50 years after RFK's death, legacy endures

[DonViejo]

By David M. Shribman GLOBE CORRESPONDENT JUNE 02, 2018

For 12 weeks he traveled the country, up and down the coasts, to Indiana the day Martin Luther King Jr. was killed; to Nebraska, where he won a vital primary in a devoutly conservative state; to Oregon, where he suffered the first political loss by any member of his family; and then to California, where he vowed to go on to the Democratic convention “and let’s win there,’’ only to walk through a hotel kitchen where it all — the campaign against a long war, the campaign for a new sense of national purpose — tumbled to an end with an outstretched arm and spray of gunfire.

And then, for 50 years — a half-century of memories and myths — men and women of a certain age, and millions of Americans uncertain of what might have been, have disagreed about the meaning of Robert F. Kennedy’s life but have a curious, almost eerie, agreement about the meaning of that presidential campaign. Many he touched, and even some who were not moved by his insurgency against a sitting president of his own party, cursed his death at the time — and today almost inevitably employ a four-letter word to describe the meaning of his final years:

“He had a sense of hope for a better life for people of color,’’ said Antonia Hernandez, a former Edward M. Kennedy aide on Capitol Hill who now is president of the California Community Foundation.

“The Bobby Kennedy campaign was an investment in hope, in the hope that if Bobby were elected, we could end the Vietnam War and bring the country together,’’ said television commentator Jeff Greenfield, who was a Robert Kennedy speechwriter.

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https://www.bostonglobe.com/news/nation/2018/06/02/rfkshribman/FDsUySJrQA7bHQoVxMNmFO/story.html

[ProudMNDemocrat]

1. I was at St. James Park in San Jose, CA......

On June 4th, 1968. It was a Monday afternoon. Bobby Kennedy stopped in town for a speech.

My High School Social Studies teacher, Mr. Connelly, took a handful of his best students, if which I was one, to hear him. There were several thousands of people there . Bobby talked about his plans for Vietnam, Civil Rights, Israel, and more.

That was the day I became a Democrat. When he was gunned down the next night after winning the California Primary, it was as if a family member had died. It was tough going to school that Wednesday. Even Mr. Connelly was in tears. He was also my HS Counselor and Treasurer of the Santa Clara County Democratic Party.

I was glued to the TV from Friday , all through the train ride down from New York to Arlington National Cemetery. I can still picture people from all walks of life lining up at the tracks, saluting the train and waving flags as it passed them by.

[aka-chmeee]

2. Just my opinion

but I have always marked RFK's assassination as the moment our nation's long malaise began. No Nixon? No perpetual vendetta by the GOP looking to avenge Nixon's disgrace and fall, although even his own party apparently saw the need to impeach and the probable conviction in the senate. There were Republicans of integrity in those days.

[thucythucy]

3. Together with the assassination (by a white supremacist) of Abraham Lincoln

a turning point in American history, a definite fork in the road at which this nation took an extreme turn for the worse.

All the what-might-have-beens reflect just how tragic were the consequences of those two brutal acts of gun violence.