On November 22, 1963, President John F. Kennedy (JFK) was assassinated. His death stunned the world, and the tremors of that event was felt on Dominica. In honor of President Kennedy New Street in Roseau was renamed Kennedy Avenue by the Roseau Town Council on the urging of then Roseau Mayor Stafford “Star” Lestrade.
Today, November 22, 2023, marks the 6oth anniversary of JFK’s tragic passing. However, the beauty of his vision for peaceful engagement among nations lives on in the work of the US Peace Corps and its volunteers. The US Peace corps was the born of the visionary thinking of then presidential candidate senator John F. Kennedy. At an October 14, 1960, campaign rally in Ann Arbor, he urged the University of Michigan students in attendance to volunteer their time to assist countries in the developing world. He asked the students gathered to volunteer to change the world for the better. Once in office the United States Peace Corps was officially inaugurated on March 1, 1961.
Two amazing Humanitarians & Peace Corps Volunteers – Ron Green & Bob Maguire
Ronald Milner Green – Peace Corps Volunteer in Nigeria (1962-1964)
The US Peace Corps offered a service platform to two amazing humanitarians. One was Dominica born Ronald “Ron” Green who had migrated to the United States as a child, became a track star in high school (Green was the New York State hurdles champion 1959) in and later attended Manhattan College. Ron later traveled to Nigeria as a Peace Corps Volunteer in 1962. After serving his time as a professor at a teacher’s college in northern Nigeria, Ron Green returned to complete his master’s degree in education at Columbia University where he commenced pre-doctoral studies. Ron later joined the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and traveled to Mississippi to organize African Americans to secure their voting and other civil rights. During his time in development work, Ron Green met eminent civil rights leaders Malcolm X and Stokely Carmichael. In 1995 Ronald Green became Minister of Education in the United Workers Party led administration and pioneered universal secondary education.
In a 2023 interview Ronald Green gives insight to the Dominica of his childhood and his journey to the United States as an unaccompanied child, with his name and destination in Harlem, New York pinned to his jacket. See here – (5) Ronald Milner Green – Scholar, Athlete, Peace Corps Volunteer, Minister of Education, National Hero – YouTube
Robert “Bob” Maguire – Peace Corps Volunteer on Dominica (1969-1972)
Another humanitarian with roots in Peace Corps Volunteer service was Robert “Bob” Maguire who came to Dominica in 1969. Within months of this arrival Maguire sat on his porch at Piveteau Street in Pottersville, guitar in hand (and a pen and paper near him) and produced one of the most popular songs on the island: Dominica – Land of Beauty. Listen here – (5) Dominica: Land of Such Beauty by Bob Maguire – YouTube
Bob Maguire later earned his PhD in Geography from McGill University and became a development specialist, at the Inter-American Foundation focused on the Caribbean. Bob has never forgotten his early years of service in education on Dominica and now maintains a home on the island.
In a 2023 interview, Bob Maguire relates for posterity his fascinating Dominica story. (5) Dr. Robert Maguire, Peace Corp Volunteer, on Alwin Bully and author of the Folk Song “Dominica” – YouTube
Both Ronald “Ron” Green and Robert “Bob” Maguire had a JFK Connection via their humanitarian work in the US Peace Corps. They were both inspired by Kennedy’s vision of peaceful engagement with the world. Kennedy was of the view that US engagement with the developing world would be much more successful where investments were made in education, health and community development as opposed to military adventurism and war. There are many who believe that he had decided to disengage from the ruinous conflict in Vietnam. We shall never know how different the world would have been but for his tragic assassination on November 22, 1963.
In one of his last speeches, made at American University in Washington, D.C on June 10, 1963, Kennedy said:
I speak of peace because of the new face of war…when a single nuclear weapon contains almost ten times the explosive force delivered by all the allied air forces in World War II…I speak of peace, therefore, as the necessary rational end of rational men. I realize that the pursuit of peace is not as dramatic as the pursuit of war — and frequently the words of the pursuer fall on deaf ears. But we have no more urgent tasks.
On the 60th anniversary of the assassination of President Kennedy we honor the great things he did. Aside from his efforts in civil rights, advancing world peace, space travel (he was the US President who announced the plans for the moon landing which was realized in 1969) he was the father of the US Peace Corps.
Today, because of the vision of Ron Green and those in the ministry of education at that time, high school education on Dominica is within reach of almost every child. Ron Green had related to me that when he became Dominica’s Minister of Education in 1995 only 33% of age eligible students on Dominica attended high school. It was that troubling statistic that inspired him to successfully push for universal secondary education. Bob Maguire’s song, Dominica: Land of Beauty, is played on Q95 Radio every afternoon during Matt Peltier’s program “Talk on the Block.”
Maguire continues his involvement in Dominican society more than fifty years after he visited the island and maintains a home there. We give thanks for the noble work of Ron Green and Bob Maguire in humanitarian and development causes. Their orientation towards helping others was nurtured by their service as US Peace Corps volunteers. That enlightened vision of young men and women serving overseas to educate others, or advance community development, provides much value in a world convulsed by war. Kennedy was also someone who sought disarmament, an end to nuclear testing in the atmosphere, and a departure from military adventurism. In this moment it is wise to reflect on the humanitarian vision of President John F. Kennedy. We shall remember him.
Well, you piece of dog feces!
I don’t usually edit what I dictate as I write.
Now the system I’m using tends to make corrections be it American or Cambridge, English Grammar.
Unless I edit prior to submitting my comments, I am not aware of such errors!
Anyway it is a good thing cousin Edison James taught you English at both DGS and SMA as you said he taught you at both institutions.
I am not ashamed of errors!
To error is to be human, am not invincible, nor am I a god. And surely I am not God.
Have a happy day, merry Christmas and Mother’s Day to and your Father’s Day, while kiss your father Rooster Roosevelt Skerrit rusty behind for something to eat!
John F. Kenedy contributed nothing towards the development of Dominica. A street is named after him, for what? We have no streets named after our local heroes like Jacko and Bala but we honor a racist by naming a street after him, that shows what the mind set was back in 1963.
ADMIN: While we can speculate on the full extent of Kennedy’s personal views and observe clear (and admitted) policy failings in his presidency, John F Kennedy supported the civil rights movement and appointed African-Americans to key roles in his administration.
He also helped pave the way for the first African-American Supreme court justice by appointing Thurgood Marshall to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York.
You can read more here: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/jfk-domestic-politics/
DNO, Kenedy was timid when it came to civil rights, he did not want to offend his white voters. Why not a Martin Luther King Avenue… our brains were still shackled back in those days.
ADMIN: We appreciate your position and support your right to express it but we are neither advocating for or against your point.
Our focus is a different one.
We advocate for and provide facts as best we can so readers can use that information as a basis to make up their own minds.
You can learn more about our policy here: https://dominicanewsonline.com/news/policies/#comment-policy
What kind of Grammar is that? Are you trying to lunching a political comeback, when you single-hand-idly destroyed the UWP? It is launch, damn it and it is singlehandedly, damn it. What University in the states you attended? A dumb fool from Wesley.
“Today, November 22, 2023, marks the 6oth anniversary of JFK’s tragic passing.”(Ron Green).
So, of what interest is the assassination of Kennedy to Dominicans? In any event there is a difference in the passing of someone, and the brutal assassination of that same person!
Death of a loved one can be defined, the passing of someone which is a term that means the death of a loved one: It is often used as a euphemism to avoid the harshness of the word death.
In case of the late John F Kennedy he was assassinated, that is different from the demised or a normal death of someone.
“The 46-year-old president, sitting in an open-top convertible and waving to the crowd, was shot twice that morning while traveling in his motorcade through downtown Dallas—once in the back and once in the head. He was pronounced dead 30 minutes later, becoming the fourth U.S. leader to be assassinated.”
Are you trying to lunching a political comeback, when you single-hand-idly destroyed the UWP?