Shirley Tipsy

Mindless Menace of Violence
(As spoken by Robert F Kennedy at the City Club of Cleveland - Cleveland, Ohio - April 5, 1968 - Exactly 2 months prior to his assassination)

“Mr Chairmen, Ladies And Gentlemen, 

This is a time of shame and sorrow. It is not a day for politics. I have saved this one opportunity, my only event of today, to speak briefly to you about the mindless menace of violence in America which again stains our land and every one of our lives.

It is not the concern of any one race. The victims of the violence are black and white, rich and poor, young and old, famous and unknown. They are, most important of all, human beings whom other human beings loved and needed. No one - no matter where he lives or what he does - can be certain who will suffer from some senseless act of bloodshed. And yet it goes on and on and on in this country of ours.

Why? What has violence ever accomplished? What has it ever created? No martyr’s cause has ever been stilled by an assassin’s bullet.
 

No wrongs have ever been righted by riots and civil disorders. A sniper is only a coward, not a hero; and an uncontrolled, uncontrollable mob is only the voice of madness, not the voice of reason. 

Whenever any American’s life is taken by another American unnecessarily - whether it is done in the name of the law or in the defiance of the law, by one man or a gang, in cold blood or in passion, in an attack of violence or in response to violence - whenever we tear at the fabric of the life which another man has painfully and clumsily woven for himself and his children, the whole nation is degraded.

“Among free men,” said Abraham Lincoln, “there can be no successful appeal from the ballot to the bullet; and those who take such appeal are sure to lost their cause and pay the costs.”

Yet we seemingly tolerate a rising level of violence that ignores our common humanity and our claims to civilization alike. We calmly accept newspaper reports of civilian slaughter in far-off lands. We glorify killing on movie and television screens and call it entertainment. We make it easy for men of all shades of sanity to acquire whatever weapons and ammunition they desire.

Too often we honor swagger and bluster and wielders of force; too often we excuse those who are willing to build their own lives on the shattered dreams of others. Some Americans who preach non-violence abroad fail to practice it here at home. Some who accuse others of inciting riots have by their own conduct invited them.

Some look for scapegoats, others look for conspiracies, but this much is clear: violence breeds violence, repression brings retaliation, and only a cleansing of our whole society can remove this sickness from our soul.

For there is another kind of violence, slower but just as deadly destructive as the shot or the bomb in the night. This is the violence of institutions; indifference and inaction and slow decay. This is the violence that afflicts the poor, that poisons relations between men because their skin has different colors. This is the slow destruction of a child by hunger, and schools without books and homes without heat in the winter.

This is the breaking of a man’s spirit by denying him the chance to stand as a father and as a man among other men. And this too afflicts us all.

I have not come here to propose a set of specific remedies nor is there a single set. For a broad and adequate outline we know what must be done. When you teach a man to hate and fear his brother, when you teach that he is a lesser man because of his color or his beliefs or the policies he pursues, when you teach that those who differ from you threaten your freedom or your job or your family, then you also learn to confront others not as fellow citizens but as enemies, to be met not with cooperation but with conquest; to be subjugated and mastered.

We learn, at the last, to look at our brothers as aliens, men with whom we share a city, but not a community; men bound to us in common dwelling, but not in common effort. We learn to share only a common fear, only a common desire to retreat from each other, only a common impulse to meet disagreement with force. For all this, there are no final answers.

Yet we know what we must do. It is to achieve true justice among our fellow citizens. The question is not what programs we should seek to enact. The question is whether we can find in our own midst and in our own hearts that leadership of humane purpose that will recognize the terrible truths of our existence.

We must admit the vanity of our false distinctions among men and learn to find our own advancement in the search for the advancement of others. We must admit in ourselves that our own children’s future cannot be built on the misfortunes of others. We must recognize that this short life can neither be ennobled or enriched by hatred or revenge.

Our lives on this planet are too short and the work to be done too great to let this spirit flourish any longer in our land. Of course we cannot vanquish it with a program, nor with a resolution.

But we can perhaps remember, if only for a time, that those who live with us are our brothers, that they share with us the same short moment of life; that they seek, as do we, nothing but the chance to live out their lives in purpose and in happiness, winning what satisfaction and fulfillment they can.

Surely, this bond of common faith, this bond of common goal, can begin to teach us something. Surely, we can learn, at least, to look at those around us as fellow men, and surely we can begin to work a little harder to bind up the wounds among us and to become in our own hearts brothers and countrymen once again.”

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The Presidential Primaries have got me all fluttery. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are two of the best Democratic candidates we’ve had in quite a while and I am psyched about how close it is right now. It’s projected that Obama will take Ohio, although he’s got a bit of a disadvantage because the weather is so bad in some parts of the state that some polling places had to be moved due to flooding. Obviously, some people would rather not brave the weather just to vote in a Primary, so the voter turn-out might not be as strong. That could work against either of them, so as a preventative measure, Obama asked for polling places to stay open for an hour longer.

Hillary is projected to win Texas, which would definitly keep her in the race.. thing is, Obama has proven to be quite the popular guy, keeping a cool 100 plus delegate lead so far. Even if Obama wins both Texas and Ohio, he will still be short of the 2,025 delegate total necessary to secure the Democratic Nominee bid. Winning those two states will just make it rather difficult, if not impossible, for Hillary to catch up to Obama in time to beat him. As of right now, it looks like Hillary is ahead in Ohio and BEHIND in Texas. So who knows whats going to happen? It could all rest on tonight.. i’m so excited!!!!

To be honest, I voted for Hillary here in California, but I would still be ecstactic if Obama ends up being our Nominee since he is definitly the better choice compared to what is now the pretty much official Republican Nominee, John McCain. I was happy to hear that Huckabee dropped out though; I almost did a dance. That guy just gave me the heebie jeebies.

This entire process is beyond exciting for me.

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‘When my grandmother got arthritis, she couldn’t bend over and paint her toenails anymore. So my grandfather does it for her all the time, even when his hands got arthritis too. That’s love.’

Rebecca- age 8
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‘When someone loves you, the way they say your name is different.
You just know that your name is safe in their mouth.’

Billy - age 4
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‘Love is when a girl puts on perfume and a boy puts on shaving cologne and they go out and smell each other.’

Karl - age 5
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‘Love is when you go out to eat and give somebody most of your French fries without making them give you any of theirs.’

Chrissy - age 6
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‘Love is what makes you smile when you’re tired.’

Terri - age 4
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‘Love is when my mommy makes coffee for my daddy and she takes a sip before giving it to him, to make sure the taste is OK.’

Danny - age 7
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‘Love is when you kiss all the time. Then when you get tired of kissing, you still want to be together and you talk more.
My Mommy and Daddy are like that. They look gross when they kiss’

Emily - age 8
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‘Love is what’s in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and listen.’

Bobby - age 7 (Wow!)
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‘If you want to learn to love better, you should start with a friend who you hate,’

Nikka - age 6
(we need a few million more Nikka’s on this planet)
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‘Love is when you tell a guy you like his shirt, then he wears it everyday.’

Noelle - age 7
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‘Love is like a little old woman and a little old man who are still friends even after they know each other so well.’

Tommy - age 6
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‘During my piano recital, I was on a stage and I was scared. I looked at all the people watching me and saw my daddy waving and smiling.

He was the only one doing that. I wasn’t scared anymore.’

Cindy - age 8
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‘My mommy loves me more than anybody
You don’t see anyone else kissing me to sleep at night.’

Clare - age 6
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‘Love is when Mommy gives Daddy the best piece of chicken.’

Elaine-age 5
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‘Love is when Mommy sees Daddy smelly and sweaty and still says he is handsomer than Robert Redford.’

Chris - age 7
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‘Love is when your puppy licks your face even after you left him alone all day.’

Mary Ann - age 4
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‘I know my older sister loves me because she gives me all her old clothes and has to go out and buy new ones.’

Lauren - age 4
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‘When you love somebody, your eyelashes go up and down and little stars come out of you.’ (what an image)

Karen - age 7
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‘Love is when Mommy sees Daddy on the toilet and she doesn’t think it’s gross.’

Mark - age 6
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‘You really shouldn’t say ‘I love you’ unless you mean it. But if you mean it, you should say it a lot. People forget.’

Jessica - age 8
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And the final one

The winner was a four year old child whose next door neighbor was an elderly gentleman who had recently lost his wife.

Upon seeing the man cry, the little boy went into the old gentleman’s yard, climbed onto his lap, and just sat there.

When his Mother asked what he had said to the neighbor, the little boy said,

‘Nothing, I just helped him cry’

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