Bobby Kennedy’s Legacy

Bobby Kennedy is a hero of mine.  I’m just old enough to remember a little about him first hand, and recently began a new biography,  “Bobby Kennedy: The Making of a Liberal Icon” by Larry Tye.

Who can forget the iconic image of him sitting crouched face to face with his brother, the President, during the Cuban Missile Crisis. President Kennedy had been challenged as to the wisdom and appropriateness of appointing his younger  brother, just in his mid thirties, as Attorney General. JFK quipped, “I can't see that it's wrong to give him a little legal experience before he goes out to practice law.”  

That quote is significant. The 1960’s under Kennedy and the Civil War period under Lincoln were two of the most turbulent times in the history of our nation. Yet in the midst of troubled times, these presidents led with gentleness and humor.  Lincoln was famous for his stories. A favorite was of the Revolutionary War hero Ethan Allen who visited England a few years after the war ended. England was still smarting from the loss, so when Allen asked to use the outhouse, he discovered that his host had hung a picture of George Washington in it. Upon exiting Allen announced, “Very appropriate – nothing makes an Englishman shit faster than a picture of General Washington.”  I digressed intentionally. It is good to remember the character – the wit and wisdom  - of our great leaders.

Lincoln, though assassinated, accomplished his great mission – he saw the Civil War end and the Union restored.  President Kennedy was killed before his first term ended, but not before he put this nation on bold new trajectories of humanitarian work abroad, a space program, physical fitness, and civil rights.

But Bobby’s potential legacy remains the great unknown. Not knowing what he would have accomplished as president, we shouldn’t forget the lesson he taught us while still a senator and presidential contender.

The date was April 4, 1968. The place was Indianapolis. Bobby was scheduled to give a campaign speech in anticipation of the Indiana primary.  As Bobby’s plane landed, he learned that Martin Luther King Jr. had been assassinated.  Fearing riots, the mayor and chief of police advised him to cancel his speech to a largely black audience set in the ghetto of Indianapolis.  Rejecting their advice, Bobby addressed the shocked crowd with words just as appropriate for today (find the full speech  online):

“In this difficult day, in this difficult time for the United States, it’s perhaps well to ask what kind of nation we are, and what direction we want to move in . . . 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 compassion and love  . . . My favorite poet was Aeschylus – he once wrote: `He who learns must suffer. And even in our sleep, pain that cannot forget, falls drop by drop upon the heart. And in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom to us, by the awful grace of God. ‘ . . . What we need in the United States is not division. What we need in the United States is not hatred. What we need in the United States is not violence and lawlessness, but love and wisdom, and compassion toward one another – and justice for those who still suffer within our country – whether they be white or whether they be black.”   

“We have had difficult times in the past, and we will have difficult times in the future. It is not the end of violence. It is not the end of lawlessness. It is not the end of disorder. The vast majority want to live together, and want to improve the quality of our lives, and want justice for all human beings that abide in our land. Let’s dedicate ourselves to what the Greeks wrote so many years ago, `To tame the savageness of man, and make gentle the life of this world.’  Let us dedicate ourselves to that, and say a prayer for our country, and for our people.”

Riots broke out in over one hundred major U.S. cities, but Indianapolis remained calm.

Bobby was assassinated two months later.

Friends – this is the heritage of leadership and behavior to which we should aspire.  Bobby was speaking, in the words of Lincoln, to our better angles. We’d do well to reflect and remember.