The Worst Week
Navigating the tricky shoals of race, Kennedy stumbled a little at first as he tried to relate King's death to the killing of his own brother. RFK had never before spoken publicly about JFK's assassination, and he could hardly bear to speak of it privately, though the death of the president had gloomily filled his thoughts for months and years. "For those of you who are black and are tempted to be filled with hatred and disgust at the injustice of such an act, against all white people, I can only say," he began, "that I feel in my own heart the same kind of feeling. I had a member of my own 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 go beyond these rather difficult times," he said, his voice gaining in strength as he found his peculiar comfort zone, the realm of myth and tragedy. Kennedy was not an articulate intellectual, but he was surprisingly well read, and he could quote the texts he carried in his pocket.
"My favorite poet was Aeschylus," Kennedy told his audience, not many of whom had graduated from high school, but who now listened with rapt attention. "He wrote, '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 or lawlessness; but 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 black.
"So I shall ask you tonight to return home, to say a prayer for the family of Martin Luther King, that's true, but most importantly to say a prayer for our country, which all of us love—a prayer for understanding and that compassion of which I spoke …
"Let us dedicate ourselves to what the Greeks wrote so many years ago: to tame the savageness of man and to make gentle the life of this world.
"Let us dedicate ourselves to that, and say a prayer for our country and for our people."
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Member Comments
Posted By: jiminchina @ 03/09/2008 4:54:54 AM
Comment: I live in China, now, so I don't always get Newsweek in a timely manner. I read this article closely because on April 4, 1968 I lived in Memphis where I worked for the IRS during the day and attended university at night. I belonged to the anti war group SDS and Although I am white I was friendly with the leaders of the Invaders. The description of how Dr. King was murdered is the "official" version. Most people familiar with the event ------
believe that Dr. King was murdered in a plot directed by J.Edgar Hoover. Too many strange things happened in the moments before the shot which killed Dr. King to lead to any other conclusion. James Earl Ray neve
r really got a trial which might have told us more about what really happened.
Posted By: zach55 @ 01/28/2008 9:42:53 PM
Comment: However, do you know more about Dr. King, some one has seen his profile on a senior dating site boomermingle.com, what shall he do on that site?
Posted By: numlock @ 01/26/2008 9:33:31 AM
Comment: By 1968 Dr. King was no longer an "A" list personality. His major contribution at that time was his stance against the Vietnam war, which is not even mentioned in this piece. Hving Dr. King come out against the war was a major contribution to the anti-war cause, greatly appreciated by anti-war demonstrators such as myself. His anit-war stance is rarely mentioned these days. But it was important at the time as most of mid america was still in favor of the war.