The Lost, Lingering Legacy of Robert F. Kennedy

[WilliamPitt]

Last edited Sat Jul 12, 2014, 01:27 PM - Edit history (1)

Robert Kennedy addresses an election rally in 1968. (Photo: Celestine Chua / Flickr; Edited: EL / TO)

The Lost, Lingering Legacy of Robert F. Kennedy
By William Rivers Pitt
Truthout | Op-Ed

Saturday 12 July 2014

Forty-six years ago, on the fifth of June, 1968, the presidential campaign of Robert F. Kennedy came to an abrupt and horrific end. Having just given his victory speech after winning the Democratic primary in California, Kennedy was struck by three bullets fired by a man named Sirhan Sirhan in the kitchen of the Ambassador Hotel. He clung to life for a time at the Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles, and died early the following morning.

History, as recorded, has a way of focusing on the primary colors of a particular individual's impact. The Robert Kennedy who is generally known is remembered to be the son of a rich industrialist, the right-hand man of Senator Joseph McCarthy during the Red-Scare witch hunts, one of the original architects of the Vietnam War debacle, the Attorney General, the Senator, and finally, the brother of an assassinated president. His own run for the presidency in 1968 lasted 82 days, and ended on a dirty kitchen floor in Los Angeles, with his life's blood pumping into the empty air along with the hopes and dreams and aspirations of millions.

But Robert Kennedy - son of the oligarchy, scion of a family of the ruling elite after his two older brothers were laid low by war and another assassin - was so much more than that. When President John Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas in November of 1963, Robert Kennedy was destroyed. Annihilated. Ruined utterly. He disappeared within himself and his overwhelming sorrow for a time, emerging eventually to win a US Senate seat for New York in 1964...and that is when the new, true Bobby Kennedy emerged.

(snip)

There are two stories about Robert Kennedy that stand out in my mind, one well-known and the other nearly unheard-of.

The first story, well-known: Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated on April 4th, 1968, just as Kennedy's campaign was getting underway. Kennedy was in Indianapolis, slated to give a speech to a large crowd of Black supporters. When he arrived, no one in the crowd had heard the grim news, and it fell to Kennedy to tell them.

Every major American city burned that night, as the rage in the aftermath of King's murder took hold...except Indianapolis.

The second story, far less known: Robert Kennedy had been an advocate for Native Americans since well before his time in the Senate, and had visited a number of reservations over the years. His work was so appreciated by Native Americans that the National Congress of Indians in 1963 adopted him into the tribes, and bestowed upon him the name "Brave Heart."

During his 1968 presidential campaign, he had only two days to spend in his swing through South Dakota, and over the bellowed protestations of campaign staffers concerned about votes, spent one of those two full days at the Pine Ridge Reservation. He spent the entire day in the company of Christopher Pretty Boy, a 9-year-old child whose parents had been killed in a car accident the week before. Kennedy sat with Christopher for hours, and when he went on a tour of the reservation, held Christopher's hand the entire time.

One year later, Robert F. Kennedy and Christopher Pretty Boy were dead.

(snip)

Forty-six years later, the legacy of his campaign, of his cause, has been all but forgotten. Today, our politicians again wage war for political and financial benefit, ignore the rampant poverty and suffering of the citizenry, and in fact work hammer and tong to devise bold new ways to rob from the poor to fatten the rich. It is all too easy to imagine the better world that may have come to pass had Kennedy not walked into that kitchen, but that, in the end, is fantasy. It happened, and we are here.

There was a time all those years ago when, for 82 days, we were given an opportunity to believe that we as a nation can be better than what we are. The legacy of Robert Kennedy is still there, lying fallow, waiting to be born anew.

The time is just right, and anything - everything - is possible.

The rest: http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/24908-william-rivers-pitt-|

[H2O Man]

1. RFK, Jr told me

that his father taught him that "Indians equal the environment."

Recommended.

[Chasstev365]

49. The Day the Democratic Party Died

A man did not just die on June 6, 1968; a Political Party and with an ideal also died. June of 1968 was a huge turning point in American history. Never again would the Democratic Party get consistent support from both blue collar whites and minorities and the right wingers began successfully duping working class people into voting against their own interests with tactics such as race division (Nixon's Southern Strategy to Willy Horton) to convincing fools that tax cuts for millionaires was good for them. The Democratic Party has been playing defense ever since, afraid to stand for New Deal values.

Just think how different it could have been had Robert F. Kennedy lived and been elected President!

[onecent]

50. Amen Chasstev365...It did change our world. n/t

[WilliamPitt]

3. Probably.

Politicians are supposed to be complained about.

[H2O Man]

4. checkmate

[randys1]

5. Met him, touched his pant leg (silly, i know) but I was a kid, two days before he was shot

Never forget the night he was shot, was listening to KGO, heard it from Ira Blue...

Dont know which group killed him, but it was a group of some assholes that had that done, for sure...

[CaliforniaPeggy]

6. Omigod, my dear Will...

SO GOOD.

I remember that year, and that day, and your essay has taken me back to it, and to my tears.

It was a horrible year, the one where we saw the dark path our nation was taking, and which we have not yet been able to get away from. You are correct about RFK's legacy, and yet how do we retrieve it?

Thank you.

[Boomerproud]

30. 46 years. The generations that have come since RFK know nothing about him.

Their role model is Ronald Reagan and he asked nothing from us (probably the key to his "popularity&quot . There is no one to ignite the flame. When Obama was elected I thought "We got it! The American people finally got it again!" No, we didn't. I just saw where there were 21 more people shot in Chicago this weekend. Enough!!! I pray RFK isn't looking down on us right now.

[bigtree]

7. not another dynasty . . .

Last edited Sat Jul 12, 2014, 12:23 PM - Edit history (1)

He was truly inspired during that campaign. I think much of our Democratic expression of compassion began as echoes of his and others' activism and advocacy at that time. We do need to resurrect that spirit, as you so eloquently make that point in your article.


Truthout ?@truthout 57m
William Rivers Pitt | The Lost, Lingering Legacy of Robert F. Kennedy http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/24908-william-rivers-pitt-%7C-the-lost-lingering-legacy-of-robert-f-kennedy …

[Sheldon Cooper]

8. What happened to Christopher Pretty Boy?

[WilliamPitt]

9. He was an orphaned Native American boy

living in the poorest, most destitute, most deprived place on the North American continent.

That's what happened to him.

[progressoid]

10. I was there two months ago.

It's still destitute and deprived. But I did meet a couple strong and resolute people there. Perhaps there is hope.

[WilliamPitt]

18. Did some research.

He was also killed in a car accident, as it turns out.

[Sheldon Cooper]

32. Oh that's a shame.

I had googled him and didn't turn up anything. Thanks for finding out.

[deurbano]

11. He turned me into a Democrat.

My parents were former Mississippi Democrats (Dixiecrats) who moved to California, then eventually became Republicans solely because they were racists and loathed anyone supporting civil rights. (Their first Republican votes were for Goldwater, and they first became politically involved working on his campaign.) I secretly became an RFK supporter after realizing his positions resonated with me. (Certainly MUCH more than Nixon's, god forbid...) I was watching the election results on TV, including the speech at the Ambassador Hotel... so excited. Then, the unbelievable news started to unfold, and he died on the day of my 8th grade graduation. (1968 was quite a year to be "coming of age.&quot I turned 18 just in time to vote for McGovern in the general... the first time 18-year-olds could vote.

[appleannie1]

12. My brother worked with him in DC during his presidential campaign. He

was asked by the Kennedy family to drive one of the funeral procession cars. He wrote that he was crying so hard while he drove that the car he was following was a blur of tears. My brother is gone now but I still have the tear stained letter.

He was at the home one day when Bobby got a call from a friend that reported that one of the boys had gotten into a snowball battle with friends and a car got hit by a snowball. When the boy came in Robert sat him down and quietly explained to him that as a Kennedy, he could not do that on the street. If any other boy in this country hit a car with a snowball or broke a window, it would simply be a matter between the parents and the car or home owner. But if a Kennedy did it, it would be a national headline in all the papers. He recommended that the boy invite his friends to their house and play in the snow in their yard instead.

Robert Kennedy's death changed my brother into a different person.

[Contrary1]

13. I shook his hand...

When he was in Indianapolis the month before he was killed, my best friend and I were among those who campaigned for him.

We got within 5 feet of his hotel room before the Secret Service stopped us. I wish we had made it. I would have cherished a one on one with the man.

"There are those who look at things the way they are, and ask why...I dream of things that never were, and ask why not?"

[MohRokTah]

14. K&R eom

[McCamy Taylor]

15. James Ellroy's American Tabloid series is basically a noir love song to Bobby.

I grew up in the 1960s in a seriously left wing family that did not idolize JFK. Gene McCarthy was our man in 1968 and MLK Jr's assassination meant a lot more at the time than Bobby's. However, I was very surprised at how much I loved Bobby after reading the books by Ellroy. Because Ellroy love/hates almost all his male characters (love/loves the women), and yet Bobby shines through like a saint. A human saint, the kind you can actually like.

[alberg]

16. The 3 bullets that killed him came from behind, not in front where Sirhan was standing.

That was the conclusion of the LA Coroner, Thomas Noguchi.

"Even though Noguchi remained tight-lipped and diplomatic at the time, in his biography that he penned a decade later — entitled Coroner — he wrote, "Until more is precisely known...the existence of a second gunman remains a possibility. Thus, I have never said that Sirhan Sirhan killed Robert Kennedy.""

Goggle "bullets from sirhan's gun" for more info that has come out in the years since.

I believe that if he lived, the world would now be a significantly better place. I'll never forget that year - first Martin, then Bobby. It was like a nightmare we could not wake up from. Maybe we're still in it.

[malthaussen]

17. I dunno.

Unpopular opinion, I know, but I can't dump a lingering feeling that RFK was a bit of an opportunist. Okay, politician, that's practically tautological. But as with his brother, I can't help wondering if martyrdom doesn't add a special cachet not necessarily warranted by the individual's actions.

As for the legacy, it pretty much depends on what you mean by legacy. Obviously, it lingers and is significant to many, many Just Plain Folks like William Pitt and some other DUers. But how much does that legacy influence the folks who actually make the policy decisions and write the rules? Hell, the Democratic party has people now who actually think cutting Social Security is a good idea. There is a difference between legacy and nostalgia, and I wonder if the legacy of RFK is not really more mourning for imagined might-have-beens.

-- Mal

[WinkyDink]

34. You simply did not pay attention.

[rurallib]

57. I will join you in being somewhat unpopular

I, too, at the time (I was 18) thought Kennedy was an opportunist. Once McCarthy showed there was an opening, Kennedy rushed in. I do not in any way doubt the sincerity of his beliefs. McCarthy and Kennedy had pretty well split the anti-war faction.

Also, as to the notion that had he lived Kennedy would have won the Democratic nomination I think was highly unlikely. As I mentioned he and McCarty were splitting the anti-war votes. But beyond that the primary path was not the main path to the nomination in those days. I think less than a third of the delegates were picked that way. Unlike his brother, Robert was not rolling up victory after victory.

In the background was major heavyweight Hubert Humphrey who was Vice-President and as a member of the administration the one to whom the regular party delegates selected in party conventions and caucuses owed allegiance. Remember that was a time when the presidency decided who got public works projects and who got party jobs. Much was owed to Johnson that fell to Humphrey.

Just based on that, unless either McCarthy or Kennedy had showed some invincibility in the primaries, neither would swing the votes of the party regulars to them and away from Humphrey. IIRC, Humphrey did not enter the primaries that year. Why would he?

However, were Kennedy to have lived and Nixon was elected I think a very strong case could be made that Robert Kennedy would probably have been the odds on favorite for 1972.

[1monster]

62. You may be right, but we will never know. I remember the nightly newscasts with

thousands of people at RFK's rallies holding their hand out, just wanting to touch him. The out pouring of love and HOPE and belief were tangible enough to touch.

Bobby Kennedy walked through the dark night of the soul after JFK was assassinated and emerged with a compassion for others that was visible and that is what attracted so many people to him. That is why we remember him today, not because he was assassinated like his brother. I do not remember Bobby for his death, but for his life.

That said, his previous incarnation as "Ruthless Bobby", the hit man of his brother's campaigns, gave him the experience to withstand those who would demand that he weaken his stance.

We don't know if Bobby would have won the nomination; his train was just beginning to build momentum and pick up speed when it was stopped dead.

Had Bobby won the nomination, I don't think Nixon would have won the White House. But it is all speculation now.

[rurallib]

63. back then an overwhelming majority of the delegates were chosen

in the old back rooms. Johnson bequeathed to Humphrey an almost insurmountable lead.
And remember Humphrey came withing an eyelash of beating Nixon.

[Fred Sanders]

19. There is nothing new under the sun. Are these words any less relevant today?

"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."

Robert F. Kennedy

[n2doc]

20. Beautiful Piece

Where is our new RFK? Where will they come from, and will they avoid the temptations and pitfalls of our social media dominated, TMZ world?

[BrotherIvan]

58. I think the new RFK is a she

Someone who used to be a Republican, but changed into a fiery economic liberal.

[n2doc]

59. We can hope so

I just don't trust any politician anymore. But I hope I am proved wrong.

[BrotherIvan]

61. Me too

[EEO]

21. The assassination of both Jack and Bobby changed the course of this nation's history for the worse.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

25. The Republicans are STILL terrified of the Kennedy "Dynasty"....

The sight of them playing football on the White House Lawn was too much. They pictured a Kennedy in power for decades to come and have done all they can to destroy the family.

They made Ted synonymous with Chappaquiddick.

I wouldn't be surprised to find out they killed John Jr. when he came of age as he had just been on the cover of GQ and the buzz in DC was about him running for office. Then his small plane went down.

Caroline has stepped forward a few times but then stepped back just as quickly.

[Botany]

22. And then we got Nixon

[WilliamPitt]

27. I always cry when I see this.

Thank you for sharing.

[Botany]

42. The powers that be didn't want RFK

[raccoon]

51. Ding, ding! We have a winner. nt

[Bluenorthwest]

23. June 5, 1968 we hung up a Bobby poster in my room, Dad and I

That night we took it down in tears and had the conversation that changed my path from that day forward.
Thanks for this meaningful thread, Will.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

24. Posting again for those who missed it...

http://server4.whiterosesociety.org/content/malloy/MalloyMemories/bobby.mp3

[WilliamPitt]

26. Amazing.

Thank you.

[sabrina 1]

45. It sounds from that speech that he would have ended the Vietnam War so for that alone,

his death is still such a tragedy. Maybe that is why he died. We are a war-mongering nation with far too many people blindly supporting our brutal invasions of other people's lands and it is clear that anyone who dares to try to change that, won't be around for long, in politics, or if they have enough political capital with the people, on this planet.

[raccoon]

52. Great post, and you're so right about that. nt

[MarianJack]

28. I stuffed envelopes for Bobby...

...in the Philly suburbs. It was the first campaign I in which I ever worked. I saw him a few weeks before the assassination. I couldn't get close enough to shake his hand, though. He died about 2 weeks before my 13th birthday. I sometimes think that I miss Bobby more than I do John. I've never been able to make myself watch either of the movies "JFK" or "Bobby". It's still too painful. Thank you, Will!

PEACE!

[americannightmare]

29. Thanks for this, WilliamPitt...

"The Last Campaign" by Thurston Clarke tells the story of RFK's final days so well. I felt as if I was reading the book again when reading your words. It seems to me that he was the last national politician who went "on the stump" in the way he did. I daresay that no one before or after him would have spent an entire day, during a crucial election campaign, in the company of a 9-year old Native American boy.

[ablamj]

35. that book

Is a great read

[americannightmare]

39. Always nice to hear from fellow admirers of that work...

doesn't happen often, but perhaps we need to spread the word with more gusto...

[WillyT]

31. HUGE K & R !!! - Most Excellent Piece Will !!!

[Autumn]

33. The time is just right, and anything - everything - is possible

Those words give me the first hope I have felt in some time. The time is right, we just have to seize it. Thank you Will, I think you out did your self.

I think of "The Ocean is Coming" a lot, I'm going to be thinking of this one a lot also.

[flying rabbit]

36. Beautiful thread, beautiful piece.

Thanks Will.

[one_voice]

37. k&r

well worth the read.

[freshwest]

38. JFK, MLK, Jr.. then RFK. I'd begun working for the Democratic Party. Wasn't old enough to vote, but

doing phone calls, sending out fliers, walking the city and registering those who could vote. Then saw him on the air and thought we had a man who would finish the work we'd started on.

I'd worked the same way for LBJ before, and for liberal and minority candidates. But when RFK was gunned down, I was not able to leave my room at home for a few days. I still cry about him and MLK.

Evers was the first public person whose death hit me very hard, then the JFK and MLK, Jr. Bobby's death felt like the end, too much, too many, too fast.

Then came the 1986 DNC in Chicago. I cried watching the violence against my generation but later worked for HHH when it was all said and done. Nixon was dishonest and a demogague. Then he got elected and I was physically ill, same as Reagan. When Bush was selected, I was just angry all the time.

But after Bobby's death came Kent State and I went a lot further in my actions. Soon after that the Pentagon Papers were read by Mike Gravel into the Congressional record to protect them. I still cry when I watch him crying as he read it. And he's the one I caucused for in 2008 because of his opposition to wars. And his heart hadn't changed and neither has mine.

I met Daniel Ellsberg and he signed my copy of the Pentagon Papers. Then I went with the SWP to D.C. to hear Kerry and others, I even found a video of where I was. But Bobby was the one that broke my heart.

Yes, that's all about the emotions there. and the crushing of what might have been, but wasn't.

[11 Bravo]

40. As good as anything you've written, Will (And that's a high bar, indeed!)

Bobby's campaign was the first I ever volunteered for. I was 17 when we lost him.

Thank you for this moving and eloquent remembrance.

[emsimon33]

41. K&R

[BuelahWitch]

43. Great article and great thread

So nice to read the recollections of other DUers who met, worked for or had family members who worked for RFK.

[libnnc]

44. When I was teaching, I used to play RFK's remarks on Dr. King's murder for my Humanities class

Community College students - I lectured on the events of 1968 and I'd test them on why that was such an important year in American history. I wasn't alive then - it happened two years before I was born.

But every semester during that chapter, (it never failed), when I talked about Robert Kennedy's campaign and those events leading up to his murder, I'd choke up and lose it just a little. I'd have to stop mid-sentence to gather myself. I've never been able to hold back tears thinking about it. No other event in the 20th Century affects me the same way.

Thank you, Will for this.

[senseandsensibility]

46. I was in first grade when he was assassinated

and my wonderful public school teacher (a union member, no less,) had us write letters to his widow. As a teacher now, I see this as a beautiful opportunity to teach letter writing and etiquette. We all wrote our letters, and they were sent to her. It helped us emotionally and educationally. I have no idea if my teacher was a republican or a democrat. That was not the point. I wish that we could return to those days in some ways, although very obviously, they were far from ideal.

[Hekate]

47. Will, you are capable of such good writing, and this piece is beautiful

I feel a certain sense of shock that it's been 46 years since I went to bed knowing Gene McCarthy had lost the primary election and woke up to discover that the nation had lost Bobby Kennedy.

It was a horrible, horrible year. I watched the Chicago Convention on tv, an when I arrived at Los Angeles Airport to catch my flight out of California, I saw passengers debarking from a Chicago flight, many of them wearing black armbands.

But in your essay, Will, you take us from the dark halls of mourning to an open door through which anything is possible -- and I thank you for that.

[gordianot]

48. I had two poltical icons in my youth I will never forget both taken away.

First was Robert Kennedy, second (with as much promise as Bobby Kennedy) Jerry Litton. At his greatest triumph Jerry Litton was killed in a plane crash the night he won the Missouri Senate Primary. Much about the death of Robert Kennedy and Jerry Litton remains unresolved to this day.

[N_E_1 for Tennis]

53. Thank you Will, great piece!

To those who ask, "Where is the legacy?, Where are the ideals?"
They are in everyone of us who lived during those years.
They are principles that my wife and I cherished and nurtured in ourselves at first then
taught our children, our children in turn passed on those ideals to our grandkids and I see them flourishing in them. They live on.
These are the future leaders of our communities, of the people who weren't granted the opportunity of knowing these ideals firsthand. Do not despair they will rise again and overtake the mediocrity that seemingly envelopes our society today.
Great ideas take work. We must teach each other, either in words or actions. We must not give up.

A mental return to the awful feelings of those dark days, hurts, but in a real sense reninvigorates the ideals set forth then to try to accomplish even more in these days.

Thanks again, Will.

[wundermaus]

54. RFK is the gold standard.

He is the single most admired and respected politician of my lifetime.
No person alive or dead has had a greater positive impact on my life.
His death was a pivotal point backwards in the history of the United States and ultimately of the world.
The steps backwards we as a nation have taken since his assassination will take us centuries to recover, if ever.
There are no words to describe the anguish and loss of what we as a nation might have become.

[Rapillion]

55. I think it's called empathy

From FDR to Jack and Bobby, there was more than an obligation, a feeling that we needed to help one another, an article of our faith on the left. That has been lost in the long Guilded Age gone awry.

I often wonder about the role faith played in Bobby's apostasy, the turn leftward, toward empathy and fairness, after Jack's murder.

[bravenak]

56. One of your best.nt

[JustinBulletin]

60. Thank you for a beautifully written essay.

My husband and I both read it last night. I always enjoy reading your writings, but this one really is special and just what we need at this time.