Thursday, January 22, 2009

Robery Kennedy: His Life Post 6

The book ends with Robert Kennedy finishing hisvictory speech to a crowd of supporters. Tragically, as he turned to look for his wife, Sirhan Sirhan shot him in the head with a .22 caliber pistol. His bodyguard leaped towards the gunman. The crowd was screaming and crying. A woman in a red party dress said, "No, God, no. It's happened again."(391). At 1:44 am on June 6th, 1968, Robert Kennedy was pronounced dead. His brother, Edward Kennedy, gave a eulogy at his funeral. He said,

"My brother need not be idealized, or enlarged in death beyond what he was in life. Rather, he should be remembered simply as a good and decent man, who saw wrong and tried to right it, saw suffering and tried to heal it, saw war and tried to stop it"(393).

These powerful words summed up Robert Kennedy's life. He tried to make the world a better place. He inspired thousands of people to better their lives. He taught his children to love America, but he also showed every American how to: by respecting it's laws and upholding it's ideals even when it's not the popular thing to do. He was an everyday man who did great things. Today, he is buried in Arlington National Cemetary, only 30ft away from his brother, John F. Kennedy. While JFK's grave is elaborate and large, RFK is buried beneath a simple white cross. Americans will forever remember and thank him for the personal sacrifices he made to better our country.

1 comment:

Kristen H said...

I think that Kennedy's brother's statement that Kennedy should be remembered for what he did, and not for his death is powerful and should be listened to more often. So many times the death of a person is all you remember about them, and i'll admit that Kennedy rings a bell towards assassination and nothing much else for me. Even the slight summary you give about the assassination gives me a sense of horror and depicts an extremely morbid scene.