I date my \u201cpolitical awakening\u201d to the spring of 1968.\u00a0\u00a0I was eleven years old and it was the year of assassinations.\u00a0\u00a0Martin Luther King was shot in the beginning of April.\u00a0\u00a0I remember the terrible suddenness of his death. But even more, I remember the frustrated out-pouring of grief that turned into riots in downtown Dayton, Ohio.\u00a0\u00a0Dad ran a television station there, and we lived just south of town in Kettering.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We sat and watched Dad\u2019s station, the camera crews and reporters braving the violence on the streets to tell us all what was going on. I was worried, for our city, but also for Dad. He spent the night at the station, not far from our home.\u00a0\u00a0I didn\u2019t know what he might have to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That night in April also cemented my admiration for Senator Robert Kennedy, then running for President.\u00a0\u00a0I was always a \u201cKennedy man\u201d, but on that night, Bobby landed his campaign plane in Indianapolis, and went, against the advice of the police and advisors, downtown to talk to the assembled mourners.\u00a0\u00a0His speech that night was off the cuff.\u00a0\u00a0In part, this is what he said:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For those of you who are black and are tempted to be filled with hatred and distrust at the injustice of such an act, against all white people, I can only say that I feel in my own heart the same kind of feeling. I had a member of my family killed, but he was killed by a white man. But we have to make an effort in the United States, we have to make an effort to understand, to go beyond these rather difficult times.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n My favorite poet was Aeschylus. He wrote: “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.”<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n What we need in the United States is not division; what we need in the United States is not hatred; what we need in the United States is not violence or lawlessness; but love and wisdom, and compassion toward one another, and a feeling of justice toward those who still suffer within our country, whether they be white or they be black.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n He not only shared in the pain and frustration of those assembled, but he took that shared emotion and tried to re-direct away from violence, and towards a better country.\u00a0\u00a0I was a \u201cKennedy man\u201d for sure, from that moment on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But it only lasted a short, two months.\u00a0\u00a0On June 6th<\/sup>, one of the last days of school, my radio-alarm clock went off at 7:00 am.\u00a0\u00a0The first words out of the speaker were fateful:\u00a0\u00a0Bobby himself was shot in Los Angeles, soon to die.\u00a0\u00a0At eleven years old, it was difficult to understand such violence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But it was 1968, and the violence was far from over.\u00a0\u00a0The cities burned in riots during the summer, the anti-Vietnam War movement grew more powerful, and the Democratic Convention in Chicago became known for the \u201cpolice riots\u201d that tore the Party apart.\u00a0\u00a0Mayor Daley cleared the streets of demonstrators with the full force and violence of his department.\u00a0\u00a0The Democratic Party, and the United States; were splintered, divided, polarized, and violent.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n And Bobby\u2019s speech in Indianapolis became a foundation of my political life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I am now a full-fledged, \u201ccard-carrying\u201d Boomer.\u00a0\u00a0For my generation, assassination and violence in politics is no stranger.\u00a0\u00a0The power of a single bullet can alter history; whether it was fired by a \u201ccontract killer\u201d like the assassin of Martin Luther King, or a \u201cmadman killer\u201d like the assassin of Bobby Kennedy.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n We don\u2019t know what we don\u2019t know about yesterday\u2019s assassination of Charlie Kirk, an incredibly popular young right-wing podcaster and influencer.\u00a0\u00a0He was killed on a Utah college campus.\u00a0\u00a0In our incredibly polarized, social media driven world, the accusations are there:\u00a0\u00a0\u201cThey (left-wingers) did it!\u201d\u00a0\u00a0Maybe so, or maybe a calculating madman with a personal grudge, or maybe someone else.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n What we do know is the power of a bullet.\u00a0\u00a0Seldom does a bullet cause the \u201clove and wisdom through the awful grace of God\u201d that Bobby addressed.\u00a0\u00a0Instead, it is just as likely to drive us even farther apart.\u00a0\u00a0It doesn\u2019t help that many of our\u00a0\u00a0hand-held \u201cnews sources\u201d, are driven by algorithms designed to heighten the drama.\u00a0\u00a0Most of us, like it or not, saw the actual strike of the bullet, the \u201cZapruder film\u201d of this generation.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0It serves to create even more division. If you don\u2019t think so, check out \u201cX\u201d or \u201cFacebook\u201d or any of the other \u201cnews\u201d (not really) sources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Other than his political views, I don\u2019t know much about Charlie Kirk.\u00a0\u00a0I do disagree with almost everything he stood for.\u00a0\u00a0And I do know that his murder will not further my political cause or beliefs.\u00a0\u00a0Creating a martyr to \u201ctheir cause\u201d never does.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n But, like the 1960\u2019s, the assassination of Kirk, the attempted assassination of Trump, the murders of the Democratic legislators in Minnesota, and the constant drumbeat of school shootings (even yesterday in Evergreen, Colorado); tell us one thing.\u00a0\u00a0Our Nation is so divided, so intensely partisan and hateful, that those on the fringes are likely to \u201cfall off\u201d, and decide they can use that ultimate power to make single-handed change:\u00a0\u00a0the bullet.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n And that division is one we all have some responsibility for. <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Again<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
A Single Bullet<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The Divide<\/h2>\n\n\n\n