In 1968, Robert “Bobby” Kennedy sought the Democratic presidential nomination. Wikipedia states:
Kennedy ran on a platform of racial and economic justice, non-aggression in foreign policy, decentralization of power, and social change. A crucial element of his campaign was an engagement with the young, whom he identified as being the future of a reinvigorated American society based on partnership and equality. His policy objectives did not sit well with the business community, where he was viewed as something of a fiscal liability, opposed as they were to the tax increases necessary to fund social programs. At one of his university speeches (Indiana University Medical School), he was asked, “Where are we going to get the money to pay for all these new programs you’re proposing?” He replied to the medical students, about to enter lucrative careers, “From you.”
It was this intense and frank mode of dialogue with which he was to continue to engage those whom he viewed as not being traditional allies of Democratic ideals or initiatives. In a speech at the University of Alabama, he argued, “I believe that any who seek high office this year must go before all Americans, not just those who agree with them, but also those who disagree, recognizing that it is not just our supporters, not just those who vote for us, but all Americans who we must lead in the difficult years ahead.” He aroused rabid animosity in some quarters, with J. Edgar Hoover’s Deputy Clyde Tolson reported as saying, “I hope that someone shoots and kills the son of a bitch.”
Kennedy’s presidential campaign brought out both “great enthusiasm” and anger in people. His message of change raised hope for some and brought fear to others. Kennedy wanted to be a bridge across the divide of American society. His bid for the presidency saw not only a continuation of the programs he and his brother had undertaken during the president’s term in office, but also an extension of Johnson’s Great Society.
Kennedy visited numerous small towns and made himself available to the masses by participating in long motorcades and street-corner stump speeches, often in troubled inner cities. He made urban poverty a chief concern of his campaign, which in part led to enormous crowds that would attend his events in poor urban areas or rural parts of Appalachia.
I can’t help but wonder what America might look like today if John Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr, and Bobby Kennedy had survived the murderous 1960s. All three of them were assassinated, so we will never know. We do know that succeeding decades gave us presidents such as Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, Gerald Ford, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Donald Trump, and Joe Biden. I will leave it to readers to determine who among these presidents, if any, carried on Kennedy’s progressive ideals. I have my own opinion on the matter, but I don’t want to be distracted by arguing about personalities.
Shortly after midnight on June 5, 1968, Sirhan Sirhan opened fire with a .22 caliber revolver, hitting Bobby Kennedy in the head, and killing him. (Kennedy was not pronounced dead until twenty-six hours later.) Pete Hamill, a journalist, novelist, and essayist was in the ballroom of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles when his friend Bobby Kennedy was assassinated. A week later, Hamill wrote a gut-wrenching essay for the Village Voice titled Two Minutes to Midnight: The Very Last Hurrah.
Here’s what Hamill had to say about guns. His language, filled with rage, is reflective of the times:
You could feel that as we drove through the empty L.A. streets, listening to the sirens screaming in the night. Nothing would change. Kennedy’s death would mean nothing. It was just another digit in the great historical pageant that includes the slaughter of Indians, the plundering of Mexico, the enslavement of black people, the humiliation of Puerto Ricans. Just another digit. Nothing would come of it. While Kennedy’s life was ebbing out of him, Americans were dropping bombs and flaming jelly on Orientals. While the cops fingerprinted the gunmen, Senator Eastland’s Negro subjects were starving. While the cops made chalk marks on the floor of the pantry, the brave members of the National Rifle Association were already explaining that people commit crimes, guns don’t (as if Willie Mays could hit a homerun without a bat). These cowardly bums claim Constitutional rights to kill fierce deer in the forests, and besides, suppose the niggers come to the house and we don’t have anything to shoot them with? Suppose we have to fight a nigger man-to-man?
America the Beautiful: with crumby little mini-John Waynes carrying guns to the woods like surrogate penises. Yes: the kid I saw shoot Kennedy was from Jordan, was diseased with some fierce hatred for Jews. Sam Yorty, who hated Kennedy, now calls Kennedy a great American and blames the Communists. Hey Sam: you killed him too. The gun that kid carried was American. The city where he shot down a good man was run by Sam Yorty. How about keeping your fat pigstink mouth shut.
There have been almost 200 mass shootings since the start of 2023. This past weekend was particularly violent and bloody. Once again, innocent Americans have died because our ruling class — particularly Republicans — refuses to do one goddamn thing about assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. Instead, awful men such as Texas Governor Greg Abbott refuse to see what is right in front of his face: guns kill people; AR-15-style weapons kill lots of people. Without weapons of mass destruction, it is unlikely that we would see the level of mass causality shootings that we see today. Or as Hamill poignantly says: there would be no home runs without bats.
Bruce Gerencser, 67, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 46 years. He and his wife have six grown children and thirteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
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Some countries have issued cautionary statements about visiting the US due to gun violence. I feel cautious about visiting certain states, though at this point no state is free from gun violence. The fact that people can easily purchase AR-15 type weapons – weapons designed to kill as many enemy combatants as possible – is a public health and safety menace. And what for? So politicians can line their campaign pockets with that sweet, sweet NRA cash.
I think Sandy Hook was a major turning point on the road to allowing more gun deaths. Children and their teachers were gunned down, and nothing was done.* Republicans don’t want anything to be done, and Democrats aren’t working hard enough against this. Even Congressmen getting shot didn’t change any minds. This American Empire is falling and it’s going to get uglier and uglier.
*Connecticut did enact stricter guns laws. But on a state by state level, red states are allowing just about anyone to have destructive weapons, happily casting away pre-existing laws.
I don’t know about the statistics as to mental instability with regard to shootings, nor race, nor religion, nor many other factors. When it comes to guns, however, the statistics are clear. 100% of shootings involve guns.
Hatred and other forms of mental illness are gasoline. Guns are the matches.
Pete Hammill, as brilliant as ever, astutely linked this country’s attitudes about race and class to guns. In her book, “The Second: Race and Guns in a Fatally Unequal America, ” historian Carol Anderson argues that this connection goes all the way back to this country’s founding. James Madison wrote the Second Amendment as he did to appease Patrick Henry and George Mason who, at the Virginia ratification convention for the Constitution, expressed fears that a Federal militia would not protect slave owners like themselves from an uprising by slaves.
That is why guns are a “state’s rights” issue and as long as states are free to have few or no restrictions on gun ownership, what Hammill described will always exist–and be a recipe for individual and mass shootings.
MJ, so much in this country can be traced back to the enslavement of other human beings.
Yup. The foundation wasn’t Christianity,it was stolen land,worked by stolen labor. Christianity as a label, pasted on for the national myth. Or the above twin evils NEVER could have happened. The frontier mentality is why guns are seen as the answer, especially for angry sorts. And the abusive family culture of this country is toxic as raising kids go. The Nashville school shooter comes to mind. The phrase, “the cops were just so MASCULINE,the way they took out the shooter so quickly.” What does being male have to do with that situation ?? Makes me want to keep my passport close at hand, that’s for sure ! 🏖️🗺️🧳