Passionate dreaming

Jeff Walker
Published: June 3, 2008

“Some men see things as they are and ask ‘Why?’ I dream things that never were and ask, ‘Why not?’”
— Robert F. Kennedy, 1968

Forget partisan politics for a few minutes. You have to admit, we need a strong leader — and I do not care what party they represent.

In looking at leaders and politicians from my own lifetime, I have been thinking a lot about one who did not live to his full potential: Robert Francis Kennedy.

Forty years ago today, Kennedy won the California presidential primary. In the early hours of June 5, 1968, he was fatally shot in a hotel kitchen, moments after celebrating his victory.

Bobby Kennedy did not live to see another primary victory or gain his party’s nomination. Nor did he get to debate other candidates for the highest office in the land. But from his position as a member of an elite family, this veteran, former attorney general and junior senator seemed destined to follow his older brother John into the White House.

What kind of president would the third youngest Kennedy sibling have made?

According to family friends and former colleagues, RFK was the most devout brother among the Roman Catholic family.

Kennedy insider Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. said his Catholicism informed many of his decisions, including his decision to re-enter politics after JFK’s death. Bobby was not afraid to speak openly of his faith.

He was against big-government and the dependence of the poor on welfare. On a recent CBS “Sunday Morning” broadcast, political analyst Monica Crowley said Robert Kennedy was not a typical liberal. “The truth is, he was much more complex ideologically than that. He delivered withering and blistering and continual criticism of big government, anti-poverty efforts.”

During his time as attorney-general, he displayed strength and ruthlessness toward corrupt labor boss Jimmy Hoffa and various leaders of organized crime. Former Attorney General John Ashcroft said Kennedy was a man who wanted “justice for all Americans. He was unafraid of calling his enemies evil.”

Biographer Schlesinger observed that after John’s assassination, something inside Bobby shifted. There was a time when “I did not lie awake nights concerned about the plight of minorities.” RFK became passionate about the plight of minorities and the poor. He visited migrant workers on the Mississippi Delta, and the poorest communities of Appalachia.

One of Bobby’s Senate aides, Peter Edelman, said on “Sunday Morning,” “Robert Kennedy always had an instinct for the outsider and it turned out that what he really cared about was people all over this world who don’t have a fair shake.”

When he announced in March 1968 that he was going to run for President, Kennedy said, “I do not run for the presidency merely to oppose any man, but to propose new policies. I run because I am convinced that this country is on a perilous course and because I have such strong feelings about what must be done, and I feel that I’m obliged to do all I can.”

Robert seemed to find a new passion for the common people of America, and they too responded to him. He spoke from the heart, and in his short presidential campaign, he would draw crowds that seemed to want a piece of him. Yet he would take the time to listen carefully to a child or a senior citizen in the midst of a tumultuous mob.

Many years after his death, President George W. Bush re-named the U.S. Justice Building in Washington, D.C., for Robert Kennedy. “To millions who never knew him,” Bush said, “he’s still an example of kindness and courage.”

Kind. Courageous. Passionate. Compassionate. Devout. Followed the strength of his convictions. The ability to listen. Fighting for the rights of all Americans.
Where is the man or woman who has these qualities? When will they step into the arena?

Dream and ask yourself, “Why not?”

Jeff Walker is an independent columnist who lives in Culpeper. He appears every other Wednesday in the
Star-Exponent. E-mail