The Political Point of the Day
Today's selection comes from Robert F. Kennedy's Mindless Menace of Violence speech, which he gave the day after Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated:
We must admit the vanity of our false distinctions among men and learn to find our own advancement in the search for the advancement of others. We must admit in ourselves that our own children's future cannot be built on the misfortunes of others. We must recognize that this short life can neither be ennobled or enriched by hatred or revenge.
Our lives on this planet are too short and the work to be done too great to let this spirit flourish any longer in our land. Of course we cannot vanquish it with a program, nor with a resolution.
But we can perhaps remember, 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 do we, nothing but the chance to live out their lives in purpose and in 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.
RFK ,RIP.
Categories: The Political Point of the Day
Tags: Mindless Menace of Violence Speech The Political Point of the Day Speech Violence RFK Robert F. Kennedy
1968 was the penultimate 'coming of age' year for me.As a 15 year old 'tweener' I was enjoying the fantastic music that continually had been pumped out from American and English performers at an almost magical rate. I also had just begun to view politics as not so much grownup stuff. The killing of MLK had been bad enough,but now Bobby was dead. I had gone to bed that night after Bobby had won California-it was a school night- and waking up to the horror the following morning. I wept on my mom's shoulder in our kitchen sobbing with grief and bewilderment.Two of the most dynamic men I had experienced in my young life were not only gone-they had been murdered in cold blood.My innocence died that morning in that kitchen along with Martin and Bobby.
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I have no doubt he would have become President. I am also sure that he had what it would take to be one of the truly great ones.
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