Echoes of 68

By Hank Silverberg

“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 and lawlessness. But its love and wisdom and compassion towards one another --a feeling of justice toward those who still suffer within our country.”  

     Those words were spoken 50 years ago by Robert F. Kennedy, on April 4 ,1968. He was  

running for President and heading for a campaign stop in inner city Indianapolis, Indiana, when word came that Martin Luther King, Jr. had been assassinated in Memphis. The local police and his security detail advised Kennedy to cancel the appearance, fearing that as word spread there would be violence.  Kennedy chose instead to mount the back of a flat-bed truck, and tell the mostly black audience about Dr. King’s murder. His tone was somber, his words cautious. You could see to genuine sorrow in his face.

“We can do well in this country. We will have difficult times.  We’ve had difficult times in the past, and we will have difficult times in the future. It is not the end of violence, it is not the end of lawlessness, and it’s not the end of disorder, but the vast majority of -- people in this country want to live together, want to improve the quality of  our life and want justice for the majority of human beings that abide in our land.” 

Violence erupted in more than a dozen cities across the country from DC to Oakland, but not in Indianapolis. There Kennedy’s speech had had a calming effect.  But Kennedy’s words were also prophetic. Two months and two days later, on June 6, 1968, the night he won the California Presidential primary, he too became the victim of an assassin’s bullet.  

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=bobby+kennedy%2c+martin+luther+king+speech%2c+video&view=detail&mid=DBF0B9626A22EE2E1CF4DBF0B9626A22EE2E1CF4&FORM=VIREb

In this video (link above) that I use  with my Public Speaking students is an example of how tone and words can persuade people to do something or not to do something. I was reminded of it this week as I listened to the rhetoric on gun violence. Those students from Parkland, Florida’s,  Douglas High, who had lost 17 classmates and teachers, were everywhere. They told  their stories with calmness, sometimes demanding and loud, but mostly with dignity, compassion and determination. They didn’t call people names, or threaten violence. They simply asked for some kind of action to save lives . They lobbied their elected representatives and were able to get the Florida General Assembly to take some  immediate action--- raising the age to buy a rifle to 21, and imposing a three day waiting period for a gun purchase. It was a moderate move, but it was movement. 

     As I wrote a few weeks ago, the debate over guns is complex and has many different options and angles to consider. We can have that debate.  But I was appalled by a video I saw from the spokeswoman for the National Rifle Association, Dana Loesch. In a harsh tone she attacks the media, some directly by name, as well as Hollywood, politicians and even those Parkland, Florida, high school students.  It was a direct threat when she said “your time is running out--the clock starts now.”  She does, of course, have a First Amendment right to say this. But it is the kind of rhetoric which creates the current climate of mistrust, hatred and eventually violence.

Those students and thousands of others like them across the country will be in Washington later this month to lobby congress to do at least what Florida has done, if not more. Those young people, whom demographers have labeled "Generation Z", are our future.  I was proud to watch them lead on an issue where bold leadership by more seasoned adults has been very absent. Despite what some people have said about their youth and inexperience, we need to listen to them.

What we also need now are more words like those from Bobby Kennedy-- words that have a calming effect. We can debate gun control or any other issue in this country with rational calm, compromise and action at the ballot box.  

If the NRA wants to be part of the conversation, they need to listen more and threaten less.


(Your comments and suggestions for topics are welcome. See comment section below) 


 ( Interested in getting a copy of my new book? Go to Amazon.com, BN.com, or hanksilverbergbooks.com )