2008.01.21: January 21, 2008: Headlines: Directors - Shriver: Figures: Directors: Documentaries: Louisville Courier-Journal: Tom Dorsey writes: 'American Idealist' offers a revealing look at Shriver
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2008.01.21: January 21, 2008: Headlines: Directors - Shriver: Figures: Directors: Documentaries: Louisville Courier-Journal: Tom Dorsey writes: 'American Idealist' offers a revealing look at Shriver
Tom Dorsey writes: 'American Idealist' offers a revealing look at Shriver
Shriver, who was married to JFK's sister Eunice Kennedy, was given his chance to practice his idealism when Kennedy offered to let him pursue a project called the Peace Corps, which exists today. The concept was simple: Americans were urged to go abroad and work with the poorest people as a way of living up to America's highest ideals. Peace Corp volunteers have been people with specific skills, such as teachers, or just anybody who could do anything that was needed. They helped others get safe water, built schools and did thousands of little and big things that made lives better. Doubters derided the organization as the "Kiddie Corps" and called Shriver an overgrown Boy Scout. They said nobody would step forward. But more than 10,000 did right away in the early 1960s. The Kennedy administration had more applications for the Peace Corps than all other government jobs. Shriver made the Peace Corps America's first war for the hearts and minds of people in other countries, and he did it with an army of soldiers who didn't carry guns. Shriver's Peace Corps turned "Yankee go home" into "send us more Americans like these."
Tom Dorsey writes: 'American Idealist' offers a revealing look at Shriver
'American Idealist' offers a revealing look at Shriver
Tom Dorsey
Countless TV programs have honored Martin Luther King Jr. on his birthday, but tonight PBS chooses to remember him by profiling the man who got him out of jail and may have saved his life.
"American Idealist: The Story of Sargent Shriver," at 10 on KET2, is the biography of a little-known prince in John F. Kennedy's Camelot. He is a man who put his money where his mouth was with a lifetime of service to people, especially children, in need.
The program is a saga about the man who worked in the shadows of the Kennedy clan. In many ways, Shriver more truly symbolized what the Kennedys said they stood for than they did. His daughter, former TV reporter Maria Shriver, is the executive producer of the program.
A good example of Shriver's moral fiber occurred when Kennedy was running for president in 1960, and King was arrested on a traffic violation and sentenced to a state prison. His backers believed that he would be murdered behind bars.
Shriver went to Kennedy and said he ought to use his influence to get King out. Kennedy was wary because he feared it would cost him Southern votes. Shriver convinced him it was the right thing to do, however, and he did it.
That's an example of how Shriver's moral compass never wavered.
Shriver, who was married to JFK's sister Eunice Kennedy, was given his chance to practice his idealism when Kennedy offered to let him pursue a project called the Peace Corps, which exists today.
The concept was simple: Americans were urged to go abroad and work with the poorest people as a way of living up to America's highest ideals.
Peace Corp volunteers have been people with specific skills, such as teachers, or just anybody who could do anything that was needed. They helped others get safe water, built schools and did thousands of little and big things that made lives better.
Doubters derided the organization as the "Kiddie Corps" and called Shriver an overgrown Boy Scout. They said nobody would step forward. But more than 10,000 did right away in the early 1960s. The Kennedy administration had more applications for the Peace Corps than all other government jobs.
Shriver made the Peace Corps America's first war for the hearts and minds of people in other countries, and he did it with an army of soldiers who didn't carry guns. Shriver's Peace Corps turned "Yankee go home" into "send us more Americans like these."
He would later answer those who said that charity should begin at home with VISTA, a peace corps to help struggling Americans. He went on to establish law centers for the poor, anti-hunger groups, foster grandparents groups, advocacy groups for affordable housing and, maybe most important of all, a program called Head Start to help children get off on the right foot in school.
Shriver and Kennedy talked about how they could expand all this in the years to come, but that day in Dallas intervened. It seemed like the end of a dream, except that Kennedy's successor in the White House, Lyndon Johnson, had even bigger ideas. He wanted Shriver to stay on after JFK's assassination to wage the War on Poverty.
Shriver threw himself into it like he did with everything else, but he soon discovered his biggest battle wouldn't be with helping the poor, but with politicians.
The operation to empower poor people was set against the background of change and rebellion in the 1960s. Many mayors didn't want to share power with the federal government. Others wanted to hold tightly to the purse strings.
Some saw it as a scheme that only encouraged rabble-rousers in an era of upheaval. Shriver was in the fight of his life and then found his biggest ally was deserting him.
Johnson was upset about the political enemies that Shriver was making in the War on Poverty. Besides, the president needed the money for the war in Vietnam. For Shriver, it was the day the music died. He fought the good fight in lots of other ways afterward, but the idealism of that Camelot era had evaporated.
He and his wife went on doing what they could with projects such as the Special Olympics, which they practically started in their front yard. Shriver never gave up hoping that government could bring out the best in people.
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Headlines: January, 2008; Shriver; Sargent Shriver (Director 1961 - 1966); Figures; Peace Corps Directors; Documentary Films; Maryland
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Story Source: Louisville Courier-Journal
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