I was watching a docuseries earlier this year about 1968, another politically tumultuous year. Near the end there was a news clip where the reporter observed that every year for some people it was the first Christmas with somebody new in their family while for others it was their first Christmas without somebody else.
For the family of Robert F. Kennedy, Christmas 1968 was both: Ethel Kennedy, Robert’s wife, gave birth to their daughter Rory on December 12, which was a little over six months after her father was shot and killed in a Los Angeles hotel kitchen after winning the California presidential primary.
This is the conundrum my family finds itself in this year, it’s our first Christmas without our mom, but it’s also our first Christmas with the newest member of our family, Amina.
My mom was a big fan of Bobby Kennedy. In her belongings I found materials from Kennedy’s short-lived presidential campaign including buttons, bumper stickers, and a type-written copy of his speech at Kansas State University on March 18, 1968, which was essentially the speech that launched his campaign. There’s one line from it that I find resonates after a year that included great controversy about protests against war on our university campuses.
“If our colleges and universities do not breed men who riot, who rebel, who attack life with all the youthful vision and vigor, then there is something wrong with our colleges,” Kennedy said. “The more riots that come out of our college campuses the better the world for tomorrow."
The war at that time was in Vietnam. Kennedy had hoped someone from the Democratic field would get into the race to galvanize all the anti-war activists, and while there was, he felt that Minnesota Senator Eugene McCarthy was not that man (to put it mildly).
Kennedy was also able to do something McCarthy couldn’t, and that was attract social justice and civil rights leaders to a common cause. It’s what pushed him to the front of the primary pack just three months after claiming his candidacy.
But a couple of weeks after he started barnstorming the country, Kennedy was confronted with a difficult task. Before taking the stage to speak in Indianapolis on the evening of April 4, he was told by advisors that Martin Luthor King Jr. had been assassinated while standing outside his hotel room with friends and colleagues in Memphis.
Like most Kennedy events, there were many Black people in the crowd, and he knew they were going to take the sudden and violent death of King hard. Keep in mind, this was the era before push alerts, so Kennedy knew he had to tread carefully breaking the news.
Extemporaneously, Kennedy offered calm and reassurance. He eulogized King and acknowledged the pain and suffering of racism and segregation in America. He also talked about how he knew what it was like when one of your own family members is taken by a bullet.
“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,” Kennedy offered. “Let us dedicate ourselves to that, and say a prayer for our country and for our people.”
Bobby, and his big brother Jack, both had a knack for making the political sound spiritual. They weren’t just presenting policy ideas, they were calling people to service, and inspiring people to work towards a better world whether the goal was racial and economic equality or landing on the moon by some arbitrary deadline.
For the final Market Squared of the year, I want to do that. I want to offer a kind of prayer, non-denominational and non-religious, for our political life in 2025.
First, I pray for wisdom. In this era of incredible misinformation, the first and most essential responsibility of every citizen is to make sure they’re well-informed, and not just about the news, but about how political processes work. There is such a thing as objective truth, but finding it requires work and being open to the possibility you’re wrong. To quote another famous American politician, “Trust but verify.”
I pray for understanding. We’ve seen this year so many vulnerable people in our community get blamed for being the cause of suffering while discounting their own suffering. We forget that no one dreams of living in a tent, or pumping themselves full of poison to feel relief, and we forget the fact poverty is a process, and not always one we choose. To quote a famous commencement speech, “Your choices are half chance. So are everybody else's.”
I pray for compassion. You don’t need to understand someone’s life story to feel compassion for them, and so much of this year’s discourse has focused on the problem and not the people. This isn’t just a matter of poverty locally, but a matter of war and violence globally. Regardless of the geopolitical order, can’t we all agree that massacring civilians by the thousands is bad and evil no matter who’s doing it and why?
I pray for everyone reading this to understand their power. You have a voice, and you have a point of view, so please use them. Donate to a cause. If you don’t want to donate, you can protest. If you don’t want to protest, you can delegate. If you don’t what to delegate, you can help organize others to donate or protest or delegate.
And if you don’t think you have something important or insightful to say, take a look around at the ones who are talking right now, especially the people talking the loudest. Are your thoughts and ideas less worthy than theirs? Why should politicians listen to them, and not to you? Remember these difficult to attribute words: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.”
Back in 1968, the day after King was killed, Bobby Kennedy gave a speech at the City Club in Cleveland. With a couple of hours to mull over what he wanted to say in the wake of King’s death, and the violence that erupted in the aftermath, Kennedy reached again to encourage people to get past the immediate crises, to focus on the inherent goodness of people and not the hate and chaos that was gripping America.
“Our lives on this planet are too short and the work to be done too great to let this spirit flourish any longer in our land,” he said. “Surely, we can learn, at least, to look at those around us as fellow men, and surely we can begin to work a little harder to bind up the wounds among us and to become in our own hearts brothers and countrymen once again.”
Amen from 2025.
