40 Years ago this weekend in 1968, Robert F. Kennedy was laid to rest in Arlington National Cemetery. Just two month before his own murder, Bobby Kennedy had to announce the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.. During his speach he said:
"...Martin Luther King dedicated his life to love and to justic for his fellow human beings, and he died because of that effort.
In this difficult day, in this difficult time for the United States, it is 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 their evidently is that there were white people who were responsible -- you can be filled with bitterness, with hatred, and a desire for revenge. We can move in that direction as a country, in great polarization -- black people amongst black, white people amongst white, filled with hatred toward one another.
Or we can make an effort, as Martin Luther King did, to understand and to comprehend, and to replace that violence, that stain of bloodshed that has spread across our land, with an effort to understand with compassion and love...."
And his brother, Senator Edward Kennedy said on his assassination by Sirhan Sirhan: "My brother was a man of love and sentiment and compassion. He would not have wanted his death to be cause for the taking of another life."
Today the reminscence of Robert F. Kennedy still stands for values such as change for the better, hope, integrity, compassion and forgiveness.
"Some men see things the way they are, and ask why? I dream of things that never were, and ask why not?" - Robert F. Kennedy paraphrasing George Bernard Shaw
Robert F. Kennedy believed so strongly in the possibility of ending injustice and changing the world that he made it a cornerstone of his 1968 Presidential campaign.
The Robert F. Kennedy Memorial founded by his family and friends as a living memorial in 1968, carries on this legacy of hope and change through programs aimed at tackling the toughest problems we face as a global society.
And R.F. Kennedy is present in politics even today - an extract from Weekend America's "RFK's Enduring Message of Hope"
Roemer: There were many times that I thought of Senator Kennedy -- what he would do, what example he provided. One of the Kennedy legacies was the Peace Corps, and later in my Congressional efforts I helped start the AmeriCorps program. And so Bobby Kennedy, John Kennedy's policy ideas continued inspire me as a member of Congress... and it lives on today.
(archival tape): We want Bobby! We want Bobby!
Roemer: He is present in many ways -- you hear him in the words of one of the presidential candidates today.
Sen. Barack Obama: I know how hard change is.
Roemer: ...talking about building coalitions and unifying the country and talking about hope. I was actually in Fort Wayne, Ind., campaigning with Barack Obama. Of course, Senator Kennedy is still popular in Indiana. So when Senator Obama was working the rope line it was amazing to me, standing next to him, the number of people in 2008 that were handing Senator Obama pamphlets, literature, mail from Bobby Kennedy's campaign. And they wanted Senator Obama to sign something that Bobby Kennedy had given them 40 years earlier. It truly shows that Senator Kennedy will never be forgotten.
Personally I believe that it is good we get reminded on people like Robert F. Kennedy every so often - it gives us a chance to sit back and reflect on their values and on what these values can mean for our own lives. So let me finish this post with a quote from his "Day of Affirmation" Speech at theUniversity of Cape Town, South Africa:
"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."
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