04 July 2006

Happy Birthday, America!

Today's July 4th reading is Robert Kennedy's speech announcing his candidacy for President.

One would hope that in the 38 years since this speech, the problems he listed would be a thing of the past. Not so. In fact, you could replace the words "Vietnam" with "Iraq" and "Riot Commission" with "911 Commission" and the speech would be just as relevant right now.

Maybe in the next 38 years...

5 comments:

K. said...

this speech makes me cry.

WestEnder said...

RFK personified everything great about America. He was a hell of a man.

How can one not cry? Thinking back to RFK and comparing him to the churlish fools we have today...

Wes said...

My mother, who is as conservative as they come (and painfully so, to me - it has put a severe strain on our relationship the past few years), still gets misty-eyed when she talks about the time she heard RFK speak at the courthouse square in Bedford, IN in 1968.

One of the reasons I got involved with the Dean campaign (Those were good days, WestEnder, were they not?) is because he was Kennedyesque - BOBBY Kennedyesque.

WF

K. said...

that's exactly what drove me to the Dean campaign. there was an energy that seemed substantive, valuable, and made me think there was a "movement" about to begin.

then the media fucked him over, he dropped out of the race, and i've been struggling with my apathy ever since...

K. said...

agreed...