"So any time you hear anyone express doubts about America, remind them, as Jack Kemp always reminded us, that with an unshakable faith in ourselves, anything is possible. And remind them, as Jack Kemp always reminded us, that each of us has the capacity, no matter how humbly we started out in life, to fulfill the promise of the American Dream."
Jack French Kemp, one of only 19 “Originals” who played all nine years in the American Football League (AFL) — from 1960 to 1969 —quarterbacking for the Buffalo Bills in five AFL Championship games is remembered in a recent article for Washington Times, by former colleague, Samuel A. Brunelli. It remembers Jack Kemp on his birthday, July 13th.
He recalls the legacy of Kemp as he saw it. Brunelli notes that “from the moment we met in 1974 until his passing at age 73 in 2009, Jack Kemp and I played in a whole new arena and on the same team. We played on the team that helped Ronald Reagan win the presidency twice and govern successfully.”
Brunelli points out Jack Kemp’s fight for low-income areas in America. As Kemp served for seven years as the secretary of Housing and Urban Development and co-chairman of Empower America and Brunelli being the executive director of the American Legislative Exchange Council, together Brunelli and Jack Kemp led the team that advanced productive free enterprise and personal empowerment in America’s low-income neighborhoods.
Jack Kemp was a guardian of the American Dream. He knew, as Brunelli eloquently explains that there is no limit to personal growth when free men and women pursue their dreams and apply their creativity, intelligence, and skills in a system of productive free enterprise. He communicated these arguments for economic freedom with unprecedented passion and eloquence. His impact was not only one of national consequence but also one of global significance. The American Idea as championed by Jack Kemp transformed billions of people’s lives in Brunelli’s estimation. As history illustrates nation after nation replaced its state monopolies with free enterprise.
Brunelli makes his point clear, declaring; “any time you hear anyone express doubts about America, remind them, as Jack Kemp always reminded us, that with an unshakable faith in ourselves, anything is possible. And remind them, as Jack Kemp always reminded us, that each of us has the capacity, no matter how humbly we started out in life, to fulfill the promise of the American Dream.”
- Post written by Jay Juan Jones, intern for Jack Kemp Foundation