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The 40th anniversary of the death of RFK is coming up, and I wanted to share an indelible memory of that event. I worked in Port Allen and was driving across the newly-opened (in April) I-10 bridge in Baton Rouge, when all of a sudden the traffic began to slow down and some even stopped. It wasn't that crowded, so I had no idea what had happened. Someone shouted to me, "Turn on your radio!" That's when I heard about the assassination. It was eerie to see the traffic just stop like that on the bridge, with no accident or congestion. It was like people had to stop to take in the horrible information that it had happened again.
I have, just last night, finished another book about the Kennedys - 'Brothers', about JFK and RFK, starting with the New Frontier years (late 50s) thru the 60s. A good read about a world changing decade.
If traffic on the bridge or anywhere around town I was at didn't stop the morning of 9/11, I find it hard to believe it stopped on the river bridge in 1968. But that's awesome if it did. It just proves what a different time we live in now. Everything is so fast paced. I had to pull off at a relatives house to see the t.v. just to find out if what they were saying on the radio about the WTC was true. No body on the highway told me.
I was young, but the world stopped with the JFK and RFK assassinations. The world was at a slower pace and the nation seemed more united. Very, very different times.
darylwi, you have to remember that not only was it was the second assasination in two months, Dr. Martin Luther King. Jr was killed on April 4, but it was the second assasination of a Kennedy in five years. I was 13, I had nearly lost both my parents and my younger brother in a huge gas explosion in Eastern Indiana on April 6. My brother and I were very traumatized by those events.
When I came downstairs on June 6 to get ready for school, TV was on, which was rare. When my brother turned around and said Bobby had been shot I remember saying, "Oh, no, not again," and began to cry. I think it was the only time in my entire school career that my mother kept me (and my brother) home when I wasn't sick. I really believe if Bobby had not been shot he would have done much to heal the rifts between whites and blacks, hippies and rednecks, Democrats and Republicans.
The explosion I mentioned was initially thought to be civil unrest in response to the King assasination. It was not, but over 100 communities went up in flames all over the country. One city that did not was Indianapolis. Bobby Kennedy had been campaigning there, and against advice gave an unscheduled speech in hopes of diffussing the mounting tension in the city. He spoke from the heart about rising above the desire for revenge.
darylwi, you have to remember that not only was it was the second assasination in two months, Dr. Martin Luther King. Jr was killed on April 4, but it was the second assasination of a Kennedy in five years. I was 13, I had nearly lost both my parents and my younger brother in a huge gas explosion in Eastern Indiana on April 6. My brother and I were very traumatized by those events.
When I came downstairs on June 6 to get ready for school, TV was on, which was rare. When my brother turned around and said Bobby had been shot I remember saying, "Oh, no, not again," and began to cry. I think it was the only time in my entire school career that my mother kept me (and my brother) home when I wasn't sick. I really believe if Bobby had not been shot he would have done much to heal the rifts between whites and blacks, hippies and rednecks, Democrats and Republicans.
The explosion I mentioned was initially thought to be civil unrest in response to the King assasination. It was not, but over 100 communities went up in flames all over the country. One city that did not was Indianapolis. Bobby Kennedy had been campaigning there, and against advice gave an unscheduled speech in hopes of diffussing the mounting tension in the city. He spoke from the heart about rising above the desire for revenge.
I was fifteen and lived in LA. I'd seen the votes come in as he won California before I went to bed and had my clock raido set for my favorite rock station (before it was ewwww oldies). Instead of music was talking and I listened for a moment before I heard. I cried too. When JFK was killed it had rocked my world and then King... you wondered who was next after RFK too. Nobody who wasn't there can possible understand the trauma of that time. 9/11 was horrible but we were already jaded and didn't think it would happen here (or so unimaginably huge). But in the 60's it was at first unthinkable that our leaders could be gunned down and so many of them.
But a friend of mine was one of the campaign staff. She was a foot away when he was shot. She got blood on her clothes from him. She remebered Rosie Greer grabbing Sirhan since she was next to them. She will not talk beyond that.
I think all of us who grew up then, when we really believed our nation was about to erupt into internal little wars, were broken a little by the time. I wonder if the boomers who already saw social meltdown and knew the fear that it would be the end are the first to see a new meltdown and have no faith that our government can stem the economic mess. An awful lot of people I know my age are stocking up on dry goods and cans and maybe thinking of a destination out of the city.
RFK's death was the last bit of hope extinguised and what came after was truely ugly. May other generations not have to see how much.
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