FORTY ONE YEARS AGO TODAY



June 5, 1968, after midnight, one of the brightest stars in the progressive spectrum was senselessly snuffed out and taken from our country, from our society, from our government.
(reprinted and updated from 2006)
Robert Kennedy is almost a forgotten man in mainstream America now, a footnote on a page about his brother's presidency for some, a cameo appearance in a TV movie about Hoffa or McCarthy, or the Cuban Missile Crisis for others. He's been gone almost as long as he was here, only for a time, among his bretheren. Even this horrific anniversary has been obscured to some degree by the death of the conservative's modern day icon, Ronald Reagan.

Robert Kennedy was a real-life story of redemption, a non-fiction, modern day Ebeneezer Scrooge. He was himself transformed from a ruthless pursuer of perceived wrong doers and those who would attack or antagonize his brother, to a statesman who cared about the poor, the impoverished, the hopeless in ways that few politicians have since. He made enemies among the more vocal of progressives of his time for declining to immediately challenge LBJ for the 1968 nomination and on the disastrous course in Vietnam, then jumping in only after McCarthy showed Johnson's vulnerability in New Hampshire - and the American public's disgust with the war. But he made up for lost time, and ultimately paid the dearest of prices for his efforts. Given what happened to his brother, his campaigning was absolutely fearless. Many of his campaign events featured him standing on the back of open cars, riding slowly through neighborhoods of exuberant people, eager to touch him and shake his hand. So many seem convinced that his spirit and drive, and energy and charisma would help carry this country out of the Vietnam quagmire, and on to better things and greater prosperity.

To watch the footage of that somber funeral train snaking from New York to Washington that funereal day, and view the sea of humanity in silent witness, was profoundly poignant. The thousands of ordinary pallbearers showed no regard for individual differences, and instead were united solely by the depth of their collective grief. In their sense of loss they showed appreciation for what the man was able to inspire in millions - an ability to emphasize common goals over specific differences. Scant few national leaders have succeeded in this effort to any significant degree since; hopefully President Obama will prove to have this kind of charisma and ability to inspire people to emphasize unity over division.

Tonight, if you are so inclined, say a prayer for the soul of this decent man who was ripped away from us. Say one for our Nation, so that we will one day soon be blessed with a batch of public servants with Robert Kennedy's sense of social justice and yearning to improve our country as a whole. And most of all, let us all make sure that we will recognize such people when they enter the public arena, and support them as fervently as humanly possible.