William Rivers Pitt. If this essay doesn't deserve a Pulitzer, I don't know what does.

[trof]

This is just masterful.
I can think of no other word to describe it.
Please click on the link and read it all.
trof

William Rivers Pitt | The Lost, Lingering Legacy of Robert F. Kennedy

"History, as recorded, has a way of focusing on the primary colors of a particular individual's impact. The Robert Kennedy who is generally known is remembered to be the son of a rich industrialist, the right-hand man of Senator Joseph McCarthy during the Red-Scare witch hunts, one of the original architects of the Vietnam War debacle, the Attorney General, the Senator, and finally, the brother of an assassinated president. His own run for the presidency in 1968 lasted 82 days, and ended on a dirty kitchen floor in Los Angeles, with his life's blood pumping into the empty air along with the hopes and dreams and aspirations of millions.

But Robert Kennedy - son of the oligarchy, scion of a family of the ruling elite after his two older brothers were laid low by war and another assassin - was so much more than that. When President John Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas in November of 1963, Robert Kennedy was destroyed. Annihilated. Ruined utterly. He disappeared within himself and his overwhelming sorrow for a time, emerging eventually to win a US Senate seat for New York in 1964...and that is when the new, true Bobby Kennedy emerged.

You see, Bobby Kennedy had been a child of exceeding privilege and astonishing power from the moment of his birth. At no point, from his birth until his dying breath, did he ever know want, or hunger, or discrimination. When his brother was murdered in Dallas, however, the comfortable world of Robert Kennedy exploded, and for a time he was lost...and then he found himself anew, reborn, and unleashed himself upon American politics as an avatar for the poor, the downtrodden, the sick, and the hopeless."

http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/24908-william-rivers-pitt-|-the-lost-lingering-legacy-of-robert-f-kennedy

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. Damn right!

I wish we could nominate his essay for one, my dear trof.

K&R

[DonViejo]

2. This article was posted on DU earlier today by William Rivers Pitt...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025231168

Seems to be a good conversation going on there

[JaneyVee]

3. K&R. That was pure poetry.

[jwirr]

4. Excellent essay. That new Robert was the one we learned to love.

[hlthe2b]

5. Loss of RFK--it still hurts so much. I will forever remember his brother, Teddy's eloquent eulogy..

Truly beautiful, on the saddest of days.

Very nice essay, Will

[trof]

6. OK, I see Will already put it up here, but....

I had to adhere to the '3 paragraph rule'.
Sorry about the dupe.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

7. It's true that Will posted it...

But he didn't say anything about it getting a Pulitzer.

We needed you to do that.

[Dustlawyer]

18. I missed the 1st one, so I thank you for the dupe! I too have seen the things described in this

story, and it forever changed me. I think the biggest problem today is that too many have not walked in the shoes of the people who are not like themselves. If they would they would know Truth! Sadly, they only know what they are told, usually by equally ignorant fools who spread lies and disinformation.

In the vein of Robert Kennedy, though without his stature and elegant words, I hope to fight the fight that he has begun to help fix the problems that we as a nation suffer. The root problem that is the cause of our current mess is the overwhelming influence in our political system caused by campaign contributions and fat cat Lobbyists, paid for by the obscenely wealthy and greedy corporations. It is compounded by the media which is now only the means of propaganda to keep us fighting "that other party" and displacing the blame for our current sad state on those least able to refute the lies!

Please join with me in the fight to get the money out of our election system by demanding and protesting for Publicly Funded National, State, and Local Elections. We will use the media who helped to place us in this precarious situation by requiring them to air the political ads as a public service since they use The Peoples airwaves under license.

Only then will we see a return of a Representative Democracy. I am calling for these protest to start

SEPTEMBER 13th - NOVEMBER 4th

The campaign money will be insanely large this election and I urge the protestors to call out the candidates and tell everyone how much they are receiving, how much the shadow Super Pacs are spending. This is not a Democrat or Republican issue, this is an American problem that both parties suffer from. I am not foolish enough to believe this can be done with ease, it will take a huge number of Americans, but it can be done, it MUST BE DONE!!'

Spread the word to everyone, every group fighting for their rights, be they reproductive rights of women trampled on by SCOTUS and Hobby Lobby, LGBTV, Education, Environment.... They will not get what they want from our government as long as the politicians listen to the 1% because of their money. No one wants their Representative controlled by the Koch brothers, Unions, corporations, or billionaires. Organize your city/town, meet with both local political parties and find like minded folks who have had enough! Robert Kennedy would be leading us, but since he cannot, we will do it together. (Apologize for length)

[sabrina 1]

22. No need to apologize for the length of a post that is well worth reading. I could not

agree more with what you said. So long as the money keeps flowing into our political system, we will continue to lose what people like Robert Kennedy strove so hard to fight for. It is getting worse every day.

I think what is needed now is to make that money POISON to any candidate by, as you suggested, publishing how much they are getting from Corporate interests. Make them AFRAID to take it, rather than the way it is now, proud to boast about how much they have in their 'war chests'. Tell everyone to watch out for the most highly funded candidates so they become aware of the problem.

Thanks for the reminder of one of the most important issues we face today. No other important issue can be dealt with effectively until this one is addressed, because the people's interests are so at odds with those who are buying our candidates.

[Dustlawyer]

25. Thanks. I would appreciating that you do what you can to help start this movement.

I obviously have never done this before and need all of the help I can get to get this off of the ground. It just seems that everyone is so frustrated, so angry and tired, but yet almost no response to the many posts I have been putting out on a site that I would think would have people fired up to do this. Are they afraid there will be nothing to bitch about if we get this shit fixed?

I meet with my local Democratic Party tomorrow night so I guess I will find out how it plays live, wish me luck and thanks again!

[dixiegrrrrl]

21. I would have missed it if you had not posted this.

So thanks.

The memories are incredibly vivid even after ..46?????...god.........years.

[WilliamPitt]

8. Wow.

Thank you, old friend.

[trof]

12. My distinct pleasure.

You somethin' ELSE, boy.
Ya know that?

I majored in journalism at Alabama.
Thought I was hot shit for a time at The Birmingham News.
WooHoo.
That was long, long time ago.

Years later I started reading your stuff and knew I was small beer.

Keep on keepin' on.

Best to Raven.

[flying rabbit]

9. No words

[tweeternik]

10. Well done Will! nt

[trof]

13. WOW! My first 'ALERT'.

WooHoo!

[hrmjustin]

16. He is ppred.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=profile&uid=295616

[stillwaiting]

26. I love it when those who mock and ridicule liberals and leftists get ppred.

I saw several of that poster's posts, hated them, but expected he/she would be able to stick around here at DU.

Pleasantly surprised they got the pizza, and I wish it happened more frequently.

[WillyT]

14. K & R !!!

[Trajan]

17. Honestly ... Will was one of the reasons I joined DU

After wandering in the dark halls of Yahoo Political Chat for so long ...

Great essay, Will ... Another great one ...

[emsimon33]

19. K&R

[pablo_marmol]

20. Great example of why I value DU.

Thanks for sharing this wonderful piece of writing.

[JDPriestly]

23. Thank you. And since Robert Kennedy, no Democratic candidate has dared to run on such

a compassionate platform and won.

[Enthusiast]

24. Excellent words from William Rivers Pitt.

As we have come to expect.

[FairWinds]

27. To my knowledge RFK never . .

apologized for the major role he played in the 1964
destruction of Brazilian democracy.
Had he done so, I would feel much better about his legacy.
Please correct me if I am wrong.

[1monster]

28. Link please? That was fifty years ago and I don't remember this incident.

[nolabear]

29. Beautiful article. Awful comments. Will we EVER be able to work together?

I'm increasingly distressed at the extremism on all sides of any attempt to solve the world's troubles. I guess I have to take some comfort in the real, heartfelt attempts to do something and the lack of evidence that those who are extreme, with of course terrible exceptions, do.

[kentuck]

30. When Will Pitt is writing with his heart...

there is no one better at tearing away the veneer around our souls...

I loved this quote:
"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."

[FairWinds]

31. Hey Mr. Monster . .

Here is the link. It is fairly recently declassified White House tapes from "Camelot".
It shows that RFK and the other Nat Sec Types (beginning in 1962)
had utter contempt for Brazilian self determination.
The 1964 coup installed a vicious, murderous and thieving military
dictatorship that lasted for nearly two decades.
I wish I was wrong about this, but I don't think I am.

http://www2.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB465/

Facts are facts. It is not "radical" or "negative" to point them out.

And there is more . . other documents show direct US involvement in horrific
torture in Brazil after the military coup.

RFK was at the apex of US foreign policy decision making during this period.

[trof]

32. RFK was not a saint. No one claims he was.

It was a much different world 50 years ago.
The fear of communist takeover/domination was real, at least to many governments on the planet.

Now we know it was overblown.
Especially after the fall of the Berlin wall and collapse of the USSR.

But back then people really believed in it.
Sure, we (the U.S) have done some bad things.
And we continue to do so.
Iraq.


But I'd have to cut the Kennedy administration some slack based on what they THOUGHT they were dealing with a half century ago.