I'm just 20, so why should I care?

[weezy2736]

How deep is the Kennedy wound in America's psyche?

I am a 20 year old who wasn't alive when John or Robert were. I have no family association and I have never met a Kennedy. Yet every time I see video of one of the brothers, or even hear their words, I am filled with a sense of understanding and I fight off tears, knowing what history held for these two great men.

I always cry when I see or hear anything of what happened in Texas or California on those dark days. These two men, along with Marin Luther King, Jr., are elite among my personal heroes. In my family, their lives were dissected, their accomplishments discussed, their failures analysed. I can, with all good conscience, say I would be a much worse person had they not served their lives as public figures, and, in my life of relative solitude, I've come to love these men.

I will never claim to be an expert, many people know much more than I. However, I know that I am somehow connected to these men, as if they are still active figures in my heart driving me to do more than I ever thought I could.

Please don't tell me my outrage is fake. I am not an emotional person, but today has made me cry. I've supported Obama this entire campaign, although I've tried to keep an open mind toward other candidates. I've not posted on this site often for fear of my words being misconstrued. But this is too much.

I try to be logical, but the more that I hear the defences, the more sad I become. Just don't do it, don't defend the indefensible. These were GREAT MEN and what happened to them may be among the most traumatic events in the history of this planet, or, at the very least, this country. Forty more years could pass, and I'd still fall to pieces.

No one is saying that I shouldn't care as much as anyone else, and I will be terribly disappointed if anyone were to. I've already lost much respect for people telling me that my outrage was fake, that there's no way something that happened forty years ago could still carry any weight today.

She's trying to justify her not dropping out, and she's said numerous times that she's still in the race to win. Her argument is that races have been lost and won in June before. The problem is that WE DIDN'T FUCKING WIN ANYTHING THAT JUNE! The American People lost! Why the fuck would you even suggest it as a reason to stay in the fucking race? It doesn't make any god-damn sense!

I've been campaigning against you, but the seeds of hatred were never sown until now. You didn't just do this to yourself, you put me through my own personal hell again today and I will never forgive you for it.



I'd apologize for the rude words, but they're necessary. I've cried more today than I have possibly ever (at least in my short adult life) and I really needed to breathe easier before I could sleep.

[ruby slippers]

1. your post reminded me of this video....

http://youtube.com/watch?v=XLNH00ecqd4

[weezy2736]

7. Bookmarked - Amazing.

I couldn't help but watch before I tried for sleep.

Impossible to not have a dry eye after the first minute and a half, and then... well. Thank you very much for that.

[ruby slippers]

12. I made that back on MLKing day and changed the title today, oh and

by the way, those were my grandkids in the opening and closing shots.....

[Tinksrival]

8. Thanks Ruby!

That was poignant and moving.

[ruby slippers]

13. I almost forgot about having made it until now. Thanks. My grandkids

will thank you for all the hits now on the Tube. They are real hams....

[Jensen]

18. Cried like a baby at your video....Last night I felt the scab of yesteryears pulled off!

Today, I feel sad for what could of.... "IF"??
Well done Ruby Slippers!

[janx]

2. Please see this for some context:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x6095859

[Whalestoe]

3. Great post.

Your outrage isn't contrived in the least. I'm upset too (only 19). Just because I didn't experience the deaths of JFK, MLK, or RFK, doesn't mean I don't know my own feelings if BO were to be harmed in anyway. He's the first person I've voted for and felt confidence in. This election means a lot. Basically, you have every right to care.

[Mimosa]

4. The wound is deep

I was a grade school kid when JFK was assassinated and in high school when MLK and RFK were executed. Many Americans hearts were broken then, Weezie. We lost hope that the world would be as happy and hopeful as we had previously believed. America as a whole changed then.

Weezie, you indeed have a good sense of perspective. But never give way to hate. Righteous anger is alright, hate can hurt your character. You may want to read Mahatma Gandhi's autobiography. It influenced MLK and many other people, including myself.

[weezy2736]

15. I just got done reading part one.

Thank you so very much for recommending Gandhi, I've been looking for a lens like this. Some words are worth spending the night reading.

[RNdaSilva]

5. I was there...

very well said.

[SoCalDem]

6. because she's a crass, shallow, vindictive political ANIMAL

It's always about HER...and only HER..

She snaked that senatorial seat away from a woman who had been planning to run, and she never looked back.. It was NECESSARY for her to build her own credentials for a presidential run.. She was too chicken to run against Bush in '04, and HOW DARE that Obama try to take HER presidency away from her..

She LOST on Mar4, and she's done nothing but stalk the REAL candidate from state to state and torment us all with her "poor little me" schtick..

Shame on the media & the supers for being too cowardly to shut her down..

I am hoping that tomorrow will bring a flood of supers to Obama's column, and end this nightmare.. let her go to Puerto Rico & swim with some sharks..although they might fear being in the same ocean..

I would love to see her get NO speaking slot at the convention, and to see her permanenly shunned when she dares to show her mug back in the senate..and then sent packing in '10

[stellanoir]

9. You should care simply because it is your country and it is taking an enormous fall.

That will effect your future.

:hug:

[housewolf]

10. Dear Weezy,

Sometimes events that occur are so powerful in a society, that the energy of them lives on years and years after the event. 1968 was one of those times... and the murders of Robt Kennedy & MLK that year are events that live on even today and beyond. You weren't alive when it happened but the event is still alive in the culture today and many people both here and elsewhere have had the exact same reaction that you had.

You are not alone in your feelings of hurt, anger and betrayal. Many, many folks are in their own personal hells over this as well. I don't know if that is any comfort to you, but I hope that it is. My tears today have joined with yours and those of many other people, there are lots of us all crying together.

I hope and pray that you rest easy tonight and that tomorrow is a brighter day for you and for all of us. Thank you for sharing your words and feelings with us - your openness about your feelings today and the depth of your feelings is quite moving to me. You have helped me understand a bit of why we are all so outraged.

Hugs to you,

:hug: :hug: :hug: :hug: :hug:

[weezy2736]

19. I knew there was someone I owed a hug today...

Thanks very much. Your words helped me through a difficult time last night, and I'm very grateful.

Tomorrow is, indeed, a much brighter day!
:hug:

[papapi]

11. Bravo. Recommended. Your heart is in the right place. Your disgust is justified.

It is gratifying to know that brave men are still admired by your generation. Your tears have been shared in many a household this day. How unfortunate that Mrs. Clinton would choose this Memorial day weekend to commit such a deplorable crime.

[LaPera]

14. Lighten up! It's all in the heat of a campaign, not like it hasn't happened before....

Just go on and continue to despise the republicans (the only thing in life I'm sure of)....It's going to be a war, the republican slime are working on it this very second....(with our tax dollars). Time passes fast, and people forgive & forget, republicans know this...NEVER get caught up in the peripherals!

[dcindian]

16. We despise republicans because of their crassness their self intrest style of thought.

It is republicans who have made lite of assassination of some of the greatest people to ever walk on the soil of America.


What Hillary has done and the wounds she so easily opens up to gain political favor from those who know no better. It is that unabridged self interest even at the cost of others hopes, dreams, and memories fond or not. It is that which defines her and it is that which defines our distaste of republican values.

No we don't hate the people because of the R in their political leanings. We dislike them for the total lack of caring for others, the poor, the weak, the minority, and the son's and daughters who's life they willingly throw away and then joke about in the cigar shops.

It is them they those one's over there who so willing use death as a political cudgel to scare Americans into not thinking. Scaring them into a vote from fear. It is Hillary Clinton.

[pnorman]

17. Hold fast to your feelings and sentiments, and NEVER let ANYONE con you

into believing that you'll "outgrow them when you become a little older"! Hold fast to them, because they're PRECIOUS! Yes, this doesn't really address that Hillary comment, but it's directed at you personally.

pnorman
Full disclosure: I'm now an Elderly Fart of 78.4, and similar sentiments, dating back to my "callow youth", are my only reasons for prolonging my existence.

[uponit7771]

20. Yeap, I wasn't born at the time either but could read the pain on my parents faces & hear the pain..

...in my teachers voices and know that was a hard time to go through.

She opened up a big wound for her own personal gaine

[FlyingSquirrel]

21. ...

:thumbsup: