RFK

Rest in Peace RFK
November 20, 1925 – June 6, 1968

American politician and lawyer
United States Attorney General and Senator
Assassinated after giving a speech in Los Angeles,
when running for the Democratic presidential nomination.

“Each time someone 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.”

Robert Francis Kennedy
from a speech given in
Cape Town, South Africa
exactly 2 years before his death
June 6, 1966

As far back as I can remember, my grandparents had a picture of JFK and RFK, just like the one above, hanging on their living room wall. According to family lore, my youngest brother thought that the Kennedy brothers were our uncles, because their picture was right next to the framed photograph of Uncle Rudy, my dad's handsome brother who died in WWII.

Rest in Peace Uncle Rudy

TSgt Raymond R. Carriker
b. June 3, 1921 - d. April 1, 1944
93rd Bombardment Group
Stationed at RAF Hardwick, Norfolk, UK
Killed in action, over Reims, France

Sadly, a number of my elders (evangelical Protestants) were prejudeced against Catholics -- and against the Kennedys for that reason. But not Grandma and Grandpa Carriker (RLDS). I'm glad I had them as role models for knowing that the Democrats (no matter what their religion) had better hearts than the Republicans. I think it may be the memory of their example that inspires me, election after election, to vote a straight Democratic ticket (eliminating any traitors to party policy, but NOT taking on any Republicans unless they have actually changed parties).


Ted Kennedy’s Eulogy
For his brother Robert Kennedy
"We loved him as a brother, and as a father, and as a son. From his parents and from his older brothers and sisters, Joe and Kathleen and Jack, he received an inspiration which he passed on to all of us. He gave us strength in time of trouble, wisdom in time of uncertainty, and sharing in time of happiness. He will always be by our side.

"Love is not an easy feeling to put into words, nor is loyalty, or trust, or joy. But he was all of these. He loved life completely and he lived it intensely. . . .

My brother need not be idealized or enlarged in death beyond what he was in life, to be remembered simply as a good and 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 some day 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 see things as they are and say why.
I dream things that never were and say why not.' "

P.S.
"Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?"
& Hope of a Nation