Bobby

[ignu]

Today is for giving thanks. It is also the release of Bobby. http://www.bobby-the-movie.com



Many of us salivate over every crumb of courage elected Democrats drop on our plates. Let us remember another dire time in our history -- when many Democrats had gone astray and we were fighting in another hopeless, death-filled quagmire.

Bobby should remind us what bravery means -- to see war, poverty and injustice and reject political expediency and selfish, fear-laden excuses to try and stop it.


http://www.youtube.com/v/JvFx1H50a7Y

Bobby is flying way under the radar.

Lets make sure it doesn't, at least in our own small circles.

Bobby's passion, selflessness and energy need be celebrated. His death ushered in a dark era and moral drought in our history that we still have no recovered from. So much potential and so many dreams were cut down that day in 1968.

But Robert Kennedy planted the seeds of inspiration in so many of our current generation of heroes. His passion, allure and the simple truth in his heartfelt words has beckoned many to serve. And as Robert Kennedy's story is retold and celebrated, I'm hopeful it can help generate yet another crop -- because we still have so very far to go.

“Let no one be discouraged by the belief there is nothing one man or one woman can do against the enormous array of the world’s ills - against misery and ignorance, injustice and violence... Few will have the greatness to bend history itself; 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 the numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is 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 a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, these ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.” - Robert Kennedy

http://www.youtube.com/v/fVdcufwOGHo

“I do not run for the presidency merely to oppose any man but to propose new policies. I run because I am convinced that this country is on a perilous course and because I have such strong feelings about what must be done, and I feel that I'm obliged to do all that I can. I run to seek new policies - policies to end the bloodshed in Vietnam and in our cities, policies to close the gaps that now exist between black and white, between rich and poor, between young and old, in this country and around the rest of the world. I run for the presidency because I want the Democratic Party and the United States of America to stand for hope instead of despair, for reconciliation of men instead of the growing risk of world war. I run because it is now unmistakably clear that we can change these disastrous, divisive policies only by changing the men who are now making them. For the reality of recent events in Vietnam has been glossed over with illusions. <...>

I do not lightly dismiss the dangers and the difficulties of challenging an incumbent President. But these are not ordinary times and this is not an ordinary election. At stake is not simply the leadership of our party and even our country. It is our right to moral leadership of this planet.” - Robert Kennedy

http://www.youtube.com/v/_ReAG6jNVs4

“What is objectionable, what is dangerous, about extremists is not that they are extreme, but that they are intolerant. The evil is not what they say about their cause, but what they say about their opponents.” - Robert Kennedy

"'If we believe men have any personal rights at all,' Aristotle said, 'then they must have an absolute moral right to such a measure of good health as society alone can provide.' <...>

The issue before us then, is simple: Shall we continue to watch as medical costs soar beyond the reach of most Americans, condemning the poor to illness and the average American to the whim of fate -- or are we going to act to make decent medical care something more than a luxury of the affluent?

I think what we want is clear. And I think this nation is willing to make the effort necessary for an effective system of care. We have the resources to do it -- we have the will to do it -- and we are going to do it if I am the next President of the United States. <...>

No program to improve the nation’s health will be effective unless we understand the conditions of injustice which underlie disease. It is illusory to think we can cure a sickly child -- and ignore his need for enough food to eat. It is foolish to pour in money to cure the effect of filth-ridden slums -- without acting to eradicate the slums that breed so much disease. It is pointless to establish community health projects to cure the ills of mind and body -- if we do not understand that a community of the jobless, the hopeless, the purposeless spawns disease in the minds and bodies of its victims. We will not really cure the pathology of individuals unless we begin to come to grips with the pathology of these communities.

Education, jobs, community participation, an end to hunger, these are the elements of a healthy citizenry. And they must be achieved. For it is neither economical nor compassionate to care for the consequences of poverty, and ignores its roots." - Robert Kennedy

(Cross-Posted on DailyKos http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/11/23/9561/4668)

[Greeby]

1. K & R

:kick:

[bluestateguy]

2. My father worked on the McCarthy campaign

My mother worked on the RFK campaign (they hadn't met yet). She was attending an election night party in Northern California the night of the California primary. She left early, turned on the TV at home, went into the kitchen to get a drink and heard the gunshots over the TV screen.

[thingfisher]

13. Many, many of us young people of the day

rallied around Senator McCarthy due to the fact that he was the only one to stand up against the war. No one ccan know the personal soul searching that went on in Bobby's mind before entering the race, but many felt that he used McCarthy as a stalking horse to test the waters before declaring his candidacy.

Many had a hard time with Bobby's late entry into the fray, but as time went on it bacame obvious that he was the one to back against the hated Nixon.

As paranoid as people were at that time, it still was a shock when he was gunned down just like the other two Americans championing the higher values. The legacy of the murder was the Nixon, Reagan, Bush cabal gaining an obscene amount of power and we still are reaping the whilwind because of it.

[Gloria]

15. This ages me: I still have my McCarthy bumper sticker tucked away.....

[givemebackmycountry]

3. Off to the front page with ye...

Great post.
I would go see this tonight, but I'll be at Arrowhead Stadium watching my beloved Broncos pound the Chiefs.


Maybe I'll go tomorrow while America hits the stores in search of crap.

[midnight]

17. Please do. You will see a part of this movie that will make

you feel like, the crying Statue of Liberty, that you have on your post. I saw this movie tonight and found myself in tears for the horror that Robert Kennedy tried to do away with. What a great loss and stress that time was on my parents. This movie puts that perspective into focus-for me anyways.

[rman]

4. The Plot to Kill Robert Kennedy

The Plot to Kill Robert Kennedy
Released: Jul 13, 1988
Release Company: MPI Home Video
1 hr 38 min
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6990843545674777046&sourceid=docidfeed&hl=en

Interviews with eyewitnesses, forensic investigators and Sirhan Sirhan's mother reveal contradictory evidence. Material evidence indicating Sirhan Sirhan was not the killer was lost or destroyed.

[Bombtrack]

5. I'm as big an RFK fan as anyone, but I won't patronize a movie with Lindsay Lohan and Nick Cannon

Gordon Bombay is bad at casting.

[SeattleGirl]

39. Lindsay Lohan was very good in this movie.

I'm no fan, but I have to say, she was good in her role.

[MnFats]

6. Thanks for posting. I turned 16 that summer...

...My two biggest heroes were Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy. I was just becoming aware of racism, the war, poverty and everything else. I really believed Kennedy would be elected and then work with people like MLK and make things better for everybody.

by the end of the summer both were gone and were left with ....Richard Nixon in the White House.


Teen Angst? Curt Cobain had nothing on me.

I'm going to have to rachet up my nerve to see this.


(Bobby was my last real hero until Paul Wellstone came along. Such luck I have with heroes!)

[Hav]

7. .

RFK was way before my time but I suppose he would have been one of the finest Presidents.
I guess I can be thankful that I didn't have to witness it when they took away from us such great people as him, JFK or Martin Luther King.

[FrenchieCat]

8. Thank you very much for your post,

I'm hoping to go and see this movie by this week-end.

[Monkeyman]

9. K&R

[phillysuse]

10. Thank you for the trip down Memory Lane

I have often felt that the death of Robert Kennedy was a singular event in American history turning us from a path of peace and harmony and justice towards the path we are still struggling to turn from.

His death gave us Nixon and continued war in Vietnam for 7 more years. Nixon enabled people like Cheney and Rumsfeld and Bush and led us with the brief interneggum of Carter and Bill Clinton to where we are today. A war hatched by the vile excreta of Nixon and Reagan - Rumsfeld, Cheney, Wolfowitz, Kissinger, Bush the Senior and most unfortunately Bush the Lesser.

Looking at the videos, I have to say that perhaps Barack Obama and Jon Edwards come closest to capturing that sense of what could be. Certainly not Hillary.

[chieftain]

11. I was in the audience at the University of Kansas speech.

At the time I was working for McCarthy, but my heart always belonged to Bobby. What he said that day was so much more than a speech against the war. His themes centered around what America was and more importantly what it could be. The device he used was to point out what the Gross National Product actually bought. He contrasted the materialism celebrated by that most favored economic indicator to those things that really matter in life: family, community and brotherhood. It was equal part sermon and rock concert. The crowd of white middle class, middle Americans was at a fever pitch. Being a consummately cool political operative at this point of my life, I was immune to the wild reaction RFK evoked. That is until I looked up and found myself standing 4 people away from him as he exited Allen Field House. Just like the other screaming audience members, I clawed my way toward him in an effort to shake his hand. I was short of the mark, but though I failed to touch him, he had touched me and the others that day in a way that no one before or since has been able to do. His idealism and courage should be a guiding star for those of us who revere his vision. My son and I are going to see Bobby tomorrow, although I posted earlier this week that I wouldn't be able to watch it in a crowded theater. I have already warned my son that I will not be able to remain unemotional about this and I firmly expect the tears to flow. Nevertheless, It is important to me to get back in touch with those sensations of a long ago day in Lawrence, Kansas. The fact that I get to share with the next generation makes risking the embarrassment of blubbering in public a risk worth taking.

[KAT119]

12. Thank You, ignu for this great thread. Bobby's inspired & inspiring words

bring such healing to our hearts, shattered these horrifying 6 years!!


I will never forget walking in Georgetown in the 60's when Bobby and Ethel dashed from their car into a little church for Sunday mass, and he looked right at me with such electricity and kindness, that I was transfixed to the spot!!

He really saw and appreciated everyone- totally living in the moment.

Amazing energy and charisma!! Wonderful to recall this thanks to your post:-))

[xkenx]

14. And now we have a public figure who inspires like no one since Bobby Kennedy

His name is Wes Clark, and those who are unfamiliar with his American Dream/American Hero story should check it out.

[jonnyblitz]

16. OH PLEASE.. I don't think so.

leave it to a clark supporter to hijack a thread and make it about wes clark. TACKY.

[SunDrop23]

19. Oops wrong place.

[jwirr]

30. No one has inspired me so much as Robert Kennedy. I don't

know if anyone will ever be able to relight the fires of hope inside me as he did. I work for the Dems today because it is necessary to protect this country from pugs.

[ChiciB1]

33. I Feel The Same Way.... But Edwards Has A Certain Way About

him that rekindles a few fires. But BOBBY stole my heart so long ago and I don't know if I will ever see anyone in my time to make me feel the way he did.

I cried for weeks, and even cry when I remember him today!

[SunDrop23]

18. I saw it today!

What an excellent movie...

[msedano]

20. no love lost for bobby

gene mccarthy put his neck on the line. gene mccarthy gave the nation hope. we saw the coffins coming home every day on t.v. dozens of dead boys every day. mccarthy stepped forth and said end the war, which is what "we" had been saying for a long time. then LBJ abdicated. so bobby the opportunist jumps into the race and eats mccarthy's lunch. if bobby had been the leader all the latter-day hagiographers make him out, he woulda been there ahead of mccarthy, he woulda been in the lead, instead of waiting til he thought it was safe.

[POAS]

23. I loved and respected both

Bobby and Gene but I don't hold a political strategy against Bobby. That is what politicians do. They test the waters and find the easiest part of the stream to swim in. If Bobby had lived and gone on to be president and accomplished all of Gene's goals what would be the difference. We need to be about results and ideas or we risk becoming a cult of personality.

On a much smaller scale we had a similar situation arise this year in Ohio. Paul Hackett went out early with his anti-war message and became the "stalking horse" out ahead of other candidates. Later Sherrod Brown stepped in and took the legs and money out from under Paul's campaign. At first I was mad as hell at Brown for the tactic but, in the end, Sherrod now sits in the Senate and I am happy for the result becuae now an agenda that I support has a chance of becoming the law of the land.

Had Gene gone on to the presidency after Bobby's death I'm sure the things he would have accomplished would have nade Bobby proud.

[msedano]

26. i hold pols accountable to their strategy

like my congresshole, adam schiff. he wrote me that if i, a constituent, knew what he knew from the shrub administration's secret files, i'd understand his upcoming vote to authorize shrub to play soldier with the lives of our kids. now he begins to find a critical view and may even jump on the bandwagon to bring the troops home.

in the 60s, nearly every pol sat on their hands and let our troops' sacrifice go unopposed. until "clean gene" stepped forth. testing the waters is not a leader's stance. that's the difference between being admirable and being more of the same. mccarthy the former, rfk the latter.

i won't play the shoulda woulda coulda game. mccarthy's campaign was stopped in its tracks. the tale ends right there.

[POAS]

27. The tale ends right there?

Not really, unless the mind closes as soon when the outcome displeases.

But let's look at the tale after Bobby's death. Here is a tally of the vote count at the convention:

Hubert H. Humphrey - 1759.25
All Others - 862.75

Among all others Gene had 601 of those votes. Even if you give him all the votes cast for Ed Kennedy (30.25) and the "popular" stand in for Bobby's delegates George McGovern (146.5) Gene was still far short of overtaking Humphrey.

So go ahead and blame Bobby if you want and blame politicians for using strategy if you feel the need. Tilting at windmills, however, can be very distracting. Take heed!

[msedano]

29. blame? no. sainthood, decidedly against. leadership, give me some.

mccarthy's story ends at the opportunist's leap into the advantage mccarthy created. your numbers are shoulda woulda coulda and probably totally on the mark. hube woulda beat kennedy regardless. that's not the point.

the point is about effective leadership and hagiography, not "blame". if you're successful at something, that's your fault.

i'm looking forward toward whom i prefer as a candidate. i am holding a high standard of accountability on the war. my california elected officials will need impressively reasoned positions to explain away their support of shrub's war. for me, the most effective argument will sound something like "bring them home without delay." that's a windmill i gladly point my lance.

[jwirr]

31. There is a very simple explanation on why Dems supported the

war at first. This country was in a panic like we had never seen since the Great Depression, which *ss used to influence not just congress but also the American people, to believe that he was telling the truth.

My whole family is Dem but of all of us I was the only one who did not believe *ss until it was too late. Should we expect our leaders to see things that are not there to see until there is an investigation? They were lied to by the entire *ss administration. Yes, they made a mistake, but so did most of us down here in the trenches. What counts to me is that what they are saying now: do they realize that their vote was a mistake? Do they know we must get out of this idiot war?

If we all hold to your narrow view we will never find the perfect candidates, because it is the pugs who think that they are perfect. We Dems have always known that we are human, with all the flaws humans possess.

[BlueIris]

24. Hey there.

Too obvious, dude. And there are like, a thousand of you here already. Most of them bring better than that before they've even had coffee. If you're going to poke, bring a bigger (and more original) stick.

[msedano]

25. how strange that is

not even a morsel of political content. just blither. and the point is? then i look at the handle. the blue-eyed tipo strikes out in retribution for some post of mine somewhere else. how noble. my impression of DU was a population of keen analysts with decided political views. i was told there was a small population of dilatory space wasters with nary an opinion of their own. indeed,now i see and don't it make my brown eyes smile.

[POAS]

28. Excuse me for interjecting into a

a fued but your impression of DU seems a bit inflated and definately not rooted in reality. (" my impression of DU was a population of keen analysts with decided political views")

DU's population is a diverse as the Democratic party. Yes, we have many fine analytical minds but we also have many idealogues, hangers on, hard workers, political neophytes, activists and , well, just plain folk who seem to share one thing in common, a belief in the democratic system of governance in the US and a firm belief that the Democratic Party represents the best hope for the preservation of that system inspite of its many flaws.

So like the imperfect system and the imperfect party we, DU, believe in we are diverse and flawed but always striving to better the party, the system and ourselves. I'm sure if it is a perfect debate with keen analysis with nary a space waster to be found there are boards out there to fit your needs. When you find it please let me know so I can avoid it, I prefer to hang with a more diverse group.

[Clinton Crusader]

35. You are so wrong...

The reason Bobby didn't throw his hat in the ring earlier was because it would have caused HAVOC in the Dem party, challenging a sitting President, and also it would have looked like Bobby WAS an opportunist; jumping on LBJ's back when he was so far down re: Vietnam and challenigng him when it was a well known fact they could not stand each other. He did absoutely the right thing by waiting and when LBJ bowed out, it was his perfect time.

His death was gut wrenching and catastrophic for this country. There will never be another like him or his brother.
:-(

[Hippo_Tron]

37. McCarthy didn't have a wide enough base of support

Like it or not, Gene McCarthy couldn't bring in the working class faction of the party who supported the war. Bobby Kennedy could have if anything because of his last name and because of his religion. Kennedy was also extremely popular among African Americans and they would have turned out in very high numbers to vote for him.

Maybe McCarthy was first and in a perfect world he should've been elected. But Kennedy was not only willing to end the war, he also could've won the election.

[DeepModem Mom]

21. K&R

[DemReadingDU]

22. morning kick

[ChiciB1]

32. THIS Would Have Been My First Political Vote... My Heart Was

CRUSHED even more by his death than his brother John! All ANYONE has to do is talk about him and I become so Nostalgic because I still remember so much about him. I remember watching my black & white TV when he was shot, rolling my hair with HUGE rollers as was the "rage" back then.

Have books about him and can't wait to see this movie, even though I know it will break my heart all over again!!

He has his negatives, but when you get down to the brass tacks... IMO he would have been a SUPERB President. Buy we will never know for sure.

[Clinton Crusader]

34. We wanted to see it yestrerday....

BUT it's not playing within 65 miles of here! A totally red district (due to recent elections now blue) but no theaters are showing it. NONE. The only one is 65 miles away.

I called the theater here and they said QUOTE--> 'If it becomes popular we may have it in a few weeks'.
:grr: :mad:

[tinfoil tiaras]

36. Ooh, I saw that last night!

It was really good. And really sad.

Bobby was and is one of my mom's heroes. If he was President, I just have a feeling the world would have turned out way differently....

[Chalco]

38. Just got back from seeing Bobby.

I have never sobbed so much. Everything since his death has been a sham. His death was the end of hope. My husband didn't want to go. He had read reviews that said it was amatueurish or worse. He thanked me for insisting he go. He sobbed with me. The crowd was silent at the end. No one could move. No one could talk. It was as if our world had shattered again. I could not talk for a long time I was so overcome with grief.

I wanted to see Bobby because Emelio Estevez said that there was nothing that had moved him more than seeing his father sobbing when Bobby died. It became his life's mission to make the movie. He invested everything in this project. His life, his emotion, his wallet, his soul. At one point he had writer's block for a year. His brother, Charlie, was dispatched to get him off his butt. Emelio said he didn't know what to do he was stuck. Charlie said, just get out of town, just go. Emelio got in his car and drove and ended up in a motel. He struck up a conversation with the receptionist who said that she had been in the hotel the night Bobby was killed. Emelio felt his meeting her was divine intervention. He put her character in the movie. She was Diane, the woman who married a young man so he didn't have to go to Vietnam.

Bobby's words at the end were so powerful and such an antithesis to the current situation we find ourselves in. It made me realize that when we are in shock as a nation the aggressive ones take over and because we are in shock we cannot imagine that they would do something that is harmful to us and to our nation, but they do. They take advantage of us.

I remember after 9/11 being in such shock that when Bush gave his "speech" about needing to invade Iraq in front of the White House Press Corps my mind was telling me that he would not suggest something vile. That could not be possible. He must be telling the truth. This is what my mind told me while another part of me said, but he is lying. I wanted to believe him. I didn't want to think that we were being tricked and used. But we were.

When Bobby died I was 20 years old. It was the end of hope. Since then we lost our will and are no longer a force of good.

We must revolt and we must do it now.