40 years ago......

[venray]

It was forty years ago that 2 great men fought for the rights of everyone and worked hard towards bringing Americans together....

Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy were both cut down while trying to make the country a better place for all of us to live together....

Since then we have come a long way....it has been a slow and painful process for many.....We still have a very long way to go....

Thoughts?.....

 

[venray]

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[slacker2114]

All this happened years before I was born. But from what I've always seen about Bobby Kennedy and Rev. King showed that they were true leaders. The kind that were hell bent on changing the status quo and helping ALL their fellow mankind.

I find it sad and disheartening that leaders like them don't exist anymore. Instead of someone we can look to for real leadership and guidance, we can only hope for the lesser of two evils and simply watch the next fuck-up/scandal that they'll create.

People like King and Kennedy gave us hope and tried to bring about change for the better. I think collectively, Americans are holding onto the dream that someone like them will rise again to lead us out of the darkness of our modern civilization and not end up on the wrong end of a gun wielded by one who fears the type of change they would bring.

I know I do.

 

[venray]

Well said my friend...

I was almost 15 when we lost them....America mourned and rioting broke out and turmoil ensued...

It was difficult to comprehend how people could take the lives of those that only wanted to lead people out of darkness...

It has gotten no easier to comprehend with the passing of time....

But we must not only cling to the hope that such leaders among men will rise again..we must not "settle" .... we need to take action as a nation to start doing right by people....all people....everywhere....

 

[subtle_feather]

Great post Venray. I think Einstein may have said it best:

"Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are even incapable of forming such opinions."

 

[TonyInMyThroat]

I was almost 15 when we lost them

Well the way some talk around here, I would have thought you were closer to thirty at the time ... 🙄

I was in second grade when MLK was shot, and I remember our teacher Sister Mary Ursula asked us to watch the funeral if possible.

I watched from start to finish (to the amazement of my Mother), and remember feeling very sad without really understanding the impact this was going to have.

The interesting thing is I don’t remember being asked to do the same for RFK, even though I’m sure school was still in session on this date.

I have no direct recollection of RFK’s assassination, and it makes me wonder why the two would have been treated differently by the Catholic school. 😕

 

[brianspencer66]

I think we may be upon that time once again. It is truly astonishing that an African American is now the front runner for and democratic nominee for president. Its also astonishing that young people are now registering to vote in record numbers. It truly is time for a change and people are once again tired of the status quo. If it was not for the hope that Bobby Kennedy instilled in many americans and the dreams that Dr King had there would never have been a Black man or a Woman running for the highest office in the world.

 

[venray]

I couldnt agree with you more Brian..i see a possibility for real change if the political machines let it happen....

We need to keep an eye out....

 

[xionking]

It was because of your civil rights movement that made the Australian Government take a look at the way they were treating my Indigenous people. Had it not been for your civil rights movement and the media's international reaction from it, perhaps the 'Stolen Generation' in Australia may not have come to an end. If that had been the case, I would never have been born.

Thanks God for international relations.😱

 

[JPie1]

Thank god we are still a democratic nation even though our politics have now been in hands of people with questionable intentions. The thank god is due to the fact that we can make a change, we can make a difference if everyone exercises the rights we have here in America. The ideas and wonderfully astute thinking of RFK and MLK are valid today and always. It is time people stand up and be counted, everyone of us. Do not judge by gender, or race but what people stand for. This is America, we do have a choice. I for one know it is time for a radical change and bring forth the ideas that these 2 amazing human beings longed for.

 

[Dave2112]

The world lost two potential heroes of society when we lost these two men. What things could have happened? Where could we have wound up? Who knows?

More importantly, where do we go now? Is the ability to heal really out of our hands at this point, or do we take a lesson from these men and put aside our differences and fight for real change, real brotherhood? Is it enough to just quote them, tell everybody you believe in what they said and represented...or do we actually act upon it? Sadly, it seems more of the former.

I'm still moved by Bobby Kennedy's impromptu speech in Indianapolis upon hearing that MLK had been assasinated. In front of an all-black crowd in the middle of the night, a crowd without Internet access and had yet to even hear of the untimely death...Bobby stood forth, without heightened security, and delivered the news. That speech is still etched in my brain. And on that night, rioting did break out across the country. Except in Indianapolis.

Hard to believe it's been 40 years and we haven't learned as much as we'd like to think we have.

 

[Bugman]

I was 13 that summer.I had spent the night at my friend Bills house,and we awoke well before dawn and rode our bicycles to the corner where Bill picked up the newspapers for his route.Thats when we found out what had happened the night before.

I also remember well the day Dr. King died.My class was at a theater in downtown Kansas City Missouri watching Dr. Zhivago as part of our study of the Soviet Union.The Kansas City police took us to our bus and escorted us back to the county line due to the fear of violence which did break out later that day.

Two men,who only wanted too do good for others cut down in their prime by madmen.One wonders what might have been.

Some look at the world and ask why?I look at the world and ask,why not.
Robert Kennedy.

 

[featherfingers]

I can't add to what has already been said because everyone has said what I'd want to say, but maybe this video will be a welcome addition to the comments and videos already posted on this thread:
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