A Timeless And Ever-So Timely Plea from Robert F. Kennedy

“What we need in the United States is not division; what we need in the United States is not hatred; what we need in the United States is not violence and lawlessness, but is love and wisdom, and compassion toward one another, and a feeling of justice towards those who suffer within our country, whether they be white or whether they be black.

Let us dedicate ourselves to what the Greeks wrote so many years ago:  To tame the savageness of man and make gentle the life of this world, let us dedicate ourselves to that, and say a prayer for our country and for our people.”*

*This is a portion of the message delivered almost without notes by Robert Kennedy to a largely African-American audience at a campaign rally in Indianapolis in April, 1968. He had just learned of Martin Luther King's assassination. Little could we have imagined that only a few months later he, too, would be assassinated.

Little could we have imagined that fifty-one years later his plea for "love and wisdom" could be so relevant.