I guess when I was a young buck I was drawn to Robert Kennedy cause of the whole scrappy younger brother in the shadows underdog blah blah blah stuff. But as I've grown up I am more drawn to things we saw from him at the end of his life - his war on poverty (Bed-Stuy Reclamation project and travels throughout the Delta and Appalachia in particular), his endearment to minorities and the disaffected, his work with civil rights and social justice. Foreign non-aggression along with social improvements within. And a premium on basic human rights above all else. Christ, is there another Presidential campaign ever that can be the film to "Chimes of Freedom"? He seemed to intuit the coming of change and, more importantly, on whose shoulders it should be on:
"Our answer is the world's hope; it is to rely on youth. The cruelties and the obstacles of this swiftly changing planet will not yield to obsolete dogmas and outworn slogans. It cannot be moved by those who cling to a present which is already dying, who prefer the illusion of security to the excitement and danger which comes with even the most peaceful progress. This world demands the qualities of youth: not a time of life but a state of mind, a temper of the will, a quality of the imagination, a predominance of courage over timidity, of the appetite for adventure over the love of ease."
Also his shattered years after his brother's death remind us that even in the brightest of lives there is a blackness of grief, a sadness that hangs over us all. All life ends in this blackness, but until then all you can do is push for some sort of hope, I reckon.
"In our sleep, pain which cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart until, in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of God."
My superslice:
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