Friends, it is time for us to settle down politically. Things are getting too hot; tensions are getting twisted too tightly. We need to cool off and take things down a notch.
We need to remember that when we say “The Left” or “The Right” we are not talking about criminal gangs or enemy combatants. We are talking about our friends and neighbors. We are talking about family. We are talking about good people that we care about.
I remember when Martin Luther King Jr was murdered. It was a scary time. People were afraid of race riots and reprisals.
And then Bobby Kennedy delivered a “Statement on the Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.” He was campaigning in Indiana for the presidency and got asked about the assassination. The statement he made was not written down; it was totally improvised. He just shared what was in his heart.
In the speech Kennedy made a call for compassion. That we need to love, not hate and to extend compassion to one another.
He acknowledged the pain of those grieving the loss of a good man and that we must all fight against the bitterness many felt and the desire for revenge.
Kennedy said that America needs to move through these difficult times with wisdom and make a commitment to justice and gentleness.
Kennedy closed his speech this way, “So I shall ask you tonight to return home, to say a prayer for the family of Martin Luther King, that’s true, but more importantly to say a prayer for our own country, which all of us love--a prayer for understanding and that compassion of which I spoke.”
In April 1968 Bobby Kennedy’s words kept America from erupting into violence. We lost Bobby Kennedy to gun violence less than two months later. Bobby is gone, but we still have his words. We need those words to remind us to have compassion, to resist the bitterness we may feel, and to commit ourselves to a just America.
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