what might have been...

Almost four decades ago Robert F. Kennedy was assasinated. He may have been America's last chance to fight off the forces of greed, corruption and imperialism which now hold this country down and keep it from reaching it's potential for greatness. RFK should be a model for us all...when he started his career in law and politics he participated in such atrocities as the House Unamerican Activities Committee and prosecuted labor leaders. However he also took on civil rights cases, and after his brother was assasinated, a new RFK emerged, one which united the country and showed the potential for a populist movement to reclaim American greatness. We can only imagine how the world may be a better place had RFK lived to change the face of American politics before it was too late. Here is a brief collection of a few of my personal favorite RFK-isms.

"Too much, and for too long we seem to have surrendered personal excellence and community values in the mere accumulation of material things. Our gross national product is now over $800 billion a year [in 1968]. But that gross national product, if we judge the United States of America by that, counts air pollution, and cigarette advertising, and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage. It counts special locks for our doors, and the jails for people who break them. It counts the destruction of redwoods and the loss of our natural wonder in chaotic sprawl. It counts napalm and it counts nuclear warheads, and Witman's rifle and Speck's knife, and the television programs which glorify violence in order to sell toys to our children.

Yet the gross national pruduct does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education, or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages, the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our wit nor our courage, neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our passion nor our devotion to our country.

It measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile. And it can tell us everything about America...except why we are proud that we are Americans."

And now our children are without proper medical care, with schools that are failing them and pollution that is slowly killing them. It seems every level of government is poisoned with corruption, and our public debate has been stifled by those in power and by the monied interests they represent. The last forty years could have made America great, instead they have made her a global bully that ignores the needs of even it's own citizens.

"There are those who look at things the way they are, and ask why. I dream of things that never were, and ask why not."

This is the problem with politics today, neither side is willing to strive to achieve what this country is capable of achieving. Instead they are content with blaming the state of affairs on the other. We do not get solutions, or even valid attempts at them, we get the same stale, failed propositions under a different name. I refuse to accept that there are those in this country that go to bed hungry, that there are children world wide that know the pain of hunger so that the economic engine of globalization can continue to roll along, that the human race is incapable of dealing with itself without resorting to bloodletting, that we can build a weapon that can instantly anhiliate millions but are unable to lift the impoverished from their dreary lives, that criminal sanctions are the solution to all our problems, that we can spend trillions on death and destruction yet not find a way to power our economy with a resource that would not require the use of our military forces in areas of the world rich in hydrocarbons, that there is anyone in this country that is denied a quality education simply because they cannot afford the tuition, that people must pick themselves up out of poverty without the community providing the means with which to accomplish it, that for so many of our poor the way out is either turning to crime or turning to the military. How can we not do better than this?

"On this generation of Americans falls the burden of proving to the world that we really mean it when we say all men are created free and are equal before the law. All of us might wish at times that we lived in a more tranquil world, but we don't. And if our times are difficult and perplexing, so are they challenging and filled with opportunity."

America had an opportunity to shape the world in a positive way following the tragedy of September 11th. America could have lived up to it's ideals by taking the moral high ground and reevaluating it's role in promoting un-American actions abroad. Instead, we chose to invade two countries, subjecting their people to further death and destruction. It may be too late to turn the tide, but we must act as though it is not. If we lead the world will follow, whether it be into further armed conflict or serious discussion.

"Democracy is no easy form of government. Few nations have been able to sustain it. For it requires that we take the chances of freedom; that the liberating play of reason be brought to bear on events filled with passion; that dissent be allowed to make its appeal for acceptance; that menchance error in their search for the truth."

Democracy is not easy, and as a nation we have become complacent in allowing it to erode. While Democrats and Republicans argue over which side is more capable of destroying the fabric of this country, the majority of citizens are so appalled they refuse to exercise their most basic and important right. We can no longer allow ourselves to play the game that politicians wish us to play, to continue choosing the lesser of two evils because we are afraid of what might happen otherwise. There is no other democratic country in the world where third parties have such a difficult time even getting to the ballot. This is unacceptable, but for it to change, we must retake control of our government as a people. No, democracy is not easy, but it is the very least of what we owe to those that came before us, those that perished to protect it, those that perished trying to obtain it, and those that longingly look to the united states for it.

"The sharpest criticism often goes hand in hand with the deepest idealism and love of country."

Do not let anyone call you un-American because you dream of an America that lives up to your hopes; that lifts her citizens out of poverty, crime and addiction, that works to do the same for peoples around the world; that acknowledges when it has been wrong, and works to correct those wrongs; that uses the power of liberty to compel change rather than the sword. I grew up with a deep love for my country, and while I know my country is not the great, benevolent actor I was taught as a child, I believe it can be.