We hardly knew thee, Bobby

If you didn't already know, today June 5, 2008, is the 40th anniversary of Bobby Kennedy being shot. (He didn't die until the 6th. I believe he was shot around 15 minutes to midnight.) It is often mentioned by the media that he was shot the night of the California primary. That is certainly true, but to a Jew and a Zionist, there is another significance to June 5. June 5, 1967, was the start of the 6 Day War in Israel. I don't believe this was a coincidence. During Israel's struggle for survival in 1967 (and of course when you're surrounded by enemies who don't recognize your right to exist as a country, every war is a struggle for survival), she had no bigger supporter in the United States Senate that Bobby Kennedy. His assassin, Sirhan Bishara Sirhan, identified his nationality as Palestinian. (The media at the time reported his nationality as Jordanian, as US government policy then did not recognize Palestinian as a nationality.) Sirhan mentioned Kennedy's support for Israel as his motivation for killing him. I think it is fair for us to say that Bobby Kennedy was not merely a great political leader who was assassinated, but the first American victim of Palestinian terrorism.

When Sirhan pulled that trigger, he shot so much more than just Bobby Kennedy. For a time in the 1960s, a generation believed they could change the world. The young people would rally together for peace, equality and justice. Together we could work to end war, racism and poverty. People stood for something other than themselves. No one represented this spirit of the 1960s more than Bobby Kennedy. He knew that government could be a real force of good in the world. He knew that politics was about more than winning elections, it was about making the world a better place. I'm always touched by his last words. On that fateful night in 1968, after he had been shot, lying on the ground with a bullet in his head, soon to go unconscious and never wake up, the last words he uttered were "Is everyone OK?" To the end, all he wanted to do was help people. *sigh* they just don't make politicians like that anymore. I'm also always inspired by the story of how one time some constituents, working poor, not eligible for welfare, came to meet with him. They told him about how hard they were working, but still had trouble earning enough to put food on the table for their families. Within a week, Bobby Kennedy introduced legislation for a new federal program known as "food stamps." No focus groups, no political calculations. He saw people in need, and knew he had to help them.
Here's a speech he made during the presidential campaign that was always one of my favorites:

"Truly we have a great gross national product, almost 800 billion dollars, but can that be the criterion by which we judge this country? Is it enough? For the gross national product counts air pollution and cigarette advertising and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage. It counts special locks for our doors and jails for the people who break them. It counts Whitman's rifle and Speck's knife and television programs, which glorify violence in order to sell toys to our children. And the gross national product, the gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education, the joy of their play. It is indifferent to the decency of our factories and the safety of our streets alike. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages, the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither wit nor courage, neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our compassion nor our duty to our country. It measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile, and it can tell us everything about America, except why we are proud to be Americans."

If only politicians still talked this way, still recognized it was our responsibility to help those who have no one else to help them. I can never help but wonder how history would have been different if Bobby Kennedy had not been assassinated. He certainly would have won that election in 1968. We would have pulled out of Vietnam at least 5 years earlier than we did and the lives of at least 30000 young American men and women would have been spared. Just think of all the contributions they could have made. The prolonged conflict in Vietnam drove up anti-American sentiment in Asia, strengthened the communist position there, led to the eventual fall of Cambodia and Laos. Maybe if Bobby Kennedy hadn't been assassinated, Russia would have been weaker, and America would have won the cold war sooner. Wars aren't always won by fighting. If Bobby Kennedy was president, we never would have seen the corruption of Richard Nixon, which means Jimmy Carter would probably never have become president. And without the failures of the Carter administration, Ronald Reagan probably never would have become president either. That one bullet from the gun of Sirhan Sirhan changed so much of American history. Sometimes, I've thought about writing a novel with an alternative history where Bobby Kennedy wasn't shot, but then, I'm not much of a novelist.

Bobby Kennedy's death was the end of an era. It was an era that was just getting started when John was killed. It was an era that was devastated when Martin was killed, but knew it had to go on. It just couldn't go on past Bobby's death though. That bullet shattered the dreams of a generation. It shattered the hopes of a better of future. It shattered whatever trust remained in the goodness of humankind. It hopelessly divided the Democratic party, wounds from which they are still recovering.

As we shed a tear today for Bobby Kennedy, let us remember that the best way to honor his memory is through action, not words. Politicians today may not be Bobby Kennedy, but they are still fighting important fights. Today's battle to bring health care to the millions of Americans who still cannot afford it in the richest nation in the world, is just as significant today, as Food Stamps were in 1968. And the Republicans are just as against any kind of progress today as they ever were. Sure they'll couch their arguments in terms of economics, business, taxes, freedom, responsibility, small government, or whatever the buzzword of the day is, but it always seems to boil down to feeling no responsibility to help the less fortunate. People finally seem to be catching on. This could be the year that a united Democratic party finally finishes the job Bobby Kennedy laid out for it in 1968. What better tribute could there be to the 40th anniversary of Bobby Kennedy's death than to give them that opportunity. I'm sure it's what he would have wanted.

"Has anybody here seen my old friend Bobby? Can you tell me where he's gone? I think I saw him walking up over the hill, with Abraham, Martin, and John."
-Abraham, Martin, and John