A European View of Obama

June 9, 2008
Obama, like JFK, has the wind behind him
The Democrat presidential candidate is trying to create a new kind of politics in the United States - and beyond
William Rees-Mogg

Obama is the Kennedy of a new generation. I have strong personal memories of the Kennedy election in 1960 that took a Roman Catholic to the White House for the first time. As early as January and February of this year, starting before Super Tuesday on February 5, I was discussing the comparison between the Obama and Kennedy campaigns.

On February 18 I wrote: "It is hard to see who can stop Senator Barack Obama becoming the next president of the United States. He has built up an excitement such as no candidate has created since President Kennedy in 1960." Hillary Clinton tried to stop him and she failed. The Republican candidate, Senator John McCain, is a fine man, but he will not wage as forceful a campaign as Senator Clinton. ….

Kennedy was himself an excellent speaker, but Obama is an even better one. He had a warmer voice and better natural rhythms of speech. Kennedy's Boston accent sounded more elitist; he broke up his sentences into little chunks, which interrupted his flow.

Obama combines the reflective with the declamatory; he has managed to use the black rhythms, which remind one of orators such as Martin Luther King, while avoiding the exaggeration of some black preachers. Indeed, his tone of thoughtful moderation enabled him to diminish the impact of some foolish remarks by his own old preacher. ….

It is Obama, like Kennedy, who has the momentum of history.

More:
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23837947-5013948,00.html

William Rees-Mogg was editor of London newspaper The Times from 1967 to 1981.

Loser & Still Champion

(This essay appears on the political discussion forum the "Democratic Underground.")

{1} " ‘End of the Ali Legend’ a national sports magazine front-paged its coverage of The Fight. But the next day, lying in bed with his head out of shape but still very much together, Ali was proving himself an extremely lively corpse. Could a Super Ego like Ali, who has made braggadoccio a way of life, live with himself in defeat? It was expected that the firemen would have to come with their nets to catch the despondent ex-champion who could not bear the harsh reality after all those years in the rosy glow of unnatural perfection. But here was a new Ali, winning a new constituency with his unexpectedly graceful acceptance of defeat, suggesting with almost Boy-Scoutish piety that losing can be good for the soul and hoping it will help his people by setting an example in how to lose if lose you must. And then, the extrovert who shifts effortlessly into retrospection, ‘A plane crashes. A President gets assassinated. A civil rights leader assassinated. People forget in two weeks. Old news.’

"There are worse things than defeat in the ring, he says, and from even the worse tragedies people recover. The Fall and Rise of Muhammad Ali is practically instant. … He’s our black Johnny Appleseed. He’s in pursuit of a buck and in pursuit of the truth and somehow the expansiveness of his personality bridges contradictions that would undo the normal you’s and me’s. …..

"The scenario of Muhammad Ali is the sum of all our baseness and nobility. He is the mirror in which we may examine our viciousness, our thoughtlessness, and our flash moments of virtue. He is our time. It is a time of light and a time of darkness. A time when Americans may irrevocably tear themselves apart or succeed at last in putting themselves together, cleansed of cancerous hypocrisies. ….

"How this historic decision (Ali’s victory in the US Supreme Court on his draft case), Ali’s costly victory, speaks to our future only that future, pressed back into the past as history, can tell. Is it a sign of our painful confession for past sins, without which there cannot be a national reconciliation? Does it mean that we finally are awakening from our collective nightmare…?"
--Budd Schulberg; Loser and Still Champion: Muhammad Ali;1971; Popular Library.

All of life – at its very best, and, indeed, at its very worst – imitates the sport of boxing. And so when I listened to Senator Hillary Clinton’s powerful speech yesterday, I was reminded of Muhammad Ali’s grace and strength after his loss to Joe Frazier in the March 8, 1971 "Fight of the Century."

That loss provided an opportunity not only for Ali to learn and hence grow, but for his fans to, as well. More, it allowed many of the boxing fans and others who disliked Ali, often strongly, to come to respect Muhammad Ali in a way that could not have happened had Ali won that fight. In 1972, Elvis Presley gave Muhammad a boxing robe with the words "The People’s Champion" on the back. And by the time that Muhammad held the Olympic torch, few people resented him for the bitterness of his struggle against Uncle Sam, decades earlier.

Hillary Clinton’s 2008 campaign must also be viewed as something that both her supporters and detractors can learn from. Although I have supported Barack Obama since February, and came to resent some of the tactics of the Clinton campaign, I have more admiration for Hillary Clinton than I did in 2000 and 2006, when I worked for her campaigns for the Senate in New York State.

Even on the Democratic Underground, where more than a few of the discussions, debates, and arguments resembled low blows, butts, and rabbit punches, we have the opportunity to put that acrimony behind us, and reflect upon what we all may have learned. For me, it is a greater appreciation for the experience of females – of all ages – in our society. If I fail to learn from this, then I have wasted an important to grow as a human being. And if I fail to grow as a human being, then I betray the opportunity to help repair the damage that forces represented by George W. Bush and Dick Cheney have done to our country.

{2}"The guard on duty that morning at the Hudson County Jail unlocked my cell door and escorted me out to the front desk where the telephone was hanging down off the hook. He motioned for me to pick it up. I had no idea what was going on, but I picked up the phone anyway.

" ‘Is this the Hurricane?’ Muhammad Ali asked from 12,000 miles away. ‘Well, I just won my big fight here in Zaire in the eighth round,’ he said, ‘and now I’m coming back to America to help you win your Sixteenth Round. Just hang in there, Champ, I’m on my way!’

"So, to Rubin, Hurricane and Carter, Muhammad Ali means ‘One who has walked and talked with Kings, and yet has not lost the common touch.’ And perhaps our philosophy is one and the same. That only after hard and sometimes bitter conflict with the many injustices that pollute this world ….comes peace.

"Muhammad Ali means Constant Struggle!

"But that’s what America’s all about. Is it not?"

--Rubin "Hurricane" Carter; What Ali means to Black People …. And All People; World Boxing Magazine; 1974

As we approach the Democratic National Convention, and the November elections, our party needs to consider the demographics. "Demographics" are simply the population characteristics of the country, state by state. We need to win the presidency and make advances in the Congress, as well achieve victories in state and local elections, no single demographic is as important as having massive voter turnout. We want to win our fight in November in the overwhelming manner that Ali won his most important fights. In 2008, this means uniting the Obama and Clinton branches of the democratic party.

In order to heal the wounds that George W. Bush has inflicted on the fabric of our society, and repair the damage Dick Cheney has done to the foundation of our Constitutional democracy, we must have a united effort. Though Barack Obama has won the democratic primary contest, we will not win in November if we do not learn the harsh lessons from the past few months. All of us.

That means Constant Struggle. But that is what America is all about. Is it not?

Unconventional Behaviors

{1} Unconventional Politics

I recently spoke with a friend who expressed frustration at the path that Senator Hillary Clinton has taken in the democratic presidential primary. She said that Senator Clinton’s behaviors suggest that she "only cares about herself." I understand why many good democrats and progressives on the left feel this way. This has been a long and often harsh primary season, and at this point, most democrats would like some resolution to the issues that threaten to divide our party. But it is important for us to recognize that Hillary Clinton does not actually only care about herself – and once we do this, we can then identify what is the actual cause of the unconventional behaviors that we are witnessing today.

Even Senator Clinton’s harshest critics should be objective enough to recognize that the central issue of importance to her in her political career has been a form of social justice that includes health care. Hillary’s approach may be different than my friend’s, because of of the two is a product of their own unique experiences. But they also share common ground: my friend, who is a bit older than Senator Clinton, helped make programs such as Head Start a reality for families in this country, and no one can doubt that this is exactly the type of program that Senator Clinton advocates.

My friend is a Lakota, or Sioux. Thus, her world-view includes seeing the children in Iraq as being equal in human value to children at any place of any time in human history. Her greatest frustration with Senator Clinton has to do with the vote on the Bush plan to invade Iraq. More, there is a concern that Senator Clinton may have been prone to continuing the policies of President Clinton, that caused so much suffering for the children of Iraq.

{2} The Art of Party Politics

The mainstream media continues to portray the Obama vs Clinton contest as primarily a struggle between individuals. More insightful journalists have identified it as battle between two factions for control of the national leadership of the party. If we view this in the limited manner of a fight between individuals, Senator Clinton is mistakenly viewed as a narcissist who risks destroying the party’s chances in November for purely selfish reasons. When we recognize that there is something much larger going on beneath the surface issues that the corporate media reports, then and only then do we begin to get an accurate picture of what has taken place between November of 2007 and today.

Struggles for control of the democratic party is not "new." In 1960, for example, Robert Kennedy was the driving force behind electing his brother, President John F. Kennedy, and thus taking control of the party. In 1976, Hamilton Jordan masterminded Jimmy Carter’s election, allowing another group to take control. And in 1992, Bill Clinton was able to take the party’s leadership. In each case, the new president’s ability to exercise control and pass legislation was based on their ability to coordinate efforts with the other groups within the party.

Around May 20, in keeping with the phenomenon of news being reported on the Democratic Underground before being covered by the corporate media, I told DUers that Representative Rahm Emanuel had been tasked with telling Senator Clinton that she would need to accept the decision of the Rules & Bylaws Committee, regarding Florida and Michigan. If she opted to contest it, numerous supporters in Washington would stand down, and the super delegates would endorse Obama after the June 3rd primaries, putting the contest beyond her reach. I said that she would end her campaign on June 6.

After the RBC meeting, a couple of journalists noted that Obama had taken control of the democratic party. Indeed, Americans watching the RBC hearing saw a contest between two distinct groups, with a third group siding with the Obama forces. However, in keeping with a long line of media failures, the corporate media refused to take this event a step. Let’s take a minute to look a bit closer at what happened, and how it is playing out today.

{3}Political Power

The word "power" comes from the Latin root "posse," which mean the ability to do. Political power is simply the ability to accomplish goals. As First Lady, Hillary Clinton attempted to accomplish her goals for health care. Her failure can be traced to her inability to get other groups, including congressional democrats, to support her efforts.

Some of President Clinton’s accomplishments resulted from his ability to coordinate efforts with others, including republicans. Perhaps the most important example was his damaging habeas corpus by uniting conservative republicans to accomplish this.

After losing the 1980 democratic primary, Ted Kennedy would become the nation’s most accomplished Senator by uniting a large base of democrats in Washington. He also worked closely with republicans on the Hill to exercise power.

Senator Clinton is today facing an important decision. She has lost the primary contest. She has to decide if she wants to return to the Senate; to try to become the Vice President under Barack Obama; or accept a position as the head of the Department of Health and Human Services, where she could accomplish her goals in health care.

This decision involves her goals as an individual, as well as her position as representative of a large group within the democratic party. While the Senate is a powerful institution, it is possible that her position would be of diminished capacity to exercise influence should she return.

There are key people within her group advocating that she use her strength to become vice president. Publicly, the face of the efforts to get her on the ticket are Representative Charles Rangel and Lanny Davis; behind the scenes, Bill Clinton and Harold Ickles are calling the shots.
But Hillary Clinton’s career has been focused on human service issues, such as universal health care. By working with the Obama administration, she would have the political power to accomplish her goals in this area.

{4} The Fourth Way

Barack Obama’s unlikely rise to national political power is the result of his ability to unite distinct groups in American society. He has united the grass roots (aka "net roots"), black Americans, and the Kennedy branch of the democratic party. This coalition is unique in recent political history.

The 2008 democratic primary featured other unique events. Besides the contest between two of the usual groups of the party, this primary was a historic event, because it featured a black man and a women. For the first time, these two important groups within the traditional democratic base had a candidate representing their interests.

The republican party is, of course, hoping to be able to exploit the passons of the groups who sided with the Clinton campaign against Barack Obama in the primary. The republicans are like a pack of hyenas, looking to tear away democrats from the outside of our party.

Those in positions of party leadership recognize this potential danger, and are thus applying pressure on Senator Clinton to rise above the more limited interests of her wing of the party, and to unite with the Obama campaign. This is unlikely to lead to her being selected as VP on the ticket. Instead, it will mean her accepting an offer to serve as the head of Health and Human Services, which holds the promise of her being able to accomplish her long-time goals of universal health care, and other important services for families and children in America.

As we approach this important weekend, keep these concepts in mind

Senator Robert F. Kennedy (D-NY)

Every morning, my oldest daughter (age 14) and I watch the news together, and discuss "current events." Today, of course, there is coverage of the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Senator Robert F. Kennedy. She asked me what I remembered from that day? As I answered her, I felt a lump in my throat, something I suspect others my age are experiencing today.

My oldest brother used to be focused on the deaths of JFK and RFK. My father always said that he was missing their true significance, which was their lives, rather than their deaths.

This morning, I thought I’d share ten quotes that remind me of what it was that made Robert Kennedy such an important leader for so many Americans who are remembering him today. I hope that you enjoy them, and will add your thoughts on RFK.

Thanks,
H2O Man

{1} "Bobby was forging a new democratic coalition – a politics of outsiders – that he could only hope would be enough to gain the nomination. Kennedy emerged as ‘our first politician for the pariahs, our great national outsider, our lonely reproach, the natural standard held out to rebels,’ Kempton observed. ‘That is the wound about him which speaks to children he has never seen. He will always speak to children, and he will probably always be out of power.’ Once the hard-charging realist of his brother’s campaign, Bobby Kennedy turned into an almost quixotic candidate who jumped into the murky waters of 1968 on impulse rather than by calculated design. …. Bobby wouldn’t hear of not running. What he said about the lessons of Vietnam now seemed to apply to himself and his country: ‘Tragedy is a tool for the living to gain wisdom, not a guide by which to live.’ " – Thomas Maier; The Kennedys: America’s Emerald Kings

{2} "Being Irish, I have an abiding sense of tragedy, which sustains me through temporary periods of joy." – W. B. Yeats

{3} "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 or lawlessness, but love and wisdom, and compassion toward one another, and a feeling that justice toward those who still suffer within our country, whether they be white or they be black." – Robert F. Kennedy; April 4, 1968

{4} "After a long discussion of the country’s woes, the interviewer asked Bobby, ‘But you are an optimist?’ Kennedy nodded and smiled his weary-eyed smile. ‘Just because you can’t live any other way, can you?’ he replied. He was America’s first and last existential leader." – David Talbot; Brothers

{5} "It has been said that each generation must win its own struggle to be free …..But the stakes are the same: the right to live in dignity according to the dictates of conscience and not according to the will of the state." – Robert F. Kennedy

{6} "I love my country too much to be a nationalist." – Albert Camus

{7} "Dangerous changes in American life are indicated by what is going on in America today. Disaster is our destiny unless we reinstall the toughness, the moral idealism which has guided this nation during its history. The paramount interest in oneself, for money, for material goods, for security, must be replaced by an interest in one another – an actual, not just vocal, interest in our country; a search for adventure, a willingness to fight, a will to win; a desire to serve our community, our schools, our nation.

{8} "So if we are uneasy about our country today, perhaps it is because we are truer to our principles than we realize, because we know that our happiness will come not from goods we have but from the good we do together …. We say with Camus: ‘I should be able to love my country and still love justice.’ " – Robert F. Kennedy

{9} "Some people see things and say, ‘Why?’ But I dream things that never were, and I say, ‘Why not?’ " – George Bernard Shaw

{10} "On the day Robert Kennedy himself died, a New York Seneca, whose reservation he had visited in 1967, wrote his widow: ‘We loved him, too, Mrs. Kennedy. Loving a public official is almost unheard of, as history bears out. We trusted him. Unheard of, too, for an Indian. We had faith in him.’ Vine Deloria, Jr., the Standing Rock Sioux who wrote ‘Custer Died for Your Sins,’ observed that Kennedy’s intercession had probably discouraged federal action ‘because of his many political enemies and their outright rejection of causes he advocated.’ Still, said Deloria in a fine sentence, he was a man ‘who could move from world to world and never be a stranger anywhere.’ And Indians thought him ‘as great a hero as the most famous Indian war chiefs precisely because of his ruthlessness.’ At last, somewhere, that reputation had its advantages. ‘Indians,’ said Deloria, ‘saw him as a warrior, the white Crazy Horse’ – the great war chief of the Oglala Sious who did, Deloria said, what was best and what was for the people.’ Kennedy, Deloria concluded, ‘somehow validated obscure undefined feelings of Indian people which they had been unwilling to admit to themselves. Spiritually, he was an Indian.’"
--Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.; Robert Kennedy and His Times

Yes!

{1} Visions of Our Fathers

"This world and yonder world are incessantly giving birth:
every cause is a mother, its effects the child.
When the effect is born, it too becomes a cause
and gives birth to wonderous effects.
These causes are generation on generation, but it needs
a very well lighted eye to see the links in their chain."
--Jalal-ad-din Rumi; Persian Sufi poet

One of the things that I have enjoyed the most during this democratic primary has been interacting with young adults, who are participating in their first national election. I am old, and at the stage of life where it seems important to pass on what I have had the opportunity to learn in my life. Last week, one young man asked me how it is that I have been able to tell them, in a fairly accurate way, what things would take place in the days and weeks to come.
Part of the reason is, of course, because I can talk to other people who are closer to the on-going events than I am. It is important to seek out a wide range resources, including people and information, because information is a form of power.

One of these was a mentor I had when I was their age. He told me that if you study what happened yesterday, or a week, month, year, decade, or century ago, you can say what will happen tomorrow, and next week, month, year, and decade. Because in most ways, today is a consequence of yesterday, and tomorrow will thus be a consequence of today.

The only thing that can change, he taught me, are people. And if an individual or group wants to change tomorrow, it is important that they change themselves today. For in order to do more, we must be more. The opportunity to change ourselves, and thus begin to change everything around us, is offered to us each and every day.

Yet change is hard. It is always met with resistance. Individuals and groups tend to want things to stay much the same as what they are familiar with, because that is most comfortable. The tendency to want to find that comfort is the reason that George W. Bush and Dick Cheney were able to "win" the presidential elections in 2000 and 2004. Many people wanted what is familiar, and as Kevin Phillips pointed out in "American Dynasty," a large number of people looked at George Bush and saw his father. More, Dick Cheney represented the "stability" of the past.
But we cannot go backwards. The current administration provides proof of the folly of trying to secure the comfort of the past. Now, let’s take a look at the future, for our country is faced with a choice between the folly of looking backwards, versuses the potential of moving forward.

{2} The Strength of Our Mothers

"I myself have no power. It’s the people behind me who have the power. …. But if you’re asking about strength, not power, then I can say that the greatest strength is gentleness.
--Tadodaho Leon Shenandoah; Haudenosaunee (Six Nations Iroquois Confederacy)

When he was a community organizer in Chicago, young Barack Obama became frustrated. He had the best of intentions, but was frustrated by his inability to bring about the types of changes that he recognized were needed to improve the quality of life in the communities he served. He understood that in order to do more, he had to be more. So he went back to school, and became and attorney.

In the 2007-2208 democratic primary, we had a number of highly qualified candidates. Many of them had significant experience in domestic and foreign policy. Any one of them would have been a great improvement over either George Bush or any of the republican candidates.

The most talented of these appeared to be Senator Hillary Clinton. She ran a campaign that said her 36 years of experience would make her "ready on Day One." She was able to identify a number of important things that she would do for people. And this is generally what appeals to the public, because more often than not in Western Society, people want leaders who will do things for them.

Then, almost out of no where, Barack Obama began to be viewed as a serious challenger to Senator Clinton. His campaign was based on the need for change. And he said that when he became president, he would require the cooperation of the grass roots to achieve real change in our society.

The campaign was unique in American history. There were efforts to use events from Obama’s past against him. But these attempts failed. Some felt it was because the media was favoring him. Others believed that Obama had "fooled" his supporters. But, in fact, his strength came from the people behind him. They were responding to a power that is contrary to all Western thought.

While none can doubt that Senator Clinton sincerely wanted to bring positive changes to this country, her campaign was run by experts in the past. Obama likewise advocates change, and his campaign was run by people with the vision to change the tactics and goals for today. Young people in particular invested themselves in his campaign, and as others began to catch on, Obama came from behind to win an upset.

As expected, we see resistance, even within the party. There are those who fold their arms firmly across their chests, and say, "No!" to the Obama campaign. But there are many more who are today shaking hands with others, and saying, "Yes!" And "yes" is a more powerful idea than "no." It offers many more possibilities for us, and opens more potentials for our country.

This summer, a campaign that defines the past versus the future begins in earnest. John McCain is a fossil of the republican past. If he is elected, we will continue in the downward spiral. When he mocks Obama for wanted to end the war in Iraq, we must understand that the next link in the chain that binds McCain to the Bush-Cheney policies involves a widening of the military occupation of the Middle East.

McCain fronts for the one-eyed giant that Thomas Merton spoke of in his book "Gandhi on Non-Violence." He is a puppet of those who use science to advance the destructive forces that endanger our world. The Obama campaign balances the western advances in science with the wisdom found in the rest of the world, which "opens the door to a life in which the individual is not lost in the cosmos and in society but found in them" (Merton)

We have the opportunity to begin to make the changes today that will improve the nation tomorrow. Say, "Yes!"

"The lights begin to twinkle from the rocks;
the long day wanes; the slow moon climbs;
the deep moans round with many voices.
Come, my friends.
‘Tis not too late to seek a newer world."
--Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Listening

{1} Letter from a Region of My Mind

Yesterday, the democratic party’s Rules and Bylaws Committee met to decide how to resolve the issues involving the seating of Florida and Michigan’s delegates at the Democratic National Convention. For some, the solution is unsatisfactory, and there is concern that the Clinton campaign might attempt to contest the decision at the convention. In a discussion on the Democratic Underground, my friend Tatiana said something that reminded me of a story about Senator Robert Kennedy, and I’d like to take a few moments to share it with you.

I think the story will be of interest to democrats who support Senator Clinton and Senator Obama. It has to do with the art of listening. By no coincidence, the ability to listen is a strength that both Clinton and Obama have: in her 2000 campaign, Hillary Clinton went on a "listening tour" of New York; Barack Obama learned from students of Saul Alinsky that the ability to listen was the key to community organizing.

It may be that by focusing on our ability to really listen to those who support the "other" candidate, that both Clinton and Obama supporters can find common ground. Now let’s take a look at what we should not allow to become a forgotten chapter in the remarkable life of Robert F. Kennedy.

{2} Down by the Cross

In 1963, Attorney General Robert Kennedy became focused on the issues involved in the civil rights movement. The activities of Martin Luther King, Jr., and others had resulted in Kennedy’s taking some actions that had created tensions between his brother’s administration, and the democrats and republicans who advocated segregation. Many in the civil rights movement felt that the Kennedys were not doing all that they could to insure that black Americans enjoyed the rights of full citizenship.

Kennedy was becoming concerned that the northern cities would create an even more explosive situation than what was taking place in the south. Leaders like King did not have as much support among the black residents of the northern ghettoes as they had in the south. Kennedy was particularly concerned with the growth in the Nation of Islam (NOI), or Black Muslims. The NOI had been a fringe group until the emergence of Minister Malcolm X. By 1963, Malcolm was becoming one of the leading black spokesmen in America, and he did not share Martin’s non-violent philosophy.

The New Yorker published an essay by author James Baldwin, titled "Letter From a Region of My Mind." (It can be found as "Down by the Cross" in Baldwin’s book "The Fire Next Time.") The essay spoke of the sense of humiliation, hopelessness, and rage that black Americans felt. It was, at the time, considered one of the most shocking things that white Americans had read. Baldwin’s essay included descriptions of his encounter with NOI leader Elijah Muhammad, and more importantly, with Malcolm X.

Kennedy had met Baldwin at a White House reception for Nobel Prize laureates. After reading the article in the New Yorker, he invited the author to a private breakfast at Hickory Hills, where he asked Baldwin to arrange for a meeting of black leaders to be held at Joseph Kennedy’s penthouse at 24 Central Park South in New York City.

{3} The Fire Next Time

On the morning of May 24, 1963, Kennedy and Burke Marshall engaged in tough negotiations with the owners of several chain stores, regarding the need to desegregate their stores in the south. By the time of the meeting with Baldwin and what he described as his "rowdy friends," both Kennedy and Marshall felt that they had made some important progress that they could report.

Baldwin’s group included Lena Horne; Harry Belafonte; Lorraine Hansberry (author of "A Raisin in the Sun"); social psychology professor Kenneth Clark; Edwin Berry (of the Chicago Urban League); Clarence Jones (King’s attorney, who would serve as a go-between for Martin and Malcolm the following year); and Jerome Smith, a young CORE field organizer, who had been involved in the Freedom Rides, and who had been beaten and jailed numerous times.
Clark and Berry had come armed with statistics and proposals that could have resulted in the meeting taking a different course. But at the beginning, Kennedy made a comment on the need for black leaders to insure the movement stayed non-violent. He mentioned that he considered the NOI to be a threat to the civil rights movement.

Jerome Smith found that insulting. He said that he felt "nauseated" from being in the same room with Kennedy. RFK turned away from Smith, in hopes of cutting him off. Hansberry said, "You’ve got a great many very, very accomplished people in this room, Mr. Attorney General. But the only man who should be listened to is that man over there."

Smith spoke about the dangers that the civil rights movement faced as coming from the violence that white racists inflicted upon non-violent protesters, and the failure of the federal government to insure their safety. He said that he was in the city for medical treatment for the injuries he sustained in a series of brutal beatings he had taken. But he was not sure that he could continue to be non-violent in the future. "You have no idea what trouble is," he told Kennedy. "When I pull the trigger, kiss it goodbye."

Baldwin, who was less concerned with statistics than emotions, asked Smith if he would support the US in a war against Cuba. He was obviously aware of RFK’s positions on Cuba, and wanted to make a point with Kennedy. "Never! Never!," Smith replied.

This upset Kennedy, who believed that it was a patriotic duty to support the USA in times of war. Lena Horne told him, "If you can’t understand what this young man is saying, then we are without any hope at all, because you and your brother are representative of the best that white America has to offer. If you are insensitive to this, then there’s no alternative except our going in the street, and chaos."

Kennedy spoke of his grandfather’s experiences as an immigrant. He said that in three generations, his brother had become President of the US. Kennedy noted that he believed a black man would be elected President within 40 years. Baldwin replied that his family had been here for far more than three generations.

After three hours, the tense meeting came to an end. No statistics or proposals had been discussed. The meeting had only involved emotions.

{4} Nobody Knows My Name

As he was leaving, Clarence Jones took Kennedy aside, and said that he appreciated the Attorney General’s support in Birmingham. Kennedy said, "You watched those people attack me over Birmingham for forty minutes, and you didn’t say a word. There is no point in your saying anything now."

Harry Belafonte then said, "Of course you have done more for civil rights than anyone else."
Kennedy replied, "Why do you say this to me? Why didn’t you say this to the others?"
Belafonte responded, "I couldn’t say this to the others. It would affect my position with these people. …If I sided with you on these matters, then I would become suspect."

The following day, Baldwin told a NY Times reporter that the Attorney General was "insensitive and unresponsive." Kennedy told a friend, "They didn’t know what the laws are – they don’t know what the facts are – they don’t know what we’ve been doing, or what we’re trying to do."

{5} More Notes of a Native Son

That meeting could have caused a greater division between the Kennedy administration and the civil rights movement. But the exact opposite happened. Robert Kennedy could relate to being an invisible person, because that was often his experience as a child.

"They need to know somebody listens," he told a friend. "All the abuse the blacks have taken through the centuries, whites are just going to have to let them get out some of those feelings."
Over the next five years, as Attorney General and as a US Senator, Robert Kennedy began his own listening tour among the people who were excluded from the American dream. When we listen to his speeches from his 1968 campaign for president, it is clear that he heard, and understood, what the voices that the democratic party needed to listen to.

This included his expanding his listening skills to hear those he viewed as "the enemy." In the daybook that President Kennedy had started, and RFK continued after Dallas, he wrote: "The final lesson of the Cuban missile crisis is the importance of placing ourselves in the other country’s shoes."

This coming week, democrats will benefit by listening to the lessons of Senator Robert Kennedy.

{6} Sources

--Michael Beran; The Last Patrician: Bobby Kennedy and the end of American Aristocracy; 1998; pages 136-138

--Richard Mahoney; Sons & Brothers: The Days of Jack and Bobby Kennedy; 1999; pages 249-250

--Evan Thomas; Robert Kennedy: His Life; 2000; pages 243-245

--Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.; Robert Kennedy and His Times; 1978; pages 355-360