38 years ago today a great man was taken from us. RFK.

http://www.rfkmemorial.org/
I remember it like yesterday. My parents crying in front of the TV for another Kennedy.A native son of Boston who they campaigned for just like his brothers.
Just think what could have been with a smart, young, vibrant visionary like Bobby running the country.

myself and my schoolmates were crying that day, we all wrote in our little grade school yearbooks, Remember Bobby. He was a great person.

It's a memory that is crystal clear to this day.

I barely remember JFK's assassination, I was too small. I do remember the neighbor coming over crying, and she and my Mother sat and watched TV for much of the afternoon.

RIP, JFK and RFK. Neither of you were with us long enough.

I was 12 and still a bit shaken and confused by MLK's assasination two months prior.

I remember it well. Robert Kennedy challenged the mob and the klu klux klan. He never backed down. He had the courage to stand up for those who had no voice. What a tragedy for our country.

RIP Bobby.

He thought MLK was a communist.

Bobby and Jack had the great strength of still being able to learn. The day they died, they did not think the same way they thought in 1959, 1955, 1969 or even 1962. The greatest tragedy is that both were on the cusp of accomplishing their greatest work when they were taken from us.

RIP Bobby, and pray for us.

was my mom crying in front of the TV that night.

Just like you, I can remember this day very vividly. The California primary had been a very tough one between Bobby and Gene McCarthy and I went to bed that night before the final results were in.

The next morning my mother woke me for school and the first question I asked was "did Bobby win last night?" My mother said she didn't know and said let's turn on the TV and find out. She popped on the Today show and Frank Blair began the hourly newscast with a headline saying something like "Robert Kennedy has won the California primary...but that victory was clouded by the Senator being shot...neurologist have been called to examine the Senator to determine the extent of his injuries". I can see the look of horror on my mother's face and my asking her what this meant. She said, if there's a neurologist being called, he must have been shot in the head. She looked stunned and I could tell something was very, very wrong.

When I got to school, the TV in our classroom was already on...I was in 7th grade...and we watched all day in stunned disbelief and the Senator's life hung in the balance and each new report sounded worse and worse. I never knew what a Modula Oblmangata (pardon the spelling) was until that day...but soon did.

That school day seemed to last forever...I rushed home and there were my parents...totally stunned as we kept watching for the latest updates. My father was a physician and I recall him saying how severe he thought the damage was...and saying that even if Bobby were to survive, he'd have severe brain damage. When Frank Mancewicz came out with the announcement of the Senator's death that Wednesday evening, we became totally numb...totally saddened by the loss of a man we all supported and had hoped would be the next President combined with a sense of relief that whatever suffering he was enduring had ended. Even 38 years later, words can't describe the emptiness I felt that day...and what to do next.

While I liked Gene McCarthy, the bitter primary battles in California and Oregon had left a terrible taste in many mouths...and the only other alternatives for Democrats was either George Wallace...who we viewed as a racist...or Humphrey who as Johnson's toadie. Others felt this way as well as this was there was a search for a new Bobby...or at least someone who had similar views...and that person turned out to be George McGovern. Some may recall that McGovern's name was entered into the nomination at the Chicago convention, but it was too little too late.

Today when I see RFK Jr., I see his father...in his face and in his words. But there was no one who could replaee the man who offered so much hope to so many people. Many times I wonder if RFK had survived and won the nomination and the election, what a different world we'd be living in now...as opposed to the reign of Nixon that ensued.

Peace...

:patriot:

or at war in Iraq...for starters. A sad and sorry day.

*shadow government*

Can you tell me where he's go-o-o-o-ne.

I thought I saw him walking up
over the hill-ill
With Abraham, Martin and John.

For all the hate sent their way, the Kennedy's were bred to public service, not government rule. :(