This time there will be a new day, a day in which we can take the freedoms secured by John Lewis, Dr. King, and others, and
expand and solidify them into the fundamental fabric of our society.
Ann: Bobby?
Robert Kennedy: Yes, Ann, you are hearing my voice again. I would like to say it has been compared to angel chimes but well.... At least it has the virtue of being distinctive so you can tell who I am.
Ann: I like your voice.
Bobby: Well, you are one of the few. But I came to talk to you about something else, the new day that is dawning, personally for you and many others and collectively for our planning. It comes slowly, but it is coming.
Ann, you are beginning to accept your world and your place in it, beginning to allow us to travel with you. I have laughed to see you try to shrug us off and think that you can preserve your privacy, your own little spot on the planet that way. I think you are finding you that there is no percentage in that endeavor.
If I didn’t learn that in my public, oh so public life, l learned it when Jack died and I finally allowed myself to take up the work I was meant to do. I didn’t want it, I wanted to be the second, the fixer, the guy who got it done, the one that everybody complained about so they could say, “Yeah, that Bobby’s a ruthless bastard, but the President’s a pretty good guy.”
Then everything changed in one afternoon. It took a deep dive into anguish, heartache, and complete loss of self before I could return to the simple truth: I wanted to serve. I knew how to do it and knew that what I could offer was needed in our polarized world.
Sound familiar, Ann? And not just to you, but to everyone out there who has been hoping that someone else would do it or thinking that their gifts were not on a par with others or that their little contribution would make no difference.
We stand where were in the 60’s, where the progress we have made to date is being threatened by those who fear that the sway of the white oligarchy is passing and may be lost forever, and so they are giving no quarter. Actions that you would think would be beneath the dignity of those whose soaring rhetoric has proclaimed their moral superiority have revealed their insecurities and their addiction to power and prominence.
I ask that each one of you look to your own talents and add them to the mix, for this time the war will be on our own shores. The enemy is within, and we have a president so inured to his own immorality that nothing is a bridge too far.
Sounds hopeless, doesn’t it? And it would be if there were not hundreds of thousands of people responding to the clarion call of decency, honor, and patriotism. These are the ones who are rising up, who will not permit this country to be bulldozed by the unthinking baboons that call themselves the representatives of the people.
This time there will be a new day, a day in which we can take the freedoms secured by John Lewis, Dr. King, and others, expand and solidify them into the fundamental fabric of our society. Our teachers will teach our children that we come to the aid of our fellows because that is what our country was founded on. Our priests and rabbis will preach the work of God without ceasing and without interruption from those who would defile His message. Every person going about his or day will stand up when the lines of justice and compassion are crossed.
We will have a New Day. With God’s help we will create it.
August 1, 2020