Today marks the 50 year anniversary of the assassination of Senator and Democratic presidential candidate Robert Francis Kennedy.
To those of my generation who loved Bobby – and still love him – it will always be the wound that time never healed.
I remember sitting with my mother, the late Susie Leone Rich, and watching in stunned disbelief as a news bulletin announced the shooting. We were unable to speak or sleep that night, yet through silent tears my Mom, sensing instinctively what I was thinking and feeling but unable to express, quietly gathered pen and paper and put to words a poem dedicated to all those who fall in the cause of freedom and justice.
His Dream Lives On
by Susie Leone Rich
A tower of strength was he – so tall!
Yet not too great to touch the small;
He ran with zest his earthly race.
With helping hand and fearless grace.
And on his way —He paused, to wipe the weary brow
Of all who toiled with pen — or plow
For him, no color barrier stood;
It never should; it never could
Stand in his way.The path he trod was rough but right
And freedom’s cause could make it light;
Relentlessly, he journeyed on
Through darkest night to reach the dawn
Of a new day.“Come, follow me,” he turned to say;
“I’ll hold your hand if you should stray
From paths of duty — honor — right.
The goal we seek is just in sight
If we but pray.”The torch he passed to us we claim
With pride and courage in his name;
The crown he won with sweat and tears
Will lead us on through all the years —
To peace through love.Dear one, who sleeps in hallowed ground
We cannot — must not — let you down;
For you who friend and foe acclaim
The flame eternal will not wane
But guide us on.Your dream must see reality,
The land you loved not shackled be
By chains of prejudice and hate —
But be reborn before too late —
In brotherhood.
Thank you Fred, for reminding us all that there was a time when it was gentle words that were revered. Your own mother and father revered gentle words, as did mine.
And like the brotherhood of all people that RFK envisioned, that time of gentle words will surely return.
Perhaps it will come in the form of the young people we see now, responding to senseless violence and harsh, thoughtless, and coarse words coming from the White House with elegant grace beyond their years.
Perhaps it will come in the form of the unexpectedly graceful and gentle candidates for office, like Alexandra Chandler, the candidate you and I both support for Congress, that are almost magically emerging today all over our complex country in response to the terrifying advance of cynical tribalists and racists, .
After all, RFK himself emerged out of a terrible time and an unkind place, and he transformed himself into someone whose gentle words could partially heal the country after the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.
But yes. If we make it so, and help clear the way for leaders of gentle and healing words, the time of gentle words will surely return to the United States of America, and to our world.
Terry, thank you for your hopeful sentiments and empathy for those of us who still suffer from RFK’s senseless death as they bring to mind something Bobby once said : “Whenever any American’s life is taken by another American unnecessarily…whenever we tear at the fabric of life which another man has painfully and clumsily woven for himself and his children, the whole nation is degraded.”
He stood with Caesar Chavez and listened to MLK. He fought corrupt criminals and implored us to end an unbearable war. And most of all, he showed true compassion and heeded a deep, caring faith.
I wore my Bobby pin I got from the JFK library to work today. Lot of great questions from my students.
He was also not afraid to campaign for working class white voters and African Americans and young people and Latinos. He was unafraid to campaign for Wallace voters and won many of them in the Indiana primary while simultaneously keeping an African American crowd calm during the worst night of America’s life after MLK died. A rare talent, and an example for how progressives can win anywhere they try to compete.