Can We Come Together?

2015-12-10T23:03:55-05:00

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.

-Robert Kennedy 4/4/68

Response by TSgt John Temblador, PI, CIPA made Dec 10 at 2015 11:09 PM

2015-12-10T23:09:53-05:00

My other Founding Fathers... Chief Joseph, Sitting Bull, Geronimo and Red Cloud!...

Response by SPC Private RallyPoint Member made Dec 10 at 2015 11:29 PM

2015-12-10T23:29:57-05:00

I dont think in today's media savvy, political-consultant dominated world, someone could even quote Aeschylus in a political speech without the script being returned by the focus group for not appealing to all the demographics. Sometimes I wish I lived in the past...

Response by SN Greg Wright made Dec 10 at 2015 11:54 PM

2015-12-10T23:54:43-05:00

Capt Walter Miller Annnddd....that's my first Capt. Walt upvote, sorted.

Response by Cpl Shane Cunningham made Dec 11 at 2015 12:08 AM

2015-12-11T00:08:38-05:00

Strong speech

Response by Sgt Private RallyPoint Member made Dec 11 at 2015 3:49 AM

2015-12-11T03:49:13-05:00

"A house divided against itself cannot stand" An excerpt of a quote from Mr. Abraham Lincoln made on June 16, 1858, at the Illinois State Capitol in Springfield. Mr. Lincoln became President Lincoln in 1861. Our nation has enemies that love to see a divided country. We have to ignore the extremists on the left and on the right, and stand as an United America.

Response by Capt Walter Miller made Dec 11 at 2015 7:49 AM

2015-12-11T07:49:00-05:00

I vividly remember when Senator Kennedy was himself assassinated just a couple of months later.

"On behalf of Mrs. Kennedy, her children, and the parents and sisters of Robert Kennedy, I want to express what we feel to those who mourn with us today in this Cathedral and around the world. 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 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."

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/primary-resources/kennedys-teds-eulogy/

WGBH American Experience . The Kennedys | PBS

Primary Resources: Ted's Eulogy for his Brother Robert

Response by MSgt Michelle Mondia made Dec 12 at 2015 1:35 AM

2015-12-12T01:35:34-05:00

Where are these candidates, these politicians, these leaders?! We have no humanitarians in politics anymore. These idiots cannot even speak without looking foolish. Love RFK.