Fifty years ago this week, organizers at the Dallas Trade Mart had to solemnly pack up tables and chairs that they had set up in anticipation of a guest that would never arrive, as well as read over the haunting words of a speech that a President would never live to speak. It was the evening of Nov. 22, 1963, and hours had passed since Walter Cronkite broke down in tears on CBS news while notifying the nation of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. A sunny Dallas afternoon turned dark, and in the course of a few seconds the American Exceptionalism and limitless future that President Kennedy had so long spoken of seemed to vanish from the American psyche forever.

It’s very easy for Americans to remember JFK for that sunny afternoon drive through Dealey Plaza and the infamous Zapruder film that showed the last few seconds of President Kennedy’s life; however, it is important to remember that the Kennedy Presidency and legacy reaches far beyond the tragic events of Nov. 22, 1963.

While half of the globe was engulfed by the Iron Curtain of the Soviet Union, President Kennedy committed the United States to be stewards of liberty and hope to the rest of the world. His administration saw the creation of the Peace Corps, a program that continues to this day to show young Americans the importance of being not only good citizens of the United States but also good citizens of the world.

Kennedy’s Alliance for Progress program sent aid to hard-hit countries throughout Latin America on the condition that they committed themselves to better human rights standards, and he traveled to the newly constructed Berlin Wall and stood in defiance of the Soviet Union when he loudly proclaimed “Ich bin ein Berliner!” (I am a Berliner!).

He negotiated a major Nuclear Test Ban Treaty with the Soviet Union while also showing masterful diplomatic resolve during the Cuban Missile Crisis. He refused to allow the Cubans and the Soviets to push around the United States, and successfully steered the world away from a potential global thermonuclear war that would’ve sent the earth and civilization into depths of despair like never before witnessed in human history.

While the Soviet Union had some of the best scientists in the world propelling the Communists into space at a faster and faster pace in the name of imperial domination, President Kennedy saw American efforts in space important in a new way. When JFK stood on a burning hot summer day in Rice University’s football stadium and proclaimed the immortal words, “We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do all the other things, not because they are easy but because they are hard…” he challenged the United States in a way not seen in generations. Where the Soviets saw space as a place to conquer, Kennedy viewed it as the “New Frontier” that needed to be explored and studied for the betterment of all humankind. Where the Soviets saw only the domination of one power in space, Kennedy saw the necessity of a multi-national cooperation between the United States, the U.S.R.R. and many others to explore the vast unknown that is the universe. Kennedy saw the future of an International Space Station before anyone else did. Although it wouldn’t be until six years after his death, the Apollo mission launched by JFK would finally complete its mission of landing a man on the moon. The greatest achievement in the history of humankind began with the vision of President Kennedy, a vision and idea of what it means to be American that still fascinates us to this day.

Kennedy’s foreign policy actions did not always have positive results. However, when the Bay of Pigs invasion failed miserably, President Kennedy spoke to the American people and issued one of the most direct apologies in American political history. He embodied Truman’s immortal ‘The Buck Stops Here’ phrase, and assumed full responsibility for the failure of his administration. He maintained a level of political leadership that is hard to come by into today’s hyperpolarized political climate.

President Kennedy, similar to President Obama, fought off constant attacks against his personal character during the Presidential election. When conservatives attacked JFK’s Catholicism as a sign that the Pope would be the one making the decisions in Washington, then Senator Kennedy stood up in front of his critics and reminded them of the strong separation of church and state that our nation had been founded upon. Not only was President Kennedy a hero for millions of Catholic Americans who had not seen people like themselves in the White House, but he was also a hero for all those who wished to keep a strong state out of their own religious beliefs.

Kennedy also saw beauty where many political leaders of the present fail to see it: the arts. He once famously said, “I look forward to an America which will not be afraid of grace and beauty … an America which will reward achievement in the arts as we reward achievement in business or statecraft …” Overall, he quoted art as the essence of truth in politics, and believed that the ultimate value of American Civilization would not be judged upon victories and defeats in battles but by our contributions to the collective human spirit. When the National Endowment of the Arts, PBS and NPR are inevitably placed on the chopping block during annual budget talks, it may be valuable to look back upon the words of our 35th President and the endless benefits the arts have continued to bring us.

Even 50 years after President Kennedy’s life was tragically cut short, Americans still long for the leader that can incorporate the Kennedy message once again and carry forward that torch that JFK said we must continue to pass. Our generation now stands on the precipice of our time, and we too will be asked to pass the torch of freedom and progress into the future. On Nov. 22, 2013, let us commit ourselves to forwarding the Kennedy vision and our own vision of what we wish to see in our nation and the world. Let us strive to accomplish big things not because they are easy, but because they are hard.