Yet in casting his lot with a former president who preaches intolerance and division, he has cast aside the principles for which generations of Kennedys have stood.
How different that is from the character displayed in April 1968 by Robert F. Kennedy. As he was preparing to deliver a presidential campaign speech in a poor Black neighborhood of Indianapolis, the New York senator learned that civil rights champion the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. had been assassinated. Knowing the potential for violence in a city that was yet unaware of the news, Kennedy climbed onto the back of a flatbed truck and delivered, extemporaneously, what is regarded as one of the greatest orations of the 20th century.
He implored the shocked crowd to put aside hatred and instead "make an effort, as Martin Luther King did, to understand and to comprehend, and replace that violence, that stain of bloodshed that has spread across our land, with an effort to understand, compassion and love."
After quoting from memory the words of his favorite poet, Aeschylus, about the discernment that comes from pain, he said: "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 and 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 whether they be Black."
That speech would be cited as a reason that Indianapolis was peaceful in its grief even as riots erupted in other cities across the country. But just two months later, on the night he won the California primary, Robert F. Kennedy himself was shot to death.
I go by the beautiful monument of Bobby and Martin -separated by distance - each reaching an open hand towards each other, which on sunny days at the right time shows in shadows the men reaching each other. I was only 8 when the Summer of 68 happened, so my life was filled with cartoons, not politics at that time. But I do remember the day after Bobby was murdered in LA, virtually just scant months after MLK. I remember that adults were very sad and maudlin that day. Later in my life I watched the incredible documentary of RFK's funeral train making the journey from LA back to Washington. Countless numbers of Americans lined those tracks on which that train traveled. And they all stood there in silent reverence, sensing that a possible future had not only been taken from Bobby, but from all Americans as well as the Kennedy family suffered the heartbreaking loss of another son who only sought to serve the America they all loved and cherished for all they'd been blessed with.
RFK could have never countenanced his namesake progeny would ever align himself with such an anti-American fraud like Donald Trump. Those of us at an age to personally remember that for how much was given to Kennedy family, much was taken away by unspeakable fatal violence, in repetition one generation to the next. RFK Jr. just pissed on all the selfless service to this nation given by those preceding him. Now those memories have to live in complete stark contrast with his unconscionable, self serving actions today.
