Let me see, it's been almost 40 years since Senator Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated and the U.S.A. is still running as a divided country. For those of you who do not know who I speak of, I'm referring to a man who had a really good chance of being the next president in the late 60's. Yes, he was also the brother of the late President John F. Kennedy, but he was so much more than that. He was a person who had great aspirations to unite a fighting country. A country at war with another country, and a country at war with itself. I'm not trying to glorify R.F.K., but rather ask ourselves will we ever find someone like him again? He offered so much hope to the American public. He was what was left after the murders of his brother and civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. I have been looking at many speeches by Bobby Kennedy but I decided that I would discuss those at another time. Instead, I have here a video clip of the R.F.K. funeral train. It's amazing because as a dreamer myself, it is hard to believe that so many people would ever line up in respect like that again for our present-day presidents, let alone a senator!
"Many of us in America believed that that President John F. Kennedy was nurturing a renewed belief in the concept of government as an enabler for all its citizens instead of an acquiescent handmaiden to the privileged and the powerful. Before he was able to instill that as a working principle in our society he was gunned down by an assassin. Five years later when Bobby rose to try to reestablish a government of hope, the hearts of Americans quickened and excitement flared. Then tragedy struck again.
The blow was monumental. Hope-on-the-rise had again been shattered and those in most need of hope crowded the tracks of Bobby's last train, stunned into disbelief, and watched that hope trapped in a coffin pass and disappear from their lives." - Paul Fusco
(Quote from R.F.K. Funeral Train site)
Welcome to the Stop Apathy Now (S.A.N.) Page
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Dreamers Wanted: Looking For The Next Uniter.
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6 comments:
I shook Robert Kennedy's hand after a speech at U.B. during his 1966 campaign for the U.S. Senate. Even more than his brother Jack, Bobby became a symbol of hope as the Viet Nam quagmire deepened. Here was a politician to believe in; a man of courage and passion whose words could inspire others to follow in his footsteps. Three months after his successful Senate campaign, I was drafted into the army...
I could easily have avoided the service by truthfully checking the box marked "homosexual tendencies", but I was more afraid of the consequences of admitting I might be gay than I was of the possibility of being sent to Viet Nam...
My military service coincided with a time of domestic upheaval in this country, as the civil rights movement and the anti-war movement spilled into the streets across the breadth of this land. I remember training for riot control knowing full well that I could never use a bayonet on a fellow human being; yet, the uniform I had been conscripted to wear identified me as a keeper of the status quo. Nothing could have been farther from the truth...
The day Bobby was shot, I was stationed at Fort Riley, Kansas, an old cavalry post dating back to the time of Custer. After hearing the news, I got in my car and drove ninety miles to Lawrence, a university town that was an oasis of sanity in an inhospitable land, intending never to return. A few hours later, I made my way back, though no one on post had been aware of my mini-rebellion. It wasn't the first time I had gone AWOL undetected; nor would it be the last...
I will never believe that Bobby's murder, like others before and since, was not politically motivated. I have no doubt that he would have been victorious in the 1968 Presidential election had he lived; instead, we got Nixon and Agnew, an administration whose excesses and paranoia pale in comparison to the misdeeds of the current occupants of the executive branch...
I note with interest that the Lakota Nation has today withdrawn from all treaties with the United States government. The treatment of indigenous people in this hemisphere and around the world is a matter of shame for us all. My best wishes to our Lakota brothers and sisters in their struggle. Their courage and dignity are an inspiration.
Mitaku Oyasin! We are all related!
Thanks for posting Lythande, I was hoping you would bring some first hand experience to this subject. There's no doubt in my mind that the country would have been completely different today if Bobby were to be president and I am too certain he would have won that election. I had no idea you were drafted but it doesn't surprise me. I think you're courageous, thanks again for the comment.
Of all my friends, I was the only one drafted, and the least likely to ever take a life...
My father was a WWII veteran of the D-Day landing at Normandy Beach. I recoiled in horror at the opening segment of Saving Private Ryan, knowing that my dad had somehow made it through that nightmare...
I don't possess that kind of courage, though I think I could easily give my life in defense of a loved one, but in truth, I would be far more likely to chart a course of least resistance that would somehow offer a way out of an untenable situation, as I have on several real life occasions.
Another of my heroes is Alexander Dubcek, who led the Velvet Revolution against Soviet totalitarianism in the Prague Spring of 1968, at a time when it seemed that humanitarian voices of reason were being heard from many points on the globe. Though the Czech intellectual revolution was eventually quashed with military might, it only postponed the inevitable...
Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it...
Despite my age, I have been able to maintain a certain naivety and faith that humanity's finest aspirations will eventually win out over mankind's baser instincts, but it will only happen when all people and all cultures come to the realization that we are truly all related....
I so truly agree with lythande's comment "Those who do not learn from history are deemed to repeat it..."
I am too young to remember JFK and RFK but have learned so much about them and my parents have told me so much about them too. I live in the UK and can honestly say that their untimely deaths affected the whole world. Both of my parents can clearly remember the moment the news was announced on the TV and radio. The world could have been so different.....
Thank you for posting such a powerful post.
Kindest regards ~ Graham
Thanks so much for your input Graham. I am glad that people can look to past examples of courageous humans and see how different the world could have been if their lives weren't taken so soon.
Yes, I agree, the world needs another
inspiring leader....
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Joanne
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