Robert F Kennedy's speech, On the Mindless Menace of Violence, delivered on the night of 5 April, 1968 in the City Club in Cleveland, Ohio is truly a magnificent piece of rhetoric. Conveyed in the attractive, thick Boston accent with broad A's and non-existent R's; his voice remains steady, but with difficulty, suppressing the passion, fury and zeal that bubbles underneath. He was a man of his generation, emanating the spirit of the sixties, he embodied the Baby Boomer's hopes - cessation of the Vietnam War, avocation of civil rights, tackling the establishment and ridding society of the ills of violence and poverty. Handsome and compelling with little, cute Ethel by his side, he stood amongst the people speaking with them, not to them. They were like two tiny sentinels of peace - they were so gripping. They made you believe, made you want to believe that togetherness was possible and that together nothing was impossible.
Deceptively he appeared small and fragile but make no mistake, Bobby was tough, he stood up David style to the Goliaths of corrupt unions, mafia, massive corporations, racism, poverty and foreign threats. He became Attorney General in 1960, not before or since as that office held such power and clear influence on areas of policy. Hoffa huffed and puffed bravado about his televised hearings with Bobby in the chair, but it was Hoffa squirming as the fresh faced Bobby refused to be intimidated or indeed be thrown a loop. He kept a cool head in the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1963, JFK looking to him for the advice that would ultimately sway him. The two brothers glancing into one another's eyes and knowing what the other was thinking, this implicit trust was paramount in avoiding the unthinkable that the crisis threatened. He immersed himself in the promotion of the civil rights movement, influencing JFK in the process, persuading him of the urgency and importance of ensuring that civil rights was of primary significance. He was far removed from the little brother tag which some detractors had labelled him with.
However, it was JFK who brought him into the political arena, persuading him to leave an investigative position at the Department of Justice to organize his bid for the Senate. And indeed, following the tragic death of JFK, Bobby entered the Senate in 1964, to continue his brother's work and vision. It changed him as a man, unusually, for the better. He immersed himself in the rough and tumble of street politics, meeting people at grass roots level. Initially, perhaps he did so to garner support, to cement his place in the Senate or he may even have had secret desires on the White House. However, it soon became apparent that he agreed with the people, he adopted the view that America had been derailed and that the time was now to straighten course. He stressed that concentration on the issues of inequality, injustice and lack of freedom was necessary; he implored a turning away from consumerism, greed and materialism. It led him to running for the Democratic Party nomination to run for the Presidency in the 1968 election, seeking to challenge his brother's successor Lyndon B. Johnson. However, the chance to see this most interesting of politicians running America was cruelly extinguished. Robert F Kennedy was assassinated in the kitchens of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles on the night that he won the Californian primary.
Russell Shortt is a travel consultant with Exploring Ireland, the leading specialists in customised, private escorted tours, escorted coach tours and independent self drive tours of Ireland. Article source Russell Shortt,http://www.exploringireland.net |  |
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