Today marks forty years since I left high school and the hope I had joyfully clung to for a new time in American politics was misplaced when Bobby Kennedy was killed shortly after giving a victory speech to celebrate his win in the California primary election in another June. So, in my constant but not very successful effort to not live in the past, that was then, this is now. In his eulogy on his brother, Senator Edward Kennedy said,
My brother need not be idealized, or enlarged in death beyond what he was in life,
to be remembered simply as a good and decent man,
who saw wrong and tried to right it,
saw suffering and tried to heal it,
saw war and tried to stop it.
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 someday come to pass for all the world.
Take a couple of minutes to see a new face of hope here.
9 comments:
The face of hope and the ideas to back them - I cried through his acceptance speech on Tuesday.
He was a guy who never shied away from a dogfight. Although I was only a year old when he was killed, I experienced his loss through my family who respected and admired him.
Hey NZ, I quite like your fair and fruitful post. It had many things I like innit including Wilco/Tweedy, The Odyssey, and birds. You know, bus stop girl and I watched quite a bird battle this morning. I put it all in me gulliver so I could spill it right here http://thelastrung.blogspot.com/2008/06/crow-and-robin.html
Thanks for this. What an eloquent eulogy. Something for us to live up to, to be sure.
I like your "think, it's patriotic" badge, too.
I was nine that summer that he and MLK were killed. Heaven only knows what these two men may have become had they lived longer.
You made me cry again.
With you in spirit
Phyllis
God, I forgot. I can't believe I forgot this day. I was at home after a year at college. I was in my bedroom and it was a beautiful summer morning, and then I heard the news.
Born in the mid-seventies, I can't remember a time that politics wasn't filled with cynicism, dissatisfaction and settling for the lesser evil. This is, perhaps, the first election year that I feel cautiously optimistic. I reserve the right to change my mind at any time.
Thanks for sharing the video. I do remember the day he died... and imagine how things would have been different if he had lived?
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