In 1962, Bobby Kennedy said we could have a black president in 40 years. (pics)

[IronLionZion]

"The Irish were not wanted here. Now an Irish Catholic is President of the United States. There is no question about it, in the next forty years a Negro can achieve the same position."
- Attorney General Robert Francis Kennedy, 1962



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/US_civil_rights_movement#Kennedy_Administration.2C_1960-63


It is now 2008, around 46 years later.

I was pushing hard for another Irish Catholic from Delaware, but this black man has a fighting chance right now. Obama's got a real shot at the White House. Tremble in awe at how far we've progressed in 40 years. Don't forget the woman and the hispanic candidate from our party. Barack Obama and Bill Richardson were born in a time when their parents were considered felons in some southern states merely by having an inter-racial relationship.





That other party can weep as they dig their own political graves. Fuck the Republicans. Narrow-minded assholes.

[stillcool]

1. really nice.... thank you

"The problems of the world cannot possibly be solved by skeptics or cynics whose horizons are limited by the obvious realities. We need men who can dream of things that never were."
-- John Fitzgerald Kennedy

"Democracy is no easy form of government. Few nations have been able to sustain it. For it requires that we take the chances of freedom; that the liberating play of reason be brought to bear on events filled with passion; that dissent be allowed to make its appeal for acceptance; that men chance error in their search for the truth."-- Robert F. Kennedy

"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 F. Kennedy

"Perhaps a new spirit is rising among us. If it is, let us trace its movements and pray that our own inner being may be sensitive to its guidance, for we are deeply in need of a new way beyond the darkness that seems so close around us." --- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

"I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality .... I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word."
-- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

“The future will not belong to those who sit on the sidelines. The
future will not belong to the cynics. The future belongs to those who
believe in the beauty of their dreams.”---Paul Wellstone

[IronLionZion]

2. Thank you for those quotes. nt

[stillcool]

7. pictures and words..

:kick:

[Cha]

14. This is great! If I can

see through my poignant tears to write this. :)

“The future will not belong to those who sit on the sidelines. The
future will not belong to the cynics. The future belongs to those who
believe in the beauty of their dreams.”---Paul Wellstone

"Democracy is no easy form of government. Few nations have been able to sustain it. For it requires that we take the chances of freedom; that the liberating play of reason be brought to bear on events filled with passion; that dissent be allowed to make its appeal for acceptance; that men chance error in their search for the truth."-- Robert F. Kennedy

"The problems of the world cannot possibly be solved by skeptics or cynics whose horizons are limited by the obvious realities. We need men who can dream of things that never were."
-- John Fitzgerald Kennedy

Deliver me from Stodginess!

[stillcool]

15. With all the "rheoric"

I've been reading about lately..you would think that no one in history had ever been inspired by words, or art, or music..or any of those other expressions of self.

[IronLionZion]

3. I appreciate the recs, but please kick as well. Thanks! nt

[Hardrada]

4. Great pics & quotes

Recommended

[ClayZ]

5. K and R ... BRAVO!

[elizm]

6. Kick and recommend. Thank you! :) nt

[monmouth]

8. Best post I've seen in weeks, just beautiful...glad to K&R...eom

[Anouka]

9. That's a beautiful family portrait.

That photo is extremely important. Maybe, just maybe.....

[IronLionZion]

10. kick for today

:kick:

[IronLionZion]

11. More RFK quotes

* "Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly."<21>

* "Few men are willing to brave the disapproval of their fellows, the censure of their colleagues, the wrath of society. Moral courage is a rarer commodity than bravery in battle or great intelligence. Yet it is the one essential, vital, quality for those who seek to change a world which yields most painfully to change."

* "The sharpest criticism often goes hand in hand with the deepest idealism and love of country."<22>

* "Men without hope, resigned to despair and oppression, do not make revolutions. It is when expectation replaces submission, when despair is touched with the awareness of possibility, that the forces of human desire and the passion for justice are unloosed."<23>

* "There are those who look at things the way they are, and ask why... I dream of things that never were and ask why not."<24>

* "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."<25>

* "At the University of Natal in Durban, I was told the church to which most of the white population belongs teaches apartheid as a moral necessity. A questioner declared that few churches allow black Africans to pray with the white because the Bible says that is the way it should be, because God created Negroes to serve. "But suppose God is black", I replied. "What if we go to Heaven and we, all our lives, have treated the Negro as an inferior, and God is there, and we look up and He is not white? What then is our response?" There was no answer. Only silence." South Africa, June 1966<26>

* "Fear not the path of truth for the lack of people walking on it." From his last speech, June 6, 1968<27>

* "Laws can embody standards; governments can enforce laws — but the final task is not a task for government. It is a task for each and every one of us. Every time we turn our heads the other way when we see the law flouted — when we tolerate what we know to be wrong — when we close our eyes and ears to the corrupt because we are too busy, or too frightened — when we fail to speak up and speak out — we strike a blow against freedom and decency and justice." June 21, 1961<28>

[FrenchieCat]

12. Kick!

[Occam Bandage]

13. Beautiful and prescient.

[AspenRose]

16. Nice thread. Thanks for the positive focus

I was pulling for that Irish Catholic from Delaware too. This has been exciting to watch, no doubt about that.

[IronLionZion]

17. kick for the afternoon

:kick:

[bdamomma]

18. kick