Robert Francis Kennedy Bobby KENNEDY

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What I think is quite clear

Is that we can work together in the last analysis, and that has been going on within the
United States over the period of the last three years—
The divisions, the violence, the disenchantment with our society, the divisions whether
it’s between blacks and whites, between the poor and the more affluent or between age
groups or on the war in Vietnam—that we can start to work together We are a great
country and a selfless country, and compassionate country. And I intend to make that my
basis for running, then over the period of the next few months. So we thanks to all of you
and let’s win there thank you very much

Robert Francis Kennedy Bobby KENNEDY


It is not a day for politics. I have saved this one opportunity….. my only event of today
To speak briefly to you about the mindless menace of violence in America,- which again
stains our land- and every one of our lives. It is not the concern of any one race. The
victims of the violence are black and white, rich and poor, young and old, famous and
unknown. They are, most important of all, human beings whom other human beings
loved and needed. No one, no matter where he lives- or what he does… can be certain
who next will suffer from some senseless act of bloodshed. And yet it goes on and on and
on in this country of ours. Why? what has violence ever accomplished? What has it ever
created? Whenever any American’s life is taken by another American
unnecessarily…..whether it is done in the name of law or in defiance of the law, by one
man or a gang, in cold blood or in passion…in an attack of violence or in response to
violence, whenever we tear at the fabric of our lives which another man has painfully and
clumsily woven for himself and his children, whenever we do this, then the whole nation
is degraded. Yet we seemingly tolerance a rising level of violence that ignores our
common humanity and our claims to civilization alike. Too often, we honor swagger and
bluster and the wielders of force. To often, we excuse those
Who are willing to build their own lives on the shattered dreams of other human beings.
But this much is clear: Violence breeds violence, repression breeds retaliation, and only a
cleansing of our whole society can remove this sickness from our souls. For when you
teach a man to hate to fear his brother, when you teach that he is a lesser man because of
his color or his beliefs or the policies that he pursues…when you teach that those who
differ from you threaten your freedom or your job or your home or your family, then you
also learn to confront others, not as fellow citizens, but as enemies. To be met not with
cooperation, but with conquest. To be subjugated and to be mastered. We learn, at the
last, to look at our brothers as aliens. Alien men with whom we share a city, but not a
community. Men bound to us in common dueling, but not in common effort. We learn to
share only a common fear, only a common desire to retreat from each other. Only a
common impulse to meet disagreement with force. Our lives on this planet –are to short.
- The work to be done is too great to let this spirit flourish any longer in this land of
ours. Of course, we cannot banish it with a program nor with a resolution....but we
can perhaps remember, if only for a time, that those who live with us are our
brothers, that they share with us the same short moment of life, that they seek, as
do we, nothing but the chance to live out their lives in purpose and in happiness,
- Winning what satisfaction and fulfillment that they can. Surely, this bond of
common fate, surely, this bond of common goals can began to teach us
something. Surely, we can learn at the least, to look around at those of us, of our
fellow men, and surely, we can begin to work a little harder to bind up the wounds
among us and to become, in our hearts, brothers and countrymen once again.

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