40 years ago today

[tugmoose]

Robert Kennedy was shot. Footage of the hotel conference room was up on youtube a while back. Truly wrenching to see the crowd go from delirious celebration to confusion to horror in a matter of minutes.

 

They stopped my brother's little league game and we stood by the railroad tracks as the funeral train passed on it's way from NYC to DC. I saw someone in a window I thought was Ethel.

 

RIP Bobby.

[John Smith]

40 years ago today he died. He was shot 40 years ago yesterday. A very sad day indeed.

[mollyegan]

I have always admired Bobby, even more so than JFK...he seemed to be the moral compass. 1968 was a hell of a year.

[Mr. Kinsley]

Great piece in the LA Times yesterday about David Steiner, who was the guy who went to the microphone and asked, "Could a doctor come right here!?!?"

The link includes a first-hand account of his experience not only that night, but how he's never been the same since. Really great. (The article, not that it screwed him up, of course.)

 

As for my own VERY tangential first-hand account, they took Bobby to the same hospital that my grandfather was in at the time having open heart surgery (which back then, NOT fun!) My family (including my mom, who was pregnant with me) had to be escorted by a candy striper to go visit his room. I don't remember who she was, but the one who escorted them was an actress on a popular TV show then who was volunteering her time, which made the situation even more surreal. From my grandpa's window they could see the Kennedy family in the courtyard outside. Ted was apparantly standing on a small hill, which put him within view from the street. My mom couldn't believe that in that moment he'd put himself out there like that unguarded.

 

So they told me.

[mountain bed]

1968 was a hell of a year.

So true. In many ways it seems like we never have really recovered. In William Manchester's The Glory and the Dream '68 was called "The Year Everything Went Wrong".

[tugmoose]

1968 was a hell of a year.

Ended on a

, though.

[owl]

Apparently photos from his funeral train from NY to DC recently surfaced. I hate CNN (try to ignore whatever inappropriate ad they force you to watch before the slideshow), but this is a pretty emotional collection of photos:

 

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2008/0...pening.here.cnn

[Guest Cousin Tupelo]

Robert Kennedy was shot. Footage of the hotel conference room was up on youtube a while back. Truly wrenching to see the crowd go from delirious celebration to confusion to horror in a matter of minutes.

 

They stopped my brother's little league game and we stood by the railroad tracks as the funeral train passed on it's way from NYC to DC. I saw someone in a window I thought was Ethel.

 

RIP Bobby.

 

I remember at 7 years old watching the footage of that on TV. It was horrific. What a time to be a child and try to make sense out of things.

 

Actually, in hindsight it was apropos training for dealing with the insanity today.

[owl]

It seems like a pretty scary time to have been alive, both for our country and its people. The 60s really seems like a watershed decade to me. It seems like a lot more fucked up things happened then than have happened in the 2000s (9/11 aside, maybe?). Today, I just see a lot of complacency and selfishness. I wonder if people would really organize in protest the way they did in the 60s. Do people care enough anymore? I'm glad that there isn't as much social turmoil, but at the same time, today's Americans seem so self-absorbed with a kind of "oh well" attitude. Nobody seems to care about what happens to other people, as long as they don't feel the pain themselves. I don't know if this makes any sense.

[Analogman]

Anyone here ever seen this movie:

Bobby

 

I saw a documentary about the assassination on The History Channel a few years ago - it featured interviews with Vincent DiPierro.

[owl]

I've never seen that movie. I hear that it was kind of bad.

[tugmoose]

I just saw this - very well done. Most amazing was that LOOK never used the pictures.

[mollyegan]

I've never seen that movie. I hear that it was kind of bad.

It wasn't earth-shattering...and if memory serves, had little to do with RFK the man. That said, I actually enjoyed it as a dictum on the general zeitgeist. Plus the subplot concerning Shia LeBouf and drug use is pretty hysterical. I was also relieved at Sharon Stone's performance...it hearkened back to her performance as Ginger- but more somber and real without any of her real-life craziness. I really loved her. Demi Moore also made a fabulous has-been drunk.

 

I just saw this - very well done. Most amazing was that LOOK never used the pictures.

Thanks for that...I got choked up.

[quarter23cd]

It seems like a pretty scary time to have been alive, both for our country and its people. The 60s really seems like a watershed decade to me. It seems like a lot more fucked up things happened then than have happened in the 2000s (9/11 aside, maybe?). Today, I just see a lot of complacency and selfishness. I wonder if people would really organize in protest the way they did in the 60s. Do people care enough anymore? I'm glad that there isn't as much social turmoil, but at the same time, today's Americans seem so self-absorbed with a kind of "oh well" attitude. Nobody seems to care about what happens to other people, as long as they don't feel the pain themselves. I don't know if this makes any sense.

Makes a lot of sense. There is still a considerable amount of frustration and outrage these days, but also not a very cohesive vision of how things should be different. What is the common ground we should be protesting for? And would it really make a difference, anyway? I think the apathy is the biggest obstacle. Nobody really feels powerful enough to change anything. Particularly in this bizarro decade we're living in now I notice the detachment I feel when I watch the news and hear reports that America did today (pick any topic you want) and my reaction is "OMG, America did WHAT??!" Complete detachment, like I'm hearing about some group of strangers that I have no connection to rather than the government that is supposed to be representing me, you know?

 

You're right that most people seem to be in a mode of trying just to ride out the storm, looking after their own interests and just waiting for the clouds to lift someday. I'm probably as guilty of this as anybody. High energy costs, crappy economy--who has time to see the big picture when you're just trying to keep your family's head above water? Like I said earlier, I think there needs to be some sort of collective vision. Bringing the troops home from Iraq doesn't seem enough yet to bring people out in the streets. Its the tip of the iceberg, but then what? Political tensions in this country are high right now and everybody is so deeply dug into their own respective trenches that it is hard to imagine a common viewpoint emerging of what the "greater good" is at this point. Hell, we're at a point in our history that there are political arguments happening over that f'ing Wall-E cartoon, for chrissakes. How can we even begin to agree over something happening in the real world?

 

If something is to change, there needs to be a catalyst--a movement to signal to people that it is ok to put down their daily lives and get out in the streets, whether figuratively or literally. In the meantime, expect a continuation of the "I've got mine" mentality while people continue to hunker down until better days magically arrive.

 

Hope that makes sense. Well, its back to work for me. I've got a paycheck to earn and a family to feed. Wake me when the revolution comes.

[sweetheart-mine]

Makes a lot of sense. There is still a considerable amount of frustration and outrage these days, but also not a very cohesive vision of how things should be different. What is the common ground we should be protesting for? And would it really make a difference, anyway? I think the apathy is the biggest obstacle. Nobody really feels powerful enough to change anything. Particularly in this bizarro decade we're living in now I notice the detachment I feel when I watch the news and hear reports that America did today (pick any topic you want) and my reaction is "OMG, America did WHAT??!" Complete detachment, like I'm hearing about some group of strangers that I have no connection to rather than the government that is supposed to be representing me, you know?

 

You're right that most people seem to be in a mode of trying just to ride out the storm, looking after their own interests and just waiting for the clouds to lift someday. I'm probably as guilty of this as anybody. High energy costs, crappy economy--who has time to see the big picture when you're just trying to keep your family's head above water? Like I said earlier, I think there needs to be some sort of collective vision. Bringing the troops home from Iraq doesn't seem enough yet to bring people out in the streets. Its the tip of the iceberg, but then what? Political tensions in this country are high right now and everybody is so deeply dug into their own respective trenches that it is hard to imagine a common viewpoint emerging of what the "greater good" is at this point. Hell, we're at a point in our history that there are political arguments happening over that f'ing Wall-E cartoon, for chrissakes. How can we even begin to agree over something happening in the real world?

 

If something is to change, there needs to be a catalyst--a movement to signal to people that it is ok to put down their daily lives and get out in the streets, whether figuratively or literally. In the meantime, expect a continuation of the "I've got mine" mentality while people continue to hunker down until better days magically arrive.

 

Hope that makes sense. Well, its back to work for me. I've got a paycheck to earn and a family to feed. Wake me when the revolution comes.

ah yes, this makes a lot of sense too. depressing but true. well said, q23!

[MattZ]

Sometimes I think that the apathy today relates to the fact that people tried to change things in the 60s and largely failed. And now people are resigned to the fact that there's just not much that can be done to change things.

 

And then I think that there were some pretty powerful changes in the 60s. The Civil Rights Act, for one, really did change things for people.

 

So I have no answers. Just questions.

[Sweet Papa Crimbo]

.

 

Hope that makes sense. Well, its back to work for me. I've got a paycheck to earn and a family to feed. Wake me when the revolution comes.

 

 

Heh...when the 'Revolution Comes" we will ALL be the first ones up against the wall.

[Winston Legthigh]

Sometimes I think that the apathy today relates to the fact that people tried to change things in the 60s and largely failed. And now people are resigned to the fact that there's just not much that can be done to change things.

 

And then I think that there were some pretty powerful changes in the 60s. The Civil Rights Act, for one, really did change things for people.

 

So I have no answers. Just questions.

 

Yeah, but today's generation (talking about the 20somethings who are typically the impetus of change/revolution) didn't experience the revolution or subsequent letdown of the 60s.

 

I believe the problem is that we have too many creature comforts today. Too many choices - too many trivial pursuits that keep us occupied. We're inundated with products and choices that compel us to be distracted from the rest of the world and to spend our time working and pursuing leisurely lifestyles. Purchasing power and access to leisure products have never been greater.

 

As RATM says: "What does the billboard say? Come and play, come and play! Forget about the movement..."

[tugmoose]

I just read Jack Newfield's "RFK: A Memoir," written in 1969. For me, the most telling line of how different times were - just as Kennedy entered the race in March 68, the approval rating for the war in Vietnam was "down to only 54 percent," down 20 percent since Tet. A steep drop, yes, but try to imagine a time when 54 percent approval would be cause for alarm. As innocent as the public had been in its faith in the govt, it was even more innocent in its belief that it could change the govt. In certain ways I see the same pattern emerging.

[tugmoose]

Purchasing power and access to leisure products have never been greater.

This part is changing rapidly. When the vast middle class wakes up to the fact that it's being left behind, look out!

[quarter23cd]

Purchasing power and access to leisure products have never been greater.

Maybe. We certainly do spend an awful lot of time chasing after "things" that keep us distracted. And not even "leisure" in the way we normally think of the word, but just glancing at my monthly bills I can point out several things--cellphone, cable tv, internet provider, web hosting, satellite radio--that I've come to think of as "standard" expenses, although they are things that didn't even exist a couple decades ago. And I wonder where all my money goes...

 

And yet I would argue that access to leisure time seems to be diminishing. (anybody else here carry around a pager that is always on?)

[MattZ]

Yeah, but today's generation (talking about the 20somethings who are typically the impetus of change/revolution) didn't experience the revolution or subsequent letdown of the 60s.

 

Sure, but today's generation is the product of the boomers that did, right? So maybe they've/we've been raised with a mindset that subsconsciously is less willing to believe that we can change anything.

[stooka]

I believe the problem is that we have too many creature comforts today. Too many choices - too many trivial pursuits that keep us occupied. We're inundated with products and choices that compel us to be distracted from the rest of the world and to spend our time working and pursuing leisurely lifestyles. Purchasing power and access to leisure products have never been greater.

 

 

That damn Bush.

[Edie]

Apparently photos from his funeral train from NY to DC recently surfaced. I hate CNN (try to ignore whatever inappropriate ad they force you to watch before the slideshow), but this is a pretty emotional collection of photos:

 

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2008/0...pening.here.cnn

 

I saw this today while wide awake in the middle of the night. The one photo of the single family standing close to the tracks (husband, wife and 4 kids) is particularly evocative, as is one later on in the show of a train platform, showing a large crowd. At the front of the crowd are two mothers holding sleeping young children (toddlers probably, or younger). I couldn't help but think that now those kids are in their 40s.

[tugmoose]

I couldn't help but think that now those kids are in their 40s.

Like that's a bad thing?