A TINY RIPPLE OF HOPE IN A DRAINAGE DITCH IN CRAWFORD




Two years to the day before he was senselessly ripped away from us, and at a time when he was toiling mightily against the crushing weight of his own grief, Robert Kennedy courageously spoke to a group of South African college students. Among the most eloquent things he said that day were the following:


"Few will have the greatness to bend history; but each of us can work to change a small portion of the events, and in the total of all these acts will be written the history of this generation. Thousands of Peace Corps volunteers are making a difference in the isolated villages and the city slums of dozens of countries. Thousands of unknown men and women in Europe resisted the occupation of the Nazis and many died, but all added to the ultimate strength and freedom of their countries. It is from numberless diverse acts of courage such as these that the 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."




This evening, I listened to my wife and my youngest son discuss what Cindy Sheehan is doing in Texas right now, resolutely and stoically camping a few miles outside Camp Cornball, home of the Pretender President. I head my wife explain to my youngest son that his children may be reading about Ms. Sheehan, a grieving mother who has strived to turn her devastating sense of loss into a positive, the way that my children read about Rosa Parks. Or the way we read about Joseph Welch, the man who at long last called b*llsh*t on Joe McCarthy. But the truth of the matter is, anyone who has read the words of Bobby Kennedy, or who lived through the last years of his redemptive existence and recalls his words, has already acquired psychic awareness of Cindy Sheehan. She is one of those tiny ripples of hope; those who stand with her are as well. Those reporters who are courageous enough to report about her, who have started to question the corrupt odor emanating from the White House and the offices of several GOP Congressman, are more of those ripples. They are, starting from different centers, building a current. God Bless you Mrs. Sheehan. Let Perpetual Light shine upon Casey's soul, with Your Saints forever, for You are Merciful.