I was 11-years-old when he died. I was living in Scotland. I actually knew who he was as we were working on a project at school about the US. I had an instinctive like of Bobby and an instant dislike of Richard Nixon. Even then I was a lefty, I guess. When I heard he had died I was very saddened. Then I went on with my life. It was after I had moved to Canada in 1970 that I got interested in the Kennedy family. I started off reading books about JFK but soon found I was much more interested in what Bobby had done in his life. I soon began reading everything I could get my hands on about Bobby.
I often wonder how different the world would have been if he had lived and been elected president. Of course, it was not definite he would have been elected. Still, it would have been nice if he had had the chance.
I hope we hear lots about Bobby this year. We have heard talk of him from the Democratic candidates but a lot of people really don't know enough about him. They hear some stories and take them at gospel, but don't bother to find out the truth. I think his biggest contribution to the 1968 election campaign was that he gave people hope. He may not have been able to accomplish everything he said he would, but you know he would have tried and would have stood by his beliefs.
Bobby announced he was running for President on March 16, 1968. I'll post a transcript of that speech here on that day.
What memories do you have of that time?
Memories of RFK by
Susan Keeping is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Canada License.
