vincent L. Hall
“A man may die, nations may rise and fall, but an idea lives on.”
– John Fitzgerald Kennedy
Let me do a little housekeeping and explain how Kamelot, a portmanteau, came about. “Portmanteau” is a French word for a two-sided suitcase.
There are portmanteaus that you use frequently and know well. We use words like “Motel,” a blend of motor and hotel or “brunch” which literally and figuratively weds breakfast and lunch.
You get it? We cool now? Kamelot is my own well-crafted portmanteau, which seeks to describe the hope and possibilities we as a nation can gain if Kamala Harris is elected president. “Camelot” lends a sense of hope, opportunity, and peace. Camelot refers to a positive mythological idea that President John F. Kennedy’s widow left us to preserve and protect her husband’s legacy.
History buffs recognize “Camelot” as an offshoot of the hope this nation, especially Blacks, pinned on the presidency of a 43-year-old debonair, East Coastal politician, tragically killed by the same strand of political hatred that Donald Trump has woven since his 2015 debut.
That’s the “weave” he won’t talk about!
Soon after Kennedy visited Dallas in 1963 and was felled by an assassin’s bullet, Jackie Kennedy was on her job. She was as vigilant about his legacy as Myrlie Evers was about Medgar’s. The two men were gunned down three months apart and both left wives and families.
People Magazine released a story about Camelot on the 54th anniversary of JFK’s last political and presidential appearance.
“First Lady Jackie Kennedy was plunged into shock and despair when her husband, President John F. Kennedy, at 46, was assassinated on Nov. 22, 1963.
But even in the midst of unimaginable tragedy, she had a key focus: to ensure that his legacy endured. And to do that, she spun a fantasy that has only grown in the five decades since.
On Nov. 29, 1963, four days after her husband’s burial, the widowed mother of two invited Life magazine journalist Theodore H. White to the Kennedy family compound in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts. There, Jackie, then just 34, crafted a glittering fairytale about JFK’s 1,000 days in the White House that continues to captivate the nation. The inspiration? JFK’s favorite Broadway musical, Camelot — the story of a mythical world ruled by King Arthur, where goodness reigned supreme.
“Don’t let it be forgot, that for one brief, shining moment there was Camelot,” Jackie told White, quoting from the musical.”
Camelot seemed plausible under Kennedy’s administration, (1961–63) when millions of Americans felt excitement about the nation’s future. To this day, Camelot conjures up fantasies of an idyllic time or place where joy, peace, and equality run rampant.
We can recreate what we imagined but never achieved. How do we even begin to assume such a great task? Let me tell you what Kamelot could look like from my vantage point.
First, Kamala Harris can move this nation forward by appointing some high-ranking Republicans to her cabinet. Adding “patriots” like Liz Cheney to her front line could begin to bind the wounds of hatred in our body politic that have overwhelmed comity and civility. The two parties will never fully see eye-to-eye, but there is no reason to keep gouging one another’s eyes out.
Kamelot could stem the tide of a Congress that can’t pass bills or budgets. ABC News reported recently that this “118th Congress is on track to being one of the least functional sessions ever, with only 34 bills passed since January of last year, the lowest number of bills passed in the first year of a congressional session since the Great Depression, according to congressional records.”
In my sanctified imagination, Kamelot could grow this economy from the bottom up. We should have mandated deliverables for reducing the number of Americans who are homeless or suffer untreated mental illness or both. We need an annual goal of no less than 20% in reduction year over year. If Obamacare covered 50 million uninsured people in the swoop of a pen, let’s start writing new stories that end well for the poor and disadvantaged.
Kamelot can produce legislation that protects Second Amendment rights while safeguarding our children and nation against mass murderers. Kamala has successfully defined what we are not “going back” to.
But Kamelot must provide a dream that makes room for both capitalism and the common citizen. It must erase the failed immigration policies of our past and offer a realistic path forward.
I was a kid when Camelot died in Dallas, Texas. But I just voted for Kamelot, and my hopes have been renewed. Kamelot? It can be!
A long-time Texas Metro News columnist, Dallas native Vincent L. Hall is an author, writer, award- winning writer, and a lifelong Drapetomaniac.
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