Remembering BOBBY KENNEDY...

Robert Francis Kennedy

Born: November 20, 1925
Assassinated: June 5, 1968
Died: June 6, 1968

"Fear not the path of truth
for the lack of people walking on it."



I was a 15 year old confused teenager who woke up that day to the world after the second Kennedy was gone. We had a leader and we were so close...

More here: http://www.robertfkennedy.net/

I was 11 years old. I still have my button somewhere around here.

K&R!

His organizers recruited a busload of us from Bowling Green U (Ohio) to stay in campaigners homes and canvas for Kennedy. Saw him come out of a hotel
elevator....
Back at school, friends came running to my dorm room to tell me what had happened in Ca....

My good friend George (former VP of my union local) tells me his mom was very mad. Bobby wanted to ride with her. She knew she could get fired if he did.

I remember waking up to the news and then went in and woke up my mom to tell her. I was 12. So sad...

A moment I will never forget. She knew how much I loved that man and what he stood for. Even though I was just a kid I wept and felt so hopeless. It was the first campaign where I became politically conscious.

There was so much going on...Viet Nam, the protests, Johnson announcing he wasn't running in '68.

There was indeed a profound feeling of hopelessness.

:cry:

Same age, too.

www.missbleedingheart.com
When Bobby Kennedy died, I too thought the world was coming to an end. I was 18.
Now I write limericks ...

THE BOOMERANG EFFECT

The future belongs To the Liberal Boomers
Who’ll outlive The Right-leaning kind.
Nay-sayers and Doomers develop more tumors
While peaceful old Hippies will find
Relaxation can carry them thirty more years,
Voting Democrat every time.

No right-wing Political Action Committee
Can beat 30 million old liberal biddies.
They’ll work with Young Hipsters
And middle-aged “Middies,”
They’ll join with the “Wombers,”
Those yet-to-be-born.

They’ll return to the time
When they marched d they sang,
And they’ll form a new movement,
A new “Boomer-ang.”

-- Beverly (“Bleeding Heart”) Jones

Bobby Kennedy. Just like his brother and a few months after MLK...it was a sucky time to enter political awareness.

It was a time when I became politically aware too. We always talked about politics around the kitchen table growing up though. But it really all sank in that year Bobby ran for president. It was like the destruction of hope when he was killed. There is so much evil in this world. Money rules. People who are good are not valued.

HAVE we woken up yet to what it takes to support real leadership? I can't believe the % of voter participation to this day!

Only a fraction of the people are truly engaged and aware of the world around them. I remember reading an article by the Chicago writer who wrote an article saying only 1% of the people are qualified to cast an informed vote. Royko said it takes effort to learn about the issues and the candidates. But instead of being good, responsible citizens most people don't bother to look any further than a 30 second sound bite, or worse, they listen to right wing talk radio all day filling their minds with misinformation, lies, hate, racism and anger. Most people like to complain about the world around them, but never do any positive things to change it. People who want to deny citizenship to others aren't even active citizens themselves.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9JTYnMpRyg&playnext_from=TL&videos=01duESUUDtc


It's impossible for me to listen to the final minute or so without choking up myself





and RFK's final journey...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OG4vJxi9Kis&playnext_from=TL&videos=01duESUUDtc


Inspiring and heartbreaking at the same time

I stayed up that night to watch Bobby give his speech after winning the CA primary on TV. When the TV came on with the news he had been shot I just kept thinking it was a "dream" that I wasn't actually living through another terrible tragedy again. It had only been a few months since MLK Jr. was killed on April 4, 1968. I had seen Ruby murder Lee Harvey Oswald on TV too. It was surreal!

ROBERT F. KENNEDY ASSASSINATION

http://www.museum.tv/eotvsection.php?entrycode=kennedyrobe

Shortly after midnight on 5 June 1968, Senator Robert F. Kennedy (D-New York) was assassinated by Sirhan B. Sirhan in the ballroom of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, California. All three television networks (ABC, CBS, and NBC) began coverage at the scene just minutes after the shooting. The first broadcast included footage of a large crowd of supporters gathered in the ballroom, awaiting Kennedy's address following his California presidential primary victory. Muffled sounds emerged from the direction of the podium, the crowd became disorderly, and although the reason for the disruption was still unclear Steven Smith, Kennedy's brother-in-law, asked everyone to clear the room. A still photograph of Kennedy sprawled on the floor was televised as reporters noted in voice-over that he had been shot by an unknown assailant. About two hours after the shooting, supplemental footage was shown of Kennedy from behind as he stepped up to the podium, with a crowd around him. Shots were heard, camera angles were jolted in the confusion, but one camera managed to focus on the senator lying injured on the floor.

..........

Bobby was such an endearing soul! I have always thought like his brother there were forces of evil that didn't want them to be able to smack down the "Military-Industrial Complex" Pres. Eisenhower had spoken on so eloquently. Sad.

... and efforts. We can't ever give up trying

the other was some guy tried to kill me, but I was lucky and he missed. Too bad his assassin wasn't as inept as mine. He didn't see it coming, in my case I did. I had a fighting chance, Bobby didn't.

My life and his are linked by the violence of that day. I live on, but sadly dear Bobby is gone.

That's a horrific link, alfredo.

Here's to inept assassins, at least.

projectile

for Bobby. I was 11. My mother, grandfather and great aunt, all on her side of the family voted for Bobby.

My dad refered to him as "Bob the boob". My ultra liberal father hated Bobby. He never had any thing positive to say about him but never told me why he felt that way. Two years ago, after my father died, my aunt explained that back in the 30's the Kennedy's would come to Kenedy ( my great grand parents on dad's side) family parties. Bobby was especially rude and nasty to one of my aunts and to my grandmother. My dad's animosity was purely personal.

None of us were very happy when he got shot, even my Dad stopped calling him names.

Just wondering.... I understand he could be quite caustic.

said it was pretty nasty in a typical teenage way. One of those mean, alpha kid things that happen that people never let go. What ever happened was way before politician Bobby emerged.

of the school year. I can still see myself sitting in homeroom at the start of the day when we heard RFK died.

I was a young kid, visiting my Grandmother for two weeks during the summer holiday. My parents took each of us kids separately to spend time with our Grandma, and in turn the other one had quality time at home with Mom and Dad.

I remember seeing the news reported on the television. I didn't fully understand all the details, but I knew Bobby was JFK's brother, and I could remember when JFK was assassinated the neighbor next door came over crying to tell my Mother what had happened. Mom turned on the TV and they sat and watched the events unfold.

Only later did I realize what the deaths of these two people likely meant for America. :(

Thank you for this.

In my opinion, the important thing to remember is the way that Senator Kennedy lived his life in those final years. The transformation of character. The intense search for the means to bring about social justice.

Thanks for the R, H20 Man

In that profound speech are these words that still hold true today:

"It is from numberless diverse acts of courage such as these that the belief that human history is thus shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance." Robert F Kennedy, 1966 speaking to a group of South Africans.

I recommend searching the net for "Day of Affirmation" and reading his entire speech.

Bobby Kennedy would have spared us from Nixon, Watergate, and ended the Vietnam War. If he lived he might have so changed the political landscape that people like Reagan and Bushes wouldn't have been elected. I'll never believe Bobby was killed by a single man. Bobby Kennedy as president meant billions would be lost by the most powerful people in the country and world who loved to have seen him dead.

I remember that sickening morning when my mom woke me up as a kid and told me. It was the first political campaign I became interested in.

Side Note: Remember "Abraham Martin and John", the song that was released in 1968? The artist added Bobby to it at the last moment and it was chilling...

Here's the song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dHvYB5JdSs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dHvYB5JdSs

http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/rfkcapetown.htm

I so much agree with you, AAV.

MMM

Robert F. Kennedy Speech On The Assassination Of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
April 4, 1968, Indianapolis, Indiana

An audio clip of it: http://www.youtube.com/v/MyCWV_N0EsM

I have bad news for you, for all of our fellow citizens, and people who love peace all over the world, and that is that Martin Luther King was shot and killed tonight.

Martin Luther King dedicated his life to love and to justic for his fellow human beings, and he died because of that effort.

In this difficult day, in this difficult time for the United States, it is perhaps well to ask what kind of a nation we are and what direction we want to move in. For those of you who are black -- considering the evidence their evidently is that there were white people who were responsible -- you can be filled with bitterness, with hatred, and a desire for revenge. We can move in that direction as a country, in great polarization -- black people amongst black, white people amongst white, filled with hatred toward one another.

Or we can make an effort, as Martin Luther King did, to understand and to comprehend, and to replace that violence, that stain of bloodshed that has spread across our land, with an effort to understand with compassion and love.

For those of you who are black and are tempted to be filled with hatred and distrust at the injustice of such an act, against all white people, I can only say that I feel in my own heart the same kind of feeling. I had a member of my family killed, but he was killed by a white man. But we have to make an effort in the United States, we have to make an effort to understand, to go beyond these rathe difficult times.

My favorite poet was Aeschylus. He wrote: "In our sleep, pain which cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart until, in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of God."

What we need in the United States is not division; what we need in the United States is not hatred; what we need in the United States is not violence or lawlessness; but love and wisdom, and compassion toward one another, and a feeling of justice toward those who still suffer within our country, whether they be white or they be black.

So I shall ask you tonight to return home, to say a prayer for the family of Martin Luther King, that's true, but more importantly to say a prayer for our own country, which all of us love -- a prayer for understanding and that compassion of which I spoke.

We can do well in this country. We will have difficult times; we've had difficult times in the past; we will have difficult times in the future. It is not the end of violence; it is not the end of lawlessness; it is not the end of disorder.

But the vast majority of white people and the vast majority of black people in this country want to live together, want to improve the quality of our life, and want justice for all human beings who abide in our land.

Let us dedicate to ourselves to what the Greeks wrote so many years ago: to tame the savageness of man and make gentle the life of this world.

Let us dedicate ourselves to that, and say a prayer for our country and for our people.

http://www.robertfkennedy.net/mlkdeathspeech.htm

Miss you always Bobby!

I hope you are still enjoying the eternal beach with Freckles.................

First, I agree that the MLK one was perhaps the best, and the one at Cape Town was the international equivilant to reaching out towards demolishing the borders between social class and ignorance.

But the speech upon Martin Luther Kings' death might just have immediately saved hundreds of lives that may have perished under the strain of injustice, had he not spoken.

That phrase from RFK's favorite poem... so profound!

Few will have the greatness to bend history, but RFK seemed to have encouraged the young to do just that, regardless of where we traveled in his last years on earth.... He reached us, regardless of where we had come from and where we thought we were going.

I hold both of those speeches equally profound for different reasons. The content of his Day of Affirmation speech spoke to the hearts of all men and is as valid today as it was then. His words are timeless. His Day of Affirmation speech was so important because the time and the place where he gave it. His speech on the night of Martin Luther King's assassination was not just a great speech, but it showed the courage and the heart Bobby had. He had a prepared speech written for the event, but when he learned of MLK's death he crumpled it up and put it in his pocket and spoke from his heart. Because of his presence in Indianapolis that night it was one of the few large cities that didn't erupt into violence.

Last year I went to the spot where Bobby gave his moving speech and there stood two statues of MLK and RFK with their arms reaching out to one another. All of the memories of the night of his speech flooded through me and I longed for what could have been. I was so touched to be where this great man stood on that night and thought of the courage it took for him to tell the mostly black audience of the death of MLK.

Bobby was such a man of substance. Our country would be so different and better had he been allowed to live. He would have made such a great leader. He was strong and he would not have succumbed to evil forces as today's politicians so easily succumb to. Far too many of our leaders lack any courage at all.

The Memorial Statues in Indianapolis

And I will never forget you.

Rest in peace, Bobby. :hug:

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OG4vJxi9Kis

K & R !!!

:cry:

:kick:

Link: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x1365948

:shrug:

This was eye opening. I heard many cruel "jokes" about David after his death, as you can imagine.

Thanks.

Can you imagine any politician of today being so mourned and respected to line up all across the country just to watch a train containing their body? Not one leader today has the courage, depth and heart of Bobby Kennedy. It's sad how our leaders are so spineless and without the character or the will to do what is right for our country. I had so wished Barack Obama could have been that leader we desperately needed. But he is sadly giving in to the forces of evil and not being the forceful leader he led us to believe during his campaign. I was one of Barack's delegates and I worked tirelessly to get him elected. I spent money I could have used to pay bills. I sacrificed a great deal for him. But I am very disappointed. He is giving in far too often to the very people who brought our country to the eve of destruction. And I ask why?

:shrug:

:hi:

Willing to literally put their lives on the line for the sake of this nation's people.

Where or where has candidate-Obama gone?

Your downstream post I think speaks to this.

I feel that the reason we no longer see a leader like RFK is precisely that he/she would be killed. No tin foil hat... just realism and open eyes.

Candidate Obama was in a dangerous position when he won. I wonder if President Obama might not be in a perfect position to BREAK this tradition. I'm not sure about this, but it remains my wish.

And even before Reagan, there was not much power.

I fear that JFK tried to exercise some power, and was "put in his place." :(

I don't often go to the 9/11 forum, but when I do, I can count on someone's snark for my similar thought on the Kennedys.

I wonder if Clarence Thomas, Colin Powell, and Obama remember.

(actually I don't wonder at all)

I wish Obama was just half the man Bobby Kennedy was.

President Obama would have been 7 years old then: Barack Obama was born on August 4, 1961.

Clarence Thomas (born June 23, 1948)would have been 20.

And Colin Powell was born April 5, 1937 which would have made him 31.

:patriot: and what might have been.

For anyone interested, I recommend "The Last Campaign" by Thurston Clarke, a play-by-play account of RFK's 1968 bid for the Democratic nomination.

At the moment of the shooting. Here is the diary of the accused, Sirhan Sirhan:

The rich and powerful can have anyone killed. It seems we will never have a real leader in this country. If somehow someone like Bobby ran he would definitely be killed. Only those who have sold their souls can even be considered for national office.

And wow, a lot of us are older than I thought here. I thought I'd be one of the few who was 13 the year he died.