Caroline Kennedy: JFK speech still resounds

WASHINGTON - Fifty years ago yesterday, President John F. Kennedy told the world that "the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans" whom he challenged to "ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country."

Caroline Kennedy has been thinking over her father's oft-quoted inaugural speech of Jan. 20, 1961, when he proclaimed that Americans "shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, to assure the survival and the success of liberty."

"I think he really expanded and redefined our idea of what it means to be a citizen - that everybody has something to contribute and everybody has something to give back to this country that's given us so much," she told The Associated Press. "It's not just an obligation, but it's really a rewarding experience and really a belief in government and politics as a noble profession."

Kennedy joined members of her father's administration, civil rights activists, astronaut Buzz Aldrin and members of the first class of the Peace Corps - which JFK established - yesterday to mark the 35th president's legacy at the Capitol.

Speaking at a ceremony in the Capitol's rotunda, Vice President Joe Biden said Kennedy's cause was to bring America back "to what it should be." "His call to service literally, not figuratively, still resounds from generation to generation," Biden said.

The celebrations come as the Kennedy power in Washington has faded. For the first time in 63 years no one named Kennedy is serving in elected office. Patrick Kennedy of Rhode Island left the U.S. House this month.

Caroline Kennedy said she wouldn't be surprised if someone in her family returned to national politics, but that it probably wouldn't be she. She flirted with a 2008 Senate bid in New York but bowed out.

Instead, she is announcing a new "Ask Not" public service campaign with Jimmy Fallon aimed at youth as part of a series of events to reconnect the Kennedy legacy with a new generation.

Caroline Kennedy hasn't given up on politics, though. While many young people place a high value on volunteering and community service, she said politics has somehow become less attractive to them. And she wants to change that.

"We hope they'll see that it's a continuum and you need the political process to solve these problems that they are already working on so hard," she said.

The anniversary will mark the opening of special exhibits at the Kennedy Presidential Library in Boston, featuring a handwritten draft of Kennedy's inaugural address and the family Bible on which he was sworn in.