Press Clippings from Robert Kennedy's 80th Birthday Commemoration

Video:
Watch the Commemoration Reception:

MSNBC: Douglas Brinkley on RFK's Legacy:

Articles:
New Orleans Activist Wins RFK Award by Andrew Miga Associate Press
Family, Friends Pay Tribute to The Late Sen. Robert Kennedy, by Tim Taylor Roll Call Newspaper
Sen. Kennedy, friends celebrate RFK’s 80th, by Jeff Dufour The Hill Newspaper
ACORN organizer gets Robert F. Kennedy honor, The Advocate Newspaper Baton Rouge, LA

Op-Eds:
RFK: what we lost, by Philip W. Johnston Boston Globe
What would Robert Kennedy say about 2005?, by Joseph A. Palermo San Jose Mercury News
Robert Kennedy still teaches us, by Sam Beard Delaware News Journal
RFK: Bending history, by Joe Scarborough MSNBC.com
What America’s leaders can learn from Robert F. Kennedy, by Edwin Guthman & Paul Schrade
Remembering RFK and his call to action, by Dick Golden Barnestable Patriot Cape Cod, MA
Words and idealism of Robert Kennedy transcend partisanship, by Cary Clack San Antonio Express News

New Orleans Activist Wins RFK Award
By ANDREW MIGA
The Associated Press
November 16, 2005

WASHINGTON -- A New Orleans community organizer who has fought for the poorest victims of Hurricane Katrina received the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award on Wednesday.

Stephen Bradberry is the first black American bestowed the honor, which typically goes to activists overseas.

The 45-year-old Chicago native is the lead organizer for the New Orleans chapter of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now.
"I certainly don't consider the things I do to be anything extraordinary," Bradberry said at a Capitol Hill ceremony where he was presented with the award by Kennedy's brother, Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass.
"It's just a matter of putting on my pants and going to work every day," Bradberry said.

Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., told Bradberry, "You deserve this day in the sun," noting that his social activism plays to Robert Kennedy's vision of a better world.

"Somewhere there's always been people like Steve Bradberry who believe that this isn't the way it's supposed to be," Obama said. "People who believe that while evil and suffering will always exist, this is a country that has been fueled by small miracles and boundless dreams."

Sen. Kennedy praised Bradberry for engaging himself in a contemporary civil rights cause.

"For a new generation of Americans who did not live through the civil rights movement or the Vietnam War or Watergate, Katrina was their apocalypse," Kennedy said.

Bradberry is the 22nd recipient of the award honoring the former senator, U.S. attorney general and presidential candidate.

Family, Friends Pay Tribute to The Late Sen. Robert Kennedy
By Tim Taylor
Roll Call Staff
November 17, 2005

The Robert F. Kennedy Memorial celebrated the legacy of the late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy on what would have been his 80th birthday Wednesday by presenting a human rights award named in the late Senator's honor.
Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) presented Stephen Bradberry with the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award for his work with the New Orleans chapter of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. Sen. Kennedy called Bradberry a "humble" man who recognized the fight for equality and was carrying on the values that his brother, Robert Kennedy, left behind. Robert Kennedy, a Democratic Senator from New York, was assassinated in 1968.

The Kennedy Memorial is an organization that honors the legacy of Robert Kennedy through promoting human rights throughout the world. The organization selects an individual every year that implements the principles of community service and social justice in exposing inequalities. Sen. Kennedy said the 2005 honoree recognized the inequalities and injustices that his brother was fighting against. "Stephen is carrying on Bobby's ideals," Kennedy said. "He epitomizes Robert Kennedy's ideals of social justice and fairness for equality."

Bradberry is the lead organizer of ACORN, where he focused his attention in addressing the economic disparities affecting low-income families in New Orleans. He said that he focused on the minor issues such as preventing lead poisoning, police protection and pay wages, because the "government isn't going to take [the initiative] … you have to put forth the effort."
Kennedy said that the hurricanes in the Gulf region showed a vulnerable America that neglected certain areas of the country. He called the hurricanes the "American apocalypse" that showed that the nation has a long way to journey against the war on poverty.

Jeffrey Buchanan, communications officer for the RFK Human Rights Center, said the hurricane events in the Gulf region heightened the need for the country to focus on poverty. He said that the organization's judges selected Bradberry not only because of his work in New Orleans, but also because there is a need to bring attention to the plight that many poor Americans are suffering from.

"The events in New Orleans definitely influenced the need for the country to concentrate on human rights in this country," said Bradberry. "The hurricanes in the South showed that the ideals set by Robert Kennedy have not been achieved and we must campaign as Kennedy did in order to achieve them."
Sen. Kennedy agreed: "There is nothing to return to [in New Orleans] ... and [Hurricane] Katrina showed how long a journey we have." He added that the inequalities in America undermine the country and said that it was the duty of all Americans to get it right and that "we cannot fail again."

Kennedy repeatedly compared the Katrina victims to the civil rights fight for blacks in the 1960s. He said he recognized the problem abroad and turned his attention homeward, as the hurricanes drew attention to the "silent slavery of poverty" in New Orleans.

The program opened with a film showing scenes of some residents of New Orleans during the days after the hurricane hit Louisiana. Robert Kennedy's voice was used as a backdrop to the film: "We haven't developed a policy to deliver food," said RFK's voice. "This is not acceptable in the United States."

Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), the event's keynote speaker, said in his address that America has a duty to wage a war against poverty. "It is our duty to ensure that a child of a millionaire and a child of a welfare mother are given" similar opportunities to succeed.

Sen. Kennedy, friends celebrate RFK’s 80th
By Jeff Dufour

Members of the Kennedy family, including Robert F. Kennedy’s widow, Ethel, his daughter Kerry, JFK’s daughter Caroline, and Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and his wife, Victoria, were on hand yesterday for this year’s Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award ceremony in the Dirksen Senate Office Building.

“I know my brother would be grateful to all of you for advancing his causes so well,” Sen. Kennedy told the audience gathered to honor what would have been RFK’s 80th birthday on Sunday.

He presented the award to Stephen Bradberry for his long-term efforts to involve low-income and minority residents in New Orleans in public policy, and more recently in the rebuilding process after Hurricane Katrina.
“You honor my brother immensely,” Kennedy told Bradberry. “Bobby would be very proud of you for carrying on his unfinished work.”

Also yesterday, Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.) and former RFK aides Peter Edelman and Earl Graves joined a discussion on “How is Robert F. Kennedy’s Vision Relevant Today?”

And later in the afternoon, Kennedy and a collection of senators and celebs, including Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), Harry Belafonte and MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough attended a reception in S-207 to remember RFK.

ACORN organizer gets Robert F. Kennedy honor

The Robert F. Kennedy Memorial will give its 2005 award for human rights to Stephen Bradberry, a New Orleans-based activist and head organizer for New Orleans Association of Communities for Reform Now.

Bradberry is being honored for his work with New Orleans' working poor and their struggle to seek full political participation in the government decisions that affect them.

He has also been active in financial and environmental justice campaigns.
In recent months and in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Bradberry and ACORN have rallied to demand a voice in plans to rebuild New Orleans and have been instrumental in the formation of the ACORN Katrina Survivors Association.

Most of the organization's New Orleans staff is still displaced and working out of a temporary office in Baton Rouge on Gus Young Avenue.
The RFK Memorial is marking the 80th birthday of Robert Kennedy with a special line-up of events that include the presentation of the RFK award today at the Dirksen Senate Office Building, Room 50 and an awards reception later in the evening at the U.S. Capitol.

RFK: what we lost

By Philip W. Johnston, November 20th, 2005

Robert F. Kennedy was born 80 years ago today. If life were fair, he would be at Hickory Hill celebrating with Ethel, surrounded by a brood of children, grandchildren, siblings, nieces, nephews, and friends. But, as his brother Jack once pointed out, life is unfair, and so 37 years after his passing, we are left to wonder what his and our lives would have been like had he not walked through that kitchen at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles on the night of the 1968 California primary.

Today it is difficult to impart to young people how electrifying a presence Robert Kennedy was during the period between his brother's assassination in 1963 and his own death a mere five years later. In this era of programmed, consultant-controlled candidates, RFK would stand out even more than he did in the '60s.

Having devoted his adulthood to helping advance his brother's career, he was on his own after 1963. Jack Newfield wrote that it seemed that most of the men around President Kennedy had their own lives cut short after the assassination. They never recovered from that tragedy. In some ways the lone exception was Robert Kennedy, who grew in astonishing ways. His brother's death made him empathic with others who suffered: The tough, single-minded political operative became a public figure who used his celebrity to help us to see the dispossessed and powerless in our country. Kennedy saw his role after 1963 as carrying on the work of his brother. Because JFK's death hurt him so much, he began to read the Greek philosophers to gain insight into the very nature of personal torment. His journey out of the abyss of grief transformed him in fundamental ways. He identified with those who were oppressed. In those years, one could see the pain and grief etched on his face. Martin Luther King Jr. said that suffering is redemptive; Robert Kennedy proved him right.

Once elected to the Senate in 1964, Kennedy began his travels around the country to expose the suffering of blacks, Latinos, Native Americans, and poor children. Supported by an extraordinary staff, including Jeff Greenfield, Peter Edelman, and Adam Walinsky, he was determined that the United States confront the racial, economic, and social abuses that had been the nation's dirty little secret. Kennedy found allies in people who went on to make a real difference like Marian Wright, Robert Coles, Cesar Chavez, Allard Lowenstein, and most notably, his brother, Ted.

In throwing his political weight behind the powerless and the oppressed -- and later in his opposition to the war in Vietnam -- Robert Kennedy took huge political risks. He possessed a rare moral vision for what America might become if it would only confront the demons of racism and poverty. His support for the civil rights and peace movements stood conventional political wisdom on its head. The safe, smart thing for him to have done would have been to support Lyndon Johnson and patiently await his turn for the White House. It is a measure of his political courage that he chose a far more dangerous course.

When Robert Kennedy died, I was 24 years old. My generation was cheated by the deaths of President Kennedy and Dr. King. But I remember thinking after each was murdered, ''Well, at least we still have Bobby." The deaths of the Kennedys and King robbed us of the most inspiring leaders we will ever have in this country; after they died, nothing was the same.
Looking back over the decades since the death of Robert Kennedy, I realize that for many years we simply assumed that another comparable leader would appear to battle for the causes he cared about. Every four years, we've been bitterly frustrated by the failure of our candidates for the White House to live up to RFK's standards. Now that I am much older, I realize what I should have known in 1968 -- that Robert Kennedy was irreplaceable.
These days, when I have had enough of listening to so-called political leaders who cut corners and waffle on fundamental issues like poverty and war, I close my eyes and I see the youthful and passionate RFK. I see him as he was in the '60s, going to South Africa to take on apartheid, to Delano to support grape workers, to Appalachia to show us its desperate poor, speaking out against the war in Vietnam.

I hear him speaking boldly, without fear, urging us to become involved, to make a difference. I open my eyes and I feel unspeakably sad about what we lost.

Philip W. Johnston, chairman of the Massachusetts Democratic Party, served as executive director of the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial and was founder of the Robert F. Kennedy Children's Action Corps.

What would Robert Kennedy say about 2005?
PLANET'S MORAL LEADERSHIP IS AT STAKE, AGAIN
By Joseph A. Palermo

On Nov. 20, 1967, when Robert Francis Kennedy celebrated his 42nd birthday, the country was enflamed in a costly war in Vietnam; the riots of the previous summer had exposed the depth of poverty in America's cities; and the Democratic Party, like the country itself, was bitterly divided.
Today, on the eve of what would have been Robert F. Kennedy's 80th birthday, we find the nation facing a similar set of problems. The war in Iraq is growing more violent each day with no foreseeable finish; Hurricane Katrina laid bare the poverty that afflicts 36 million of our citizens, (while the federal government's lackadaisical response exposed latent racism); and the Democratic Party, like the country as a whole, is polarized over the fundamental issues of the United States' role in the world, and the government's responsibility to alleviate the suffering of the poor.

In June 1967, Kennedy had visited several European capitals; he sensed ``a decline'' in U.S. ``leadership around the world because of the war in Vietnam.'' Later, when he announced his candidacy for president, Kennedy said that ``the moral leadership of this planet'' was at stake.
The current rise of anti-Americanism internationally -- the result of the pre-emptive invasion of Iraq, the torture of detainees, and the violations of the Geneva Conventions in the prisons of Guantánamo -- have dishonored the United States, and shows the moral leadership that was so important to Kennedy has been diminished.

On Feb. 8, 1968, Kennedy said of South Vietnam: ``We have an ally in name only. We support a government without supporters. Without the efforts of American arms, that government would not last a day.''
Does anyone today truly believe that the current government in Iraq could exist without the buttressing of American troops?

Kennedy's infusion of truth into the war debate followed three years of lies and misinformation from the Johnson administration. Kennedy had the courage to admit he had been wrong about the prospects for success in Vietnam.

The Democrats who initially backed the Iraq war should concede their past mistakes and dedicate themselves, as Kennedy once did, to ending what is clearly a misguided and debilitating foreign adventure.

In the mid-1960s, the riots in Los Angeles, Detroit and elsewhere exposed the poverty and racism of the inner cities. Kennedy recognized the underlying social conditions that produced the violence, and he called for vigorous anti-poverty efforts at the federal level.

``I do not believe our nation can survive,'' he said, ``unless we are able to accomplish a change which brings with it an acceptable way of life for all. If one segment of our society is impoverished, it impoverishes us all.''
Last month, in New Orleans, Hurricane Katrina exposed many of these same social conditions that necessitate federal action, not only for reconstruction, but to address the underlying causes of poverty.

In 1968, Kennedy was the chief foil to Richard Nixon's Southern strategy of fueling white backlash and dividing African-Americans and low-income whites. Since 2000, George W. Bush and Karl Rove have deliberately divided the country for short-term political gain. Kennedy tried to create a counterweight to the politics of polarization that now dominate our political discourse.
Perhaps the most useful lesson we can learn from Kennedy is the value he placed on the role of each individual in shaping a better world.

``Few will have the greatness to bend history itself,'' he told a mixed-race audience in South Africa, ``but each of us can work to change a small portion of events. . . . 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 can build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.''

The progressive forces in our country are only as strong as the citizen-activists who form their ranks.

``Don't tell me what you cannot do,'' Robert Kennedy used to tell his staff, ``Tell me what you can do!''

Democrats and Progressives might take up Kennedy's challenge, each of us, working together, to end the divisions and build a more just society; or, as Kennedy used to say, quoting the ancient Greeks, ``to tame the savageness of man and make gentle the life of this world.''

JOSEPH A. PALERMO is the author of ``In His Own Right: The Political Odyssey of Senator Robert F. Kennedy'' (Columbia, 2001), and is currently writing a biography of Robert Kennedy for the Library of American Biography (Longman). He is an assistant professor of American history at California State University-Sacramento. He wrote this article for the Mercury News.

Robert Kennedy still teaches us
By SAM BEARD 11/20/2005

Today would have been Robert Kennedy's 80th birthday. The idealism and can-do spirit of the Kennedys inspired more than a generation of Americans. I had the thrill of being a minor cog on the senator's staff and in his project to restore inner-city Bedford-Stuyvesant in New York City.

Ethel Kennedy has asked us to reflect on the meaning of Robert Kennedy's life and passion. The Kennedys' dreams of making a difference and having the courage to think big and act have shaped my life.

Sen. Kennedy was killed on June 6, 1968. His funeral was in New York City at St. Patrick's Cathedral. Then we rode the train from New York to Washington, D.C.

For seven hours, from 1 to 8 p.m., the train slowly passed through towns and open spaces on the East Coast. More than a million mourners lined every mile of the journey. Wel-wishers -- white and black, old and young -- stood patiently saluting, crying and clapping.

Robert Kennedy inspired millions of Americans, especially the young, to believe in themselves and n their ability to act and make a difference. That he touched people's spirit was reflected in the crowds along the rail line.
While many young people today have little knowledge of Robert Kennedy, the power of the Kennedy message remains as vital as in the 1960s. Peggy Noonan, an author and former principal speechwriter for President Ronald Reagan, wrote about Robert Kennedy's legacy, "He brought a level of passion to politics that the arena hasn't seen since he died. He believed in belief. ... To have seen him exhort people and insist we can do better ... is to keep, always, a sense of excitement about the possibilities of American life."

Local heroes
Kennedy truly believed in the idealism of America. In local communities, he challenged us to reach inside ourselves and adopt any cause we cared about to help others in need or to right a wrong.

Inspired by the Kennedys and that vision of public service, in 1973 I corralled Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and U.S. Sen. Robert Taft Jr. to create the non-partisan Jefferson Awards. The Jefferson Awards are about grass-roots unsung heroes. The News Journal in Delaware joins 155 other media partners nationwide in saluting and encouraging ordinary people who perform extraordinary acts of passion and compassion.

Our past five Delaware winners mirror the Kennedy energy and determination that make America great.

In 2001, Rosa Alvarez won for dedicating her life to the 11,500 Hispanics in Georgetown. With other Carmelite sisters, she helps farm workers learn English, find jobs and adapt to the mainstream.

In 2002, Bob Bromwell won for his non-stop volunteerism -- more than 16,000 hours helping disadvantaged youth and handicapped adults.
In 2003, Cynthia Church, a two-time breast cancer survivor, won for creating support groups and information services for African-Americans afflicted with cancer.

In 2004, Jeffrey Busch organized a "safe blood" drive for AIDS victims in Africa.

In 2005, Virginia Biasotto invented a program to assist handicapped and impaired students to read, and worked with principals and tutors to implement her system in Delaware schools.

In her message about her late husband's 80th birthday, Ethel Kennedy reminds us of one of the senator's most powerful quotes: "Each time a man stands up for an ideal or acts to improve the lot of others, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope" That is the spirit of the Jefferson Awards as well as the spirit of our founding fathers. The messages of great leaders transcend their age. They create an ideal for each of us to admire and follow generation after generation.

Sam Beard, of Wilmington, was a staff associate to U.S. Sen. Robert F. Kennedy. He is co-founder of the Jefferson Awards for Public Service.

RFK: Bending history
By Joe Scarborough

The highlight of my week came Wednesday night when I attended the celebration of Bobby Kennedy's life in the Mansfield Room. That room, just off the Senate floor, was packed with Kennedy family members, former staffers and long-time admirers.

The fact I was the only Republican within a few hundred yards of the room became painfully evident when Congressman Ed Markey's introduction of me was answered with a quiet smattering of applause from three or four polite souls. Since I have seemingly spent most of my political life swimming against the tide, the cool welcome was nothing new.

After bowing my head and thanking them for their warm welcome, I began telling the crowd of progressive Democrats why I was crashing their party.

My fascination with Bobby Kennedy began in 1981 when I was a senior in high school. At the time I had Reagan bumper stickers plastered all over my car and just knew that Ronald Reagan would change the political world forever. But during a trip to a Pensacola bookstore, I stumbled across a biography that would place none other than Bobby Kennedy at the top of political heroes list.

As with Reagan and Truman, my attraction to Kennedy had more to do with courage than ideology. Like those two presidents, Bobby Kennedy seemed to be moved more by personal convictions than political polls. That fact was proven In June, 1966 when RFK dared to go to South Africa — a country that was an ally of the United States because of its strong anti-communist stance.

For Kennedy, simply opposing the Soviet Union was not reason enough to overlook apartheid. So RFK ignored the advice of presidents, ambassadors and political wise men of his day and instead traveled to South Africa to deliver a speech that would begin a movement that would end apartheid.

Kennedy told South African students not to be discouraged by the wide array of challenges facing our troubled world. For when one person stood up for an ideal, helped out those in need or struck out against injustice, he sent forth a tiny ripple on the water that when combined with the acts of others, created a title wave that could knock down the mightiest walls of oppression.
On that summer day so long ago, Bobby Kennedy taught an oppressed people how to do nothing less than bend history.

For the next two years of his life, Kennedy's words and deeds kept reminding us all that one person could make a difference.

I decided to get into public service and make a difference after reading about the Senator's response to Martin Luther King's assassination on April 4, 1968.

Kennedy was in the middle of his final, ill-fated campaign and prepared to go into the most dangerous part of Indianapolis. Just before heading to the event, his press secretary got the word that King had been shot dead by a white man.

Immediately, staff members scrambled to cancel the event. Ghettos were sure to explode in violence across Indianapolis and America. But when Kennedy chose to ignore the warnings, the Indianapolis Chief of Police weighed in.

His men could not provide protection. It was simply too dangerous.

So Bobby Kennedy went in alone that night to deliver the greatest speech of his life.

He told that broken crowd of Americans how it was not the time to embrace violence but rather to live the very values for which Martin Luther King had died.

Later that evening, riots did break out in over a thousand cities and towns across America. Parts of New York, Los Angeles and Chicago burned long into the early morning. Countless other cities and towns were engulfed in violence and rage. But that night, Indianapolis went to sleep in peace.
It was the story of how one man made a difference.
It is a reminder of how one person can still bend history.
It is a challenge sent through the ages of how we can still save a dying world.

Former Congressman Joe Scarborough (R-Fla.) hosts “Scarborough Country,” 10 p.m. ET, weeknights on MSNBC. He is the author of the recently published "Rome Wasn't Burnt in a Day : The Real Deal on How Politicians, Bureaucrats, and Other Washington Barbarians are Bankrupting America".

Remembering RFK and his call to action
By Dick Golden November 17th, 2005

For those who remember his vitality, drive, and passion – his physical and philosophical youthfulness – it’s daunting to realize that this Sunday Bobby Kennedy, had he lived, might be here on Cape Cod with his wife Ethel and any number of his children and grandchildren to celebrate his 80th birthday.

Having recently spoken to some of those who were very close to him, it became obvious to me that although his temporal existence ended tragically in the spring of 1968 during his journey toward the presidency, the power of his vision, the strength of his clarion call to “come seek a new world,” lives on in many of the lives he touched.

As part of the Bobby Kennedy 80th birthday commemoration, the George Washington University was encouraged by the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Center for Human Rights headquartered in Washington, D.C., to dedicate an hour of the university’s XM Satelitte Radio series Beyond Category to RFK’s life and legacy. Tony Bennett, who is the weekly two-hour program’s guest and inspiration for content and who knew and admired Kennedy, immediately endorsed the concept. And Michael Freedman, vice president of communications for GWU and the executive producer of the radio series, worked with the RFK Center to arrange an interview with Peter B. Edelman, a professor of law at Georgetown University and former aide and speechwriter for Bobby.

The format for the broadcast tribute would be to include excerpts from some of RFK’s most memorable speeches and then have Professor Edelman give listeners perspective on Kennedy’s life at the time he made the comments. We would also include portions of previously recorded interviews I conducted with Frank Mankiewicz, Kennedy’s former press secretary and human rights advocate/entertainer Harry Belafonte, who first met Bobby during the early chapters of the civil rights movement on the 1960s.

The words of RFK still resonate through the years. As his brother Edward observed while eulogizing Robert at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City on June 8, 1968: “what he leaves us is what he said, what he did, and what he stood for.”

When was the last time a major leader is this country dared to look us in the eye and say, as Bobby Kennedy did in 1968: ”For 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, 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 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 to be Americans.”
Frank Mankiewicz pointed out to me that RFK’s actions matched the courage of his words. “He would go and break bread with labor organizer Cesar Chavez during the California presidential campaign knowing this was not a popular thing to do. Or he would use his power as attorney general to enforce laws against corrupt labor leaders even though his party depended on labor’s support.”

In the early 1960s, Harry Belafonte was among a group surrounding Dr. Martin Luther King when the civil rights leader met with President Kennedy and Attorney General Robert Kennedy to urge them to play a more active role in the struggle for racial equality. At first, he said, he was wary of RFK’s commitment to the cause, but “ as I had to meet with the attorney general on a host of issues that required the intervention of the federal government on behalf of objectives set by the civil rights movement, I was eventually deeply touched by not only his willingness to commit the federal government, within the framework of the law to do all it could to assist the movement, but by his own personal compassion. He grew and grew and that by the time he became a senator and ran for president, I felt he had come full measure and that he was one of the most important human beings we had in the 20th century.”

While addressing the Cleveland City Club during the 1968 presidential race, RFK said, “and there is not only the violence of the shot in the night. Slower, but just as deadly there is the violence Dr. King calls “the violence of institutions”… this is violence that afflicts the poor, that poisons relations between men because their skin color is different. This is the 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 ‘a man among men.’”

Tony Bennett, who was with Dr. King in the historic Selma to Montgomery march in 1965, lamented that Americans never got to experience RFK as president, to be led by a man who said, “We must recognize the full human equality of all of 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; 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.” In my conversation with Professor Edelman, whose life has been directed by his experience working with RFK, he pointed out that as we hear Bobby’s words, “It’s not that the agenda is too much the same but that these are universal ideas and timeless ideals. They’re transcendent and because they represent a set of principles and a way of doing politics that we don’t see often enough today, anywhere… and so the challenge for all of us is to get back to, not just in content, but in approaching things in the manner RFK did… the way he believed every one of us counted and could make a difference.”

I think perhaps this is one of the great timeless aspects of RFK’s life. As he told students in Capetown, South Africa, in June of 1966: “There is the danger of futility; the belief there is nothing one man or one woman can do against the enormous array of the world’s ills… against misery and ignorance, injustice and violence. Each time a man or woman stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, they send 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.”

Dick Golden is special assistant for broadcast operations at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. This Beyond Category program can be heard on XM Satellite Radio Channel 76 tonight at 8.