Bobby: 39 Years Ago Today

Robert Francis Kennedy
November 20, 1925 - June 6, 1968

"There is discrimination in this world and slavery and slaughter and starvation. Governments repress their people; millions are trapped in poverty while the nation grows rich and wealth is lavished on armaments everywhere. These are differing evils, but they are the common works of man. They reflect the imperfection of human justice, the inadequacy of human compassion, our lack of sensibility towards the suffering of our fellows. But we can perhaps remember -- even if only for a time -- that those who live with us are our brothers; that they share with us the same short moment of life; that they seek -- as we do -- nothing but the chance to live out their lives in purpose and happiness, winning what satisfaction and fulfillment they can.

"Surely, this bond of common faith, this bond of common goal, can begin to teach us something. Surely, we can learn, at least, to look at those around us as fellow men. And surely we can begin to work a little harder to bind up the wounds among us and to become in our own hearts brothers and countrymen once again. The answer is to rely on youth -- not a time of life but a state of mind, a temper of the will, a quality of imagination, a predominance of courage over timidity, of the appetite for adventure over the love of ease. The cruelties and obstacles of this swiftly changing planet will not yield to the obsolete dogmas and outworn slogans. They cannot be moved by those who cling to a present that is already dying, who prefer the illusion of security to the excitement and danger that come with even the most peaceful progress.

"... Few will have the greatness to bend history itself, but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total of all those acts will be written the history of this generation. It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is 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 that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.

"Few are willing to brave the disapproval of their fellows, the censure of their colleagues, the wrath of their society. Moral courage is a rarer commodity than bravery in battle or great intelligence. Yet it is the one essential, vital quality for those who seek to change a world that yields most painfully to change.

"... The future does not belong to those who are content with today, apathetic toward common problems and their fellow man alike, timid and fearful in the face of new ideas and bold projects. Rather it will belong to those who can blend vision, reason and courage in a personal commitment to the ideals and great enterprises of American Society. Our future may lie beyond our vision, but it is not completely beyond our control. It is the shaping impulse of America that neither fate nor nature nor the irresistible tides of history, but the work of our own hands, matched to reason and principle, that will determine our destiny. There is pride in that, even arrogance, but there is also experience and truth. In any event, it is the only way we can live." --Robert F. Kennedy, South Africa, 1966

I awoke to the broadcast of the devastating news of Bobby Kennedy's assassination on my clock-radio on the day I was to head home by train after finals week at the University of Illinois. It had been only two months since Martin Luther King Jr. had been assassinated. Back in April, the day after Martin was killed, I had also headed home from Champaign-Urbana to Chicago on an Illinois-Central train, at that time for Spring break. To this day, they are the two most somber and upsetting train rides I've ever taken in my life. I can remember the visceral, powerful feelings I experienced as if the tragedies happened yesterday, even if I can't really put them into words. I don't think anyone who was young during that era ever has, to anyone's satisfaction.

Both times curfews were imposed in Chicago in anticipation of violence. The violence happened after King's murder. I rode the rails into Chicago through the city's South Side with shots ringing out, buildings ablaze and passengers obediently lying low beneath window level. Fear reverberated down the line of cars. With Bobby's death, though, there seemed to be only an overwhelming sadness -- an uncomfortable resignation -- that dangerous, hateful forces had taken firm root in America, and that they would have to play themselves out. Today, the most disturbing realization is that they still haven't entirely played themselves out, 39 years later.

We are still seeking a leader who will truly unite us and set us on a path that might mitigate our human weaknesses. We are still wondering what might have been. We are still at the mercy of the haters, the narrow minded, the visciously power hungry. Keeping our hopes alive still seems like the very hardest thing. Those ripples Bobby spoke of can seem so few and far between. But they are real. We must cling to them. We must make more if we are ever to finally extricate our culture from the sway of those who appeal to the very worst of our nature, always for their own gain. We have to keep trying. And trying. And trying.