Robert F. Kennedy
The Dream Lives!

America All of us , from the wealthiest and most powerful of men, to the weakest and hungriest of children, share one precious possession: the name American. RFK, NY,12-14-67 As long as men are not free--in their lives and their opinions, their speech and knowledge-- that long will the American Revolution not be finished. RFK, Queens College, NY, 6-15-65 Our gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education, or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strenght of our marriages, the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our wit nor our courage, neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country; it measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worth while. And it can tell us everything about America except why we are proud that we are Americans. RFK, University of Kansas, 3-18-67 Challenge "On this generation of Americans falls the burden of proving to the world that we really mean it when we say all men are created free and are equal before the law. All of us might wish at times that we lived in a more tranquil world, but we don't. And if our times are difficult and perplexing, so are they challenging and filled with opportunity." Citizenship "Since the days of Greece and Rome when the word 'citizen' was a title of honor, we have often seen more emphasis put on the rights of citizenship than on its responsibilities. And today, as never before in the free world, responsibility is the greatest right of citizenship and service is the greatest of freedom's privileges." Crisis You can hear the fabric ripping... RFK Death Of Martin Luther King Jr. I have bad news for you, for all of our fellow citizens, and people who love peace all over the world, and that is that Martin Luther King was shot and killed tonight. Martin Luther King dedicated his life to love and to justice for his fellow human beings, and he died because of that effort. In this difficult day, in this difficult time for the United States, it is perhaps well to ask what kind of a nation we are and what direction we want to move in. For those of you who are black -- considering the evidence their evidently is that there were white people who were responsible -- you can be filled with bitterness, with hatred, and a desire for revenge. We can move in that direction as a country, in great polarization -- black people amongst black, white people amongst white, filled with hatred toward one another. Or we can make an effort, as Martin Luther King did, to understand and to comprehend, and to replace that violence, that stain of bloodshed that has spread across our land, with an effort to understand with compassion and love. For those of you who are black and are tempted to be filled with hatred and distrust at the injustice of such an act, against all white people, I can only say that I feel in my own heart the same kind of feeling. I had a member of my family killed, but he was killed by a white man. But we have to make an effort in the United States, we have to make an effort to understand, to go beyond these rather difficult times. My favorite poet was Aeschylus. He wrote: "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." What we need in the United States is not division; what we need in the United States is not hatred; what we need in the United States is not violence or lawlessness; but love and wisdom, and compassion toward one another, and a feeling of justice toward those who still suffer within our country, whether they be white or they be black. So I shall ask you tonight to return home, to say a prayer for the family of Martin Luther King, that's true, but more importantly to say a prayer for our own country, which all of us love -- a prayer for understanding and that compassion of which I spoke. We can do well in this country. We will have difficult times; we've had difficult times in the past; we will have difficult times in the future. It is not the end of violence; it is not the end of lawlessness; it is not the end of disorder. But the vast majority of white people and the vast majority of black people in this country want to live together, want to improve the quality of our life, and want justice for all human beings who abide in our land. Let us dedicate to ourselves to what the Greeks wrote so many years ago: to tame the savageness of man and make gentle the life of this world. Let us dedicate ourselves to that, and say a prayer for our country and for our people. Democracy "Democracy is no easy form of government. Few nations have been able to sustain it. For it requires that we take the chances of freedom; that the liberating play of reason be brought to bear on events filled with passion; that dissent be allowed to make its appeal for acceptance; that men chance error in their search for the truth." Democratic Party "And as long as America must choose, that long will there be a need and a place for the Democratic Party. We Democrats can run on our record but we cannot rest on it. We will win if we continue to take the initiative and if we carry the message of hope and action throughout the country. Alexander Smith once said, 'A man doesn't plant a tree for himself. He plants it for posterity. ' Let us continue to plant, and our children shall reap the harvest. That is our destiny as Democrats." Dissent "The sharpest criticism often goes hand in hand with the deepest idealism and love of country." Divisions "I think we can end the divisions within the United States. What I think is quite clear is that we can work together in the last analysis. And that what has been going on with the United States over the period of that last three years, the divisions, the violence, the disenchantment with our society, the divisions - whether it's between blacks and whites, between the poor and the more affluent, or between age groups, or in the war in Vietnam - that we can work together. We are a great country, an unselfish country and a compassionate country. And I intend to make that my basis for running." Equality "We must recognize the full human equality of all our people - before God, before the law, and in the councils of government. We must do this not because it is economically advantageous - although it is; not because the laws of God and man command it - although they do command it; not because people in other lands wish it so. We must do it for the single and fundamental reason that it is the right thing to do." Extremists What is objectionable, what is dangerous about extremists is not that they are extream, but that they are intolerant. The evil is not what they say about their causes, but what they say about their opponents. RFK 1964 Future The future is not a gift: it is an achievement. Every generation helps make its own future. This is the essential challenge of the present." "The future does not belong to those who are content with today, apathetic toward common problems and their fellow man alike, timid and fearful in the face of bold projects and new ideas. Rather, it will belong to those who can blend passion, reason and courage in a personal commitment to the great enterprises and ideals of American society." Greatness "Only those who dare to fail greatly, can ever achieve greatly." Individualism At the heart of that Western freedom and democracy is the belief that the individual man, the child of God, is the touchstone of value, and all society, groups, the state, exist for his benefit. Therefore the enlargement of liberty for individual human beings must be the supream goal and the abiding practice of any Western society. Robert F. Kennedy 'Day of Affirmation' address University of Cape Town, South Africa, June 6th, 66 First, is the danger of futility; the belief there is nothing one man or woman can do against the enormous array of the worlds ills--against misery and ignorance, injustice and violence. Yet many of the world's great movements, of thought and action, have flowed from the work of a single man. A young monk began the Protestant Reformation, a young general extended an empire from Macedonia to the borders of the earth, and a young woman reclaimed the territory of France. It was a young Italian explorer who discovered the New World, and the thirty-two year old Thomas Jefferson who proclaimed that all men are created equal. Robert F. Kennedy 6-6-1966 Johnson, Lyndon "How do you tell if Lyndon is lying? If he wiggles his ears, that doesn't mean he's lying. If he raises his eyebrows, that doesn't mean he's lying. But when he moves his lips, he's lying.'' Robert F. Kennedy Source:http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/08/08 /INGKA828N61.DTL Labor You knew that what is given or granted can be taken away, that what is begged can be refused; but that what is earned is kept. Robert F. Kennedy, 12-10-1966 Leadership "People are selfish, but they can also be compassionate and generous, and they care about the country. But not when they feel threatened. That's why this is such a crucial time. We can go in either direction. But if we don't make a choice soon, it will be too late to turn things around. I think people are willing to make the right choice. But they need leadership. They're hungry for leadership." RFK http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?ItemID=16981 Liberty Every dictatorship has ultimately strangled in the web of repression it wove for its people, making mistakes that could not be corrected because criticism was prohibited. Robert F. Kennedy 'Value of Dissent' Speech Nashville Tenn, 3-21-1968 Nations around the world look to us for the leadership not merely by strenght of arms but by strenght of our convictions. Robert F. Kennedy We know that if one man's rights are denied, the rights of all are endangered. Robert F. Kennedy, 5-6-1961 President Kennedy When there were difficulties, you sustained him. When there were periods of crisis, you stood beside him. When there were periods of happiness, you laughed with him. And when there were periods of sorrow, you comforted him. RFK, thanking young people for supporting his brother, President Kennedy, 8-27-64 Nations "Nations, like men, often march to the beat of different drummers, and the precise solutions of the United States can neither be dictated nor transplanted to others. What is important is that all nations must march toward a increasing freedom; toward justice for all; toward a society strong and flexible enough to meet the demands of all of its own people, and a world of immense and dizzying change One Fifth One-fifth of the people are against everything all the time. Past,Present, and Future There are people in every time and every land who want to stop history in its tracts. They fear the future, mistrust the present, and invoke the security of the comfortable past which , in fact, never existed. Robert F. Kennedy, 6-8-64 Political Parties The Democratic Party...presents its case on a strong platform and strong candidates, on a proven record of past accomplishment, on the evidence that it alone has the vision and boldness to meet the challenge of leadership of the free world. Robert F. Kennedy, Boston Mass 8-2-1960 In this entire century the Democratic Party has never been invested with power on the basis of a program which promised to keep things as they were. We have won when we pledged to meet the new challenges of each succeeding year. We have triumphed not in spite of controversy, but because of it; not because we avoided problems, but because we faced them. We have won, not because we bent and diluted our principles, but because we stood fast to the ideals which represent the most noble and generous portion of the American spirit. Robert F. Kennedy Parties are instruments of government....The business of parties is not just win elections. It is to govern. And a party cannot govern if it is disunited. Robert F. Kennedy, Kings County Democratic dinner Brooklyn, NY, 1965 Politics and Diplomacy He knows all the facts, and he's against all the solutions. Robert F. Kennedy, referring to Daniel Patrick Moynihan Poverty "I believe that, as long as there is plenty, poverty is evil." And there was not only the violence of the shot in the night. Slower but just as deadly, [Martin Luther King Jr.] said, was 'the violence of institutions....This is the violence that afflicts the poor, that poisons relations between men because their skin has different colors. This is a slow destruction of a child by hunger...the breaking of a man's spirit by denying him the chance to stand as a father and as a man among men.' So much at least was clear: 'Violence breeds violence, repression brings retaliation, and only a cleaning of our whole society can remove this sickness from our soul.' Robert F. Kennedy, Cleveland City Club, 4-5-1968 Power and the Public "The problem of power is how to achieve its responsible use rather than its irresponsible and indulgent use -- of how to get men of power to live for the public rather than off the public." -- Robert F. Kennedy (1925-1968), US Senator, Attorney General Source: 'I Remember, I Believe,' The Pursuit of Justice, 1964 Progress and Change 'If men do not build,' asks the poet, 'how shall they live?' Robert F. Kennedy, 12-10-1966 Men without hope, resigned to despair and oppression, do not make revolutions. It is when expectation replaces submission, when despair is touched with the awareness of possibility, that the forces of human desire and the passion for justice are unloosed. Robert F. Kennedy, Berkeley, 10-22-1966 A revolution is coming--a revolution which will be peaceful if we are wise enough; compassionate if we care enough; successful if we are fourtunate enough-- But a revolution which is coming whether we will it or not. We can affect its character; we cannot alter its inevitability. Robert F. Kennedy, US Senate, 5-9-1966 We can master change not though force or fear, but only though the free work of an understanding mind, though an openness to new knowledge and fresh outlooks, which can only strengthen the most fragile and most powerful of human gifts: the gift of reason. Robert F. Kennedy, Johannesburg, South Africa June 8,1966 Quality Of Life "Too much and too long, we seem to have surrendered community excellence and community values in the mere accumulation of material things. Our gross national product ... if we should judge America by that - counts air pollution and cigarette advertising, and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage. It counts special locks for our doors and the jails for those who break them. It counts the destruction of our redwoods and the loss of our natural wonder in chaotic sprawl. It counts napalm and the cost of a nuclear warhead, and armored cars for police who fight riots in our streets. It counts Whitman's rifle and Speck's knife, and the television programs which glorify violence in order to sell toys to our children. "Yet the gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education, or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages; the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our wit nor our courage; neither our wisdom nor our learning; neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country; it measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile. And it tells us everything about America except why we are proud that we are Americans." Ripple of Hope "Few will have the greatness to bend history; but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total of all those acts will be written the history of this generation ... It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is thus shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance." Society Another great task is to confront the poverty of satisfaction--a lack of purpose and dignity--that afflicts us all. Too much and too long, we seem to have surrendered community excellence and community values in the mere accumulation of material things. RFK, Univ of Kansas, 3-18-68 Truth "Fear not the path of truth for the lack of people walking on it." June 6th, 1968 The last speech he gave... Unity That which unites us is, must be, stronger than that which divides us. We can concentrate on what unites us, and secure the future for all our children; or we can concentrate on what devides us, and fail our duty through argument and resentment and waste. RFK Urban Affairs The plight of the cities--their physical decay and human despair that pervades them--is the great internal problem of the American nation, a challenge which must be met. RFK Buffalo NY, 1-20-67 Violence and Lawlessness "What has violence ever accomplished? What has it ever created? No martyr's cause has ever been stilled by an assassin's bullet. No wrongs have ever been righted by riots and civil disorders. A sniper is only a coward, not a hero; and an uncontrolled, uncontrollable mob is only the voice of madness, not the voice of reason. Whenever any American's life is taken by another American unnecessarily - whether it is done in the name of the law or in the defiance of the law, by one man or a gang, in cold blood or in passion, in an attack of violence or in response to violence - whenever we tear at the fabric of the life which another man has painfully and clumsily woven for himself and his children, the whole nation is degraded." Vietnam War Our brave young men are dying in the swamps of Southeast Asia. Which of them might have written a poem? Which of them might have cured cancer? Which of them might have played in a World Series or given us the gift of laughter from the stage or helped build a bridge or a university? Which of them would have taught a child to read? It is our responsibility to let these men live.... It is indecent if they die because of the empty vanity of their country. RFK, Vietnam War speech, Calif, 3-24-68 Voice Of The People "All great questions must be raised by great voices, and the greatest voice is the voice of the people - speaking out - in prose, or painting or poetry or music; speaking out - in homes and halls, streets and farms, courts and cafes - let that voice speak and the stillness you hear will be the gratitude of mankind." Robert F. Kennedy Source: Address, New York City, January 22, 1963. War The advice 'bomb them back to the Stone Age' may show that the speaker is already there himself, but it could, if followed, force all of us to join him. RFK Punishment is not prevention. History offers cold comfort to those who think grievance and despair can be subdued by force. RFK, To Seek a New World, 1967 Youth My views on birth control are somewhat distorted by the fact that I was seventh of nine children. RFK Our answer is the world's hope; it is to rely on youth. The cruelties and 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 perfer the illusion of security to the excitement of danger. It 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. RFK, Cape Town, South Africa, June 6th, 1966 A Brother's Good Bye "My brother need not be idealized, or enlarged in death beyond what he was in life, to be rememberd simply as a good decent man, who saw wrong and tried to right it, saw suffering and tried to heal it, saw war and tried to stop it. "Those of us, who loved him and who take him to his rest today pray that what he was to us and what he wished for others will someday come to pass for all the world. "As he said many times, in many parts of this nation, to those he touched and who sought to touch him: 'Some men see things as they are and say why. I dream things that never were and say why not.'" Edward Kennedy get your free guestbook view my guestbook sign my guestbook free guestbook Mail James Richard Howington

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