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Remembering RFK
I remember the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. very well because I was part of the "Children's Campaign" of his primary opponent, Eugene McCarthy, in South Dakota. We would pull into a small town, hoping to start a McCarthy headquarters, and there would already be a shining new RFK headquarters much more impressive than our campaign could muster. We had the homemade signs, they had the slick ones. We were impressed and we were envious. Of course, we would have supported him. The McCarthy and RFK platforms were very similar and we knew it. We respected him, but he was our opponent. Then Humphrey emerged from the convention, to be beaten by Nixon. I remember this much more clearly at the conclusion of this contentious primary season, and a few days after the 40th anniversary of RFK's assassination.
I was impressed by this passage, written by one of RFK's surviving children, in the New York Times, at a time when we face not only crucial national and local elections, but are at war for no good reason, with our economy in tatters.
There was no quality my father admired more than courage, save perhaps love. I remember when one night after dinner he picked up the battered poetry book that was always somewhere at his side and read aloud Tennyson's "Charge of the Light Brigade." We listened aghast to the story of the soldiers whose commander orders them to ride into an ambush. They know they will be slaughtered, but they obey the command anyway. My father then explained that he and my mother were going on a trip and challenged us to memorize the poem while they were away. I did not win that contest, but one famous stanza has remained with me:
Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do and die:
Into the valley of death
Rode the six hundred.
You may wonder why a father would ask his expanding brood of what would become 11 children to memorize a poem about slaughter and war. I think there were three reasons. He wanted us to share his love of literature and he wanted us to embrace challenges that appear daunting. But most of all, he believed it imperative to question authority, and those who failed that lesson did so at their peril.
Kerry Kennedy
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Thanks for this DiAnne. My father always used to quote those lines. This probably happens in every war. I know it happened on April 25th, 1915 when the ANZACs (Australia New Zealand Army Corps) landed at ANZAC Cove (named later, of course) at Gallipoli in Turkey, to face an onslaught known to the British commanders giving the orders, but surprising the men. Every year legions of Australians and New Zealanders make the ANZAC Day journey to Gallipoli for the Dawn Service. Some to discover lost ancestors. Others to try and understand. All, I'm sure, to thank these soldiers for giving their lives through their trust in the leadership. And for teaching us this lesson that trust should never be given without question.
The enemy those the ANZACs were sent to kill? Turks. Turkey has maintained ANZAC cove as a memorial to its great friends Australia and New Zealand. It is maintained with respect, love and honour. And we are always welcomed there although our presence is playing havoc on the environment.
I'm sure every country on the planet has people to mourn who were led into definite death, being considered expendable in the quest for the greater good.
We are now great friends with our past enemies. When will people see that it is not the people of other lands who start wars with us; it is the leaders of all our countries who start wars with each other.