Forty Years Ago Today
June 6, 1968. I nearly leaped out of bed with joy that morning. It was on the south side of Chicago and it was the last day of school, first grade. When I came out of my room, I was surprised because my mom was usually in the kitchen with the radio on, WIND. But she was in the living room with the TV on. I knew that “Bobby” Kennedy had been shot the day before and was in the hospital. We had prayed for him at bedtime the night before. As I got closer to the TV, I saw that my mom was crying. Bobby Kennedy died. My frame of reference was when Martin Luther King, Jr. died two months earlier. My school closed because of riots and racial tension. There were no riots this time. No noise. Just quiet. School didn’t need to close–it was over. That wasn’t all that was over.
My dad was a retired active duty Air Force career man but still in the Reserves. He was a Chicago Democrat and a precinct captain. He was happy when LBJ decided not to seek re-election and we hung an RFK sign in the window. The sign stayed–for a time and was eventually replaced with a Humphrey sign. But it was over. It was the third in the trilogy of American assassinations and piercing symbols of how wrong things were and how far off the tracks things seem to have gotten. It was, in my opinion looking back, the death of the Democratic Party in many ways.
Chris Matthews spoke on Hardball today of the life and death of RFK. As a Funeral Director, I naturally pay very close attention to funerals. Matthews mentioned how different RFK’s death and funeral was from JFK’s which piqued my interest. He later explained that although the deaths were similar in their tragicness but that the death of JFK was like the death of a prince and the death of RFK was the death of someone that common people connected with more.
I don’t normally use this blog for personal reflections and have not used it before to express religious views. I felt this significant, sad, anniversary warranted a word of memory. I close with the Newman Prayer which I recite at every funeral I direct or preside at:
My dad was a retired active duty Air Force career man but still in the Reserves. He was a Chicago Democrat and a precinct captain. He was happy when LBJ decided not to seek re-election and we hung an RFK sign in the window. The sign stayed–for a time and was eventually replaced with a Humphrey sign. But it was over. It was the third in the trilogy of American assassinations and piercing symbols of how wrong things were and how far off the tracks things seem to have gotten. It was, in my opinion looking back, the death of the Democratic Party in many ways.
Chris Matthews spoke on Hardball today of the life and death of RFK. As a Funeral Director, I naturally pay very close attention to funerals. Matthews mentioned how different RFK’s death and funeral was from JFK’s which piqued my interest. He later explained that although the deaths were similar in their tragicness but that the death of JFK was like the death of a prince and the death of RFK was the death of someone that common people connected with more.
I don’t normally use this blog for personal reflections and have not used it before to express religious views. I felt this significant, sad, anniversary warranted a word of memory. I close with the Newman Prayer which I recite at every funeral I direct or preside at:
In Memory of
Robert F. Kennedy
1925-1968
Oh Lord, support us all the day long,
until the shadows lengthen,
and the evening comes,
and the busy world is hushed,
and the fever of life is over,
and our work is done.
Then in your mercy,
grant us safe lodging,
the holy rest,
and peace at the last,
through Christ our Lord. Amen.
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