In Rememberance

Today is the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Robert Kennedy. I have a deep love for the Kennedy family and Robert Kennedy is one of my favorites. I am always very moved when I hear the speech that he made the night Martin Luther King, Jr. was killed. He did it off the cuff and spoke from the heart. He actually had to break the news to the crowd...I think it was a majority African American group in Indianapolis? I might be wrong on the city. You can hear the gasp and cries from the crowd when he tells them. He encouraged the crowd not to react with violence and noted that he also had a loved one killed by a white man. That city was one of the only cities that night that did not riot.

I admire him for being an honest and unpolished politician...That doesn't exist today and I wish it did. Everything is so planned and careful now. From the reports I have been hearing about him it seems that he excelled at making speeches spontaneously and wasn't that great at rehearsed speeches. He also loved to do Q & A with the crowds he spoke to. He also made speeches that he knew might not be that popular with the crowd. The example I heard today was that he spoke to a university in Kansas that is/was known to be very conservative about how he was against the Vietnam War. I'm not sure a politician today would take that risk. It turns out that the crown loved every word he said and he was practically mauled with the crowd's adoration. In fact, some of his staff have a fear of crowds to this day from that night.

The Kennedy family has all the money in the world...they could have lolled around on a tropical island for all their lives...but their sons chose to serve the public and go into politics.

I was thinking today how different our world would be if Robert Kennedy lived and became president. We wouldn't have had Nixon! We also would probably have a lot of faith and trust in our government. He is missed!