Bobby Kennedy's speech after MLK's assassination

New Topic
This topic has been archived, and won't accept reply postings.
 Bobling 02 Jun 2020

youtube.com/watch?v=GoKzCff8Zbs&

Compare and contrast Donald.  Didn't ANY of your staffers watch this before you took to the airwaves last night?

Full text (but it's better to watch):

"Ladies and Gentlemen,

I'm only going to talk to you just for a minute or so this evening, because I have some -- some very sad news for all of you -- Could you lower those signs, please? -- I have some very sad news for all of you, and, I think, sad news 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 was killed tonight in Memphis, Tennessee.

Martin Luther King dedicated his life to love and to justice between fellow human beings. He died in the cause of that effort. In this difficult day, in this difficult time for the United States, it's 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 evidently is that there were white people who were responsible -- you can be filled with bitterness, and with hatred, and a desire for revenge.

We can move in that direction as a country, in greater polarization -- black people amongst blacks, and white amongst whites, filled with hatred toward one another. Or we can make an effort, as Martin Luther King did, to understand, and to comprehend, and replace that violence, that stain of bloodshed that has spread across our land, with an effort to understand, compassion, and love.

For those of you who are black and are tempted to fill with -- be filled with hatred and mistrust of the injustice of such an act, against all white people, I would only say that I can also 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 get beyond, or go beyond these rather difficult times.

My favorite poem, my -- my favorite poet was Aeschylus. And he once wrote:

Even 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 and lawlessness, but is 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 whether they be black.

So I ask you tonight to return home, to say a prayer for the family of Martin Luther King -- yeah, it'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, but we -- and we will have difficult times in the future. It is not the end of violence; it is not the end of lawlessness; and it's 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 that abide in our land.

And let's dedicate 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.

Thank you very much."

And allegedly he wrote that in the back of the car on the way there.  What a loss.

In reply to Bobling:

Well said, but that translation of Aeschylus is unbelievable. I'm not sure I even recognise the original, but I'm confident that whatever Aeschylus was saying, he wasn't talking about God in a monotheistic sense, nor I suspect as a merciful figure.

I see from the Google that I am not the first to have made this observation.

jcm

1
 Cobra_Head 02 Jun 2020
In reply to Bobling:

Gassed peaceful protestors to get a photo of himself outside a church he doesn't go to, holding a book he doesn't read.

Thank fook I'm not an American.

 John2 02 Jun 2020
In reply to johncoxmysteriously:

Agamemnon act 2 lines 175-183.

Obviously Agamemnon is not talking about the Christian gods, but about the Greek pantheon. Kennedy has presumably altered the translation slightly so that it will be more easily comprehended by his God-fearing audience.

δαιμόνων δέ που χάρις βίαιος
σέλμα σεμνὸν ἡμένων

In reply to John2:

I don't think Kennedy did alter it, or not in that way - it seems to have been the original American translation which Christianised it.

jcm

 Andy Hardy 02 Jun 2020
In reply to Bobling:

I remember when the BBC had "I, Claudius" on wondering what it would have been like to live as a pleb in Rome with an unhinged Caesar with absolute power ruling by caprice.

I think I know now 🙁

1
 Dave Garnett 02 Jun 2020
In reply to John2:

> Agamemnon act 2 lines 175-183.

> Obviously Agamemnon is not talking about the Christian gods, but about the Greek pantheon. Kennedy has presumably altered the translation slightly so that it will be more easily comprehended by his God-fearing audience.

> δαιμόνων δέ που χάρις βίαιος

> σέλμα σεμνὸν ἡμένων

And if he did it in the back of a car we can give him some latitude!

Post edited at 13:06
OP Bobling 02 Jun 2020
In reply to Andy Hardy:

Yup, if trump had a horse he would make it a senator...

 John2 02 Jun 2020
In reply to Dave Garnett:

The translation wasn't Kennedy's own - it was Edith Hamilton's. https://medium.com/@twmerrigan/robert-f-kennedy-and-the-ancient-greeks-of-e... .

I'm not sure than Kennedy ever studied Greek.

OP Bobling 02 Jun 2020
In reply to John2:

No, I think he specialised in Latin, at the very least he wrote my copy of Kennedy's Latin Primer didn't they? QED.

In reply to Bobling:

It's a strange eulogy considering that Bobby Kennedy had previously thought that MLK was a Communist spy in the employ of the Kremlin and had authorised surveillance and wire taps on him, his family and his associates.

Al

 John2 02 Jun 2020
In reply to Bobling:

Very good. Altered by generations of schoolchildren to Kennedy's Eating Primer.

 Andy Johnson 02 Jun 2020
In reply to Bobling:

> Or we can make an effort, as Martin Luther King did, to understand, and to comprehend, and replace that violence, that stain of bloodshed that has spread across our land, with an effort to understand, compassion, and love.

Noble words (really) but its been 52 years and it hasn't worked. What are people supposed to do? I'm not saying you have to have the answer, just that its not clear to me that calling for more understanding and compassion and love is going to solve this.

The US today is clearly a better place for people of colour than it was back then, but non-white people still face extrajudicial killing every day from state forces. And life-limiting discrimination from all sides.

What do you do when the reward system for the people who could change things acts to prevent meaningful change. I wish people  didn't have to take to the streets, and honestly I can't see it ending well, but their society (along with others) seems to be stuck in a hole..

Roadrunner6 02 Jun 2020
In reply to Bobling:

youtube.com/watch?v=7pbEBxQPWGc&

Obama after the race murders in Charleston. That's how you unite.

Roadrunner6 02 Jun 2020
In reply to Andy Johnson:

It's not just the killing.

We see the few that get filmed, and the brutality that goes too far, we don't see those that don't get filmed, we don't see those that just get a kicking, we don't see those detained for 'looking like someone who has a warrant out', we don't see those detained for months pre-trial for a trivial amount of bail they can't afford.

As a white guy, I get caught drunk, thrown in a cell to sober up, bought a burger king and released. Black youth's don't get those let offs.

God knows what the solution is, but after Trump's act last night I'll be going to the next local protests. I've never attended a protest before but I can't stand by.. As an immigrant non-citizen I really didn't want to take the risk but I can't stand by.

In reply to Roadrunner6:

That little snippet is just the highlight of what was a brilliantly eloquent speech.

What a contrast to the bile that pours from Trump. How did we get from there to here so quickly?

Roadrunner6 02 Jun 2020
In reply to captain paranoia:

I just had an amazing class with my freshman Env Sci class.

45 minutes talking about this and how they won't stop and they are fed up of basic human rights being politicized. They talked about how little has changed since the 1992 Rodney King riots. Just amazing to listen to such educated, independently minded youth. 

 Luke90 02 Jun 2020
In reply to Andy Johnson:

> its not clear to me that calling for more understanding and compassion and love is going to solve this. 

Empty calls for love and compassion aren't enough to improve the situation, but they'd certainly be a big improvement over Trump's explicit calls for more violence! And, in fact, actually directly causing violence against peaceful protesters to get his photo opportunity.

OP Bobling 02 Jun 2020
In reply to Roadrunner6:

Wow never seen that before.  He was preaching for a few minutes there.  As you say how did it go from the elation of the Obama inauguration to...this.


New Topic
This topic has been archived, and won't accept reply postings.
Loading Notifications...