Robert Francis Kennedy (June 6, 1968)

[sabra]

http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/rfk.htm

Robert Francis Kennedy

Attorney General of the United States
U.S. Senator - Presidential Candidate


Born at Boston, Massachusetts, November 20, 1925, he served as a Seaman Second Class (SN2) in the United States Navy during World War II.

He was campaign manager for John F. Kennedy when he sought the Presidency in 1960. He served as Attorney General in his brother's administration from January 1961 until his resignation on September 3, 1964, to become a candidate for the United States Senate from New York.

He was elected as a Democrat and served from January 3, 1965 until his death. He died from the effects of an assassin's bullets on June 6, 1968 at Los Angeles, California while campaigning for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States.

He was buried in Section 45 of Arlington National Cemetery, just steps from his brother's gravesite, in a very rare night burial.

[NativeTexan]

1. Honor in government, such as that, does not exist any longer.

[Marnieworld]

2. I'm glad that he was buried in Arlington

He was a true American hero. We'll never know what more he could have done. :patriot:

[myrna minx]

3. RFK: American Hero. n/t

[EFerrari]

4. We still love you, Bobby.

[OzarkDem]

33. That is true, always will

He's always been one of my favorite political heroes.

[BrklynLiberal]

5. I remember the day well.

:cry:

[1monster]

6. And the pall bearers temporarily got lost on the way to the grave site...

He was buried in Section 45 of Arlington National Cemetery, just steps from his brother's gravesite, in a very rare night burial.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

7. Now you have me in tears here. My memories of finding out about

his death flooding back to me. The morning after, my sister and I went to St. Patrick's Cathedral in Manhattan to light a candle for him, and we are not Christians.

His son RFK Jr. as well as a few of his other children are carrying on his legacy. They are shining lights.

:cry:

[im10ashus]

8. May he rest in peace.

[EFerrari]

9. NY Post Front Page with RFK Jr, '68

[LibDemAlways]

10. "Those of us who loved him and who take him

to his rest today pray that what he was to us and what he wished for others will some day come to pass for all the world.

As he said many times, in many parts of this nation, to those he touched and who sought to touch him,

'Some men see things as they are and ask why. I dream things that never were and ask, Why not?'"

From Ted Kennedy's moving eulogy at his brother's funeral.

RIP, Bobby.

[stevedeshazer]

38. Audio of Ted's eulogy is here

Makes me cry every time.

http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/ekennedytributetorfk.html

[kpete]

11. I remember that day

only time I ever saw my father cry...

[EFerrari]

14. Everyone in my family sort of collasped and went to bed.

I'd been resting after last minute GOTV, and when I woke up in the early evening, the whole house was dark except for the television because everyone was in their own room crying and no one turned on the lights after sundown.

[EFerrari]

12. Capetown June 6, 1966

[jwirr]

17. Remember the beautiful article he wrote about aparthied?

[EFerrari]

18. I've never read it. I think I told H2O Man last year, it's still

hard to even know this loss was visited on us.

[EFerrari]

13. Life cover, June 1968

[bleever]

16. That brought tears to my eyes.

Rest in peace, RFK.

:patriot:

[im10ashus]

28. OK!

That just broke my heart!

;(

[EFerrari]

15. The family, or should I say, the whole team.

[deutsey]

19. One of my earliest memories is of his funeral on TV

[WillyT]

20. Robert F. Kennedy: Remarks on the Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.

Ladies and Gentlemen: I'm only going to talk to you just for a minute or so this evening, because I have some very sad news for all of you -- Could you lower those signs, please? -- I have some very sad news for all of you, and, I think, sad news 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 was killed tonight in Memphis, Tennessee.

Martin Luther King dedicated his life to love and to justice between fellow human beings. He died in the cause of that effort. In this difficult day, in this difficult time for the United States, it's 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 evidently is that there were white people who were responsible -- you can be filled with bitterness, and with hatred, and a desire for revenge.

We can move in that direction as a country, in greater polarization -- black people amongst blacks, and white amongst whites, filled with hatred toward one another. Or we can 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.

For those of you who are black and are tempted to be filled with hatred and mistrust of the injustice of such an act, against all white people, I would only say that I can also 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 get beyond, or go beyond these rather difficult times.

My favorite poem, my favorite poet was Aeschylus. And he once wrote:

"Even 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 and lawlessness, but is 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.

So I ask you tonight to return home, to say a prayer for the family of Martin Luther King -- yeah, it'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. And we will have difficult times in the future. It is not the end of violence; it is not the end of lawlessness; and it's 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 that abide in our land.

Let us dedicate 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.

Thank you very much.



Link (Plus Audio) here: http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/robertkennedyonmartinlutherking.html


And please remember... while most of the rest of the White American Power Structure was hiding under their beds at the news...

They warned RFK NOT to go into downtown Indianapolis for safety\protection reasons, but that night he did. He had never before talked about the assassination of his brother John in any public speech, but that night he did. And... while almost every other major American city had some sort of arson\rioting after the news broke... that night in Indianapolis... they did not.

Gotta go find more Kleenex now...

[spuddonna]

26. As I sit here in tears, I cannot believe where we are...

"Let us dedicate 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."

How have we come to this point? My heart hurts... I weep for all the potential that was lost... I weep for what my country has become...

[WillyT]

27. Me Too spuddonna , Me Too...

:grouphug:

[spuddonna]

29. Thank you for posting RFK's speech...

His words give me hope... Peace! :hug:

[WillyT]

30. You Can Listen To His Words By Following The Link !!!

Peace! :hug:

[monk24]

37. Don't give up on the American dream

I'm with you spuddonna. But we can't give up on the promise, the dream that is America.

The Kennedy clan was fond of referencing George Bernard Shaw's "dream" quote. President John F. Kennedy used it in at least one of his speeches, and Ted Kennedy repeated it when he eulogized his slain brother Bobby. On the 38th anniversary of RFK's assassination, and during these dark days in America, it bears repeating:

"Some men see things as they are and ask why. Others dream things that never were and ask why not."

[AspenRose]

34. .

:cry:

[deutsey]

21. Donate to the RFK Memorial

www.rfkmemorial.org

[kwolf68]

22. RIP Bobby...you'll never be forgotten

...Like President Kennedy, Bobby wasn't without his flaws, but he would have been a great President.

[ismnotwasm]

23. Ahh

I was a little girl, but I remember.


"My brother need not be idealized, or enlarged in death beyond what he was in life, to be remembered simply as a good decent man, who saw wrong and tried to right it, saw suffering and tried to heal it, saw war and tried to stop it"

Oh God, God Bobby, we could use you now.

Thanks for the post.

[Hidden Stillness]

24. An Awful, Depressing Anniversary; I Remember It

I remember the whole horrible time--when Martin Luther King was murdered, and Bobby Kennedy made the beautiful speech to the crowd; when Kennedy was then murdered, and we kids were in schools talking about it; seeing the newspaper; the song "Abraham, Martin and John," which had to have another lyric added; Ted Kennedy's shaking voice at the funeral; the Poor People's March and Tent City then broken up, in Washington D.C. It was all too horrible, where Kennedy would have been a truly great President, exactly what was needed--on poverty, Viet Nam, so many other things, that have been waiting for somebody ever since.

[cureautismnow]

25. "Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?"

"Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up over the hill,
With Abraham, Martin and John."

:cry:

[Historic NY]

31. Oh what could have been..............It still makes me sad....

I feel as if my youth & my generation was robbed too many times. :cry:

Ripple of Hope
"Few will have the greatness to bend history;
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
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."

[oasis]

32. O' what a different America we could have had.

:patriot:

[byronius]

35. The Best of Us.

[chat_noir]

36. Bobby, you would be so proud of your son...

Rest in Peace.

[cosmicdot]

39. "To Seek a Newer World"

if you have RFK's book ...



it opens with Tennyson and Camus ...

The lights begin to twinkle from the rocks;
The long day wanes, the low moon climbs; the deep
Moans round with many voices. Come, my friends,
'Tis not too late to seek a newer world.

-Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Ulysses

"The nobility of our calling will always be rooted in two commitments
difficult to observe: refusal to lie about what we know, and
resistance to oppression." - Albert Camus