I came across this speech whilst scouting youtube for nothing in particular. At first I didn't get it, the vocabulary was beyond me but regardless, I wanted to understand it. I kept replaying this speech to make certain I absorbed it.
Ted Kennedy, the youngest of the Kennedy brothers, delivered the eulogy. What's incredible is the fact that after Bobby's death Ted was the last living son of Joseph Kennedy. Ted buried Joe, John, and now Bobby- all of his older brothers. More than half of the eulogy consists of a speech Bobby delivered to students in South Africa in 1966 on their day of affirmation.
Here we go:
The most touching points for me were:
(This part is not in the video but was part of the eulogy)
[Referring to what Bobby wrote of their father Joseph:] "What it really all adds up to is love -- not love as it is described with such facility in popular magazines, but the kind of love that is affection and respect, order and encouragement, and support. Our awareness of this was an incalculable source of strength, and because real love is something unselfish and involves sacrifice and giving, we could not help but profit from it."
"Beneath it all, he has tried to engender a social conscience. There were wrongs which needed attention. There were people who were poor and needed help. And we have a responsibility to them and to this country. Through no virtues and accomplishments of our own, we have been fortunate enough to be born in the United States under the most comfortable conditions. We, therefore, have a responsibility to others who are less well off."
Now, I'll be the first to tell you that I choose not to follow politics. I'm certain I'll lose my faith in humanity if I do. I hear of the corruption and the greed involved with politics, but I want to give people the benefit of the doubt. Call me naive, I feel little when it comes to the government. I try to do my best in the local community and I try to be as helpful as I can. I'm involved, just not with politics. With that said, I will openly and gladly admit to being a big admirer of both JFK and Bobby. They seemed like men who ran for the little guy. And it surprises me all the more because they were very privileged individuals.
"But perhaps we can 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 we do - - nothing but the chance to live out their lives in purpose and happiness, winning what satisfaction and fulfillment they can."
My take: Everyone, EVERYONE, is after the same goal: to live a fulfilling life. Some are aggressive in achieving this goal, some are passive. Some are boisterous and some are quiet. But everyone, I repeat, EVERYONE, is after the same goal. Every single person you encounter or pass on a daily basis is after the same thing you are. Respect them. Respect them even if they adhere to a different religion. Respect them even if they come from a different question. Stop and think: could you pack everything and move to a foreign country for the sake of your children's future? Love them, we all need love.
"Surely, we can learn, to 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. The answer is to rely on youth -- not a time of life but a state of mind, a temper of the will, a quality of imagination, a predominance of courage of timidity, of the appetite for adventure over the love of ease.
"The cruelties and obstacles of this swiftly changing planet will not yield to the obsolete dogmas and outworn slogans. They cannot be moved by those who cling to a present that is already dying, who prefer the illusion of security to the excitement and danger that come with even the most peaceful progress."
My take: This is without a shadow of a doubt the most influential statement I have ever heard- to date. Wow. Absolutely wow. The future does not belong to the weak and the scared. The future belongs to the adventurous, to the risk takers. I've never read about a "safe and secure" person in a history book. It's inevitable that playing safe will guarantee a life lived (as well as it may be) but forgotten. My only question: is security nothing but a mere illusion? Can we prove security?
"Some believe that there is nothing one man or woman can do against the enormous array of the world's ills. Yet many of the world's great movements, of thought and action, have flowed from the work of a single man... Few will have the greatness to bend history itself, but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total of all those acts will be written the history of this generation. It is from the numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped."
My take: First and foremost, I like the fact that Bobby acknowledges the obvious fact that it is unlikely that one person will shape the entire world's history. There is no BS here, none of that Disney logic that tells you that you are special and only you can change the world. The fact of the matter is that not everyone has the power to alter the world significantly, and I appreciate Bobby for foregoing the fairytale route.
"Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out agains injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers or energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance."
My take: My life's biggest success would be if I came to someone's mind when they read a quote like this. For someone to remember me as a person who stood their ground and refused to sway from her ideals. If, when I die, this is the only thing that could be said about me then I will have lived a good, hearty, worthwhile life.
"Moral courage is a rarer commodity than bravery in battle or great intelligence. Yet it is the one essential, vital quality for those who seek to change a world that yields most painfully to change."
My take: Moral courage is the courage to take actions for moral reasons regardless of consequences. Moral courage means that your values and morals are the sole reason for your action. You don't have money or status on your mind. You are stripped of everything except your values.
"All of us will ultimately be judges, and as the years pass we will surely judge ourselves on the effort we have contributed to building a new world society and the extent to which our ideals and goals have shaped that event.
My take: You know what bugs me? When people claim they don't judge. Sure you do! I do too! All of us make assumptions about others. It's a safety mechanism more than anything else. For somebody to sit and tell me that they don't judge always begs the question: sure you do, and I'll prove it. Why are you talking with me and not the homeless man around the corner? Why are you talking to me and not the wealthy woman with the shopping bags? Why are you talking to me and not the tattooed and muscular man? Do you feel the homeless man is beneath you? Is the wealthy woman a snob? Is the tattooed and muscular man intimidating? We all judge. So do not tell me that you don't judge. Condemning is different from judgement. We make assumptions about others to keep ourselves safe and comfortable. It's your sole decision to rise above your comfort zone and challenge your perception of certain people. Also, out of sheer curiosity, do we judge anyone harder than we judge ourselves?
"The future does not belong to those who are content with today... rather is will belong to those who can blend vision, reason and courage in a personal commitment to the ideals and great enterprises of American society."
"It is the shaping impulse of America that neither fate nor nature, nor irresistible tides of history, but the works of our own hands, matched to reason and principle, that will determine our destiny."
My take: What a beautiful statement. America isn't shaped by its past. We cannot blame the past for our misfortunes. It is shaped by the hands at play today. Nothing defies us except for our deeds. Nothing but the works of our own hands.
"My brother need not be idealized, or enlarged in death beyond what he was in life; to be remembered simply as a good and decent man, who saw wrong and tried to right it, saw suffering and tried to heal it, saw war and tried to stop it... As he said many times, in many parts of this nation, to those he touched and who sought to touch him: some men see things as they are and say why, I dream things that never were and say why not."
