The Speech of April 4

winthrop · 04-04-2008, 12:29 PM

Calm - and Hope - in Indianapolis
By Ron Klain
The New York Times
April 3, 2008

Ron Klain was a member of Bill Clinton’s 1992 campaign policy and debate preparation staff.

As a Hoosier, it’s exciting for me that the Indiana primary — for the first time in a long time — will be an important part of the Democratic nomination contest. With so many people despairing of the long and hard-fought Democratic primary campaign this year, it’s worth remembering what happened 40 years ago, on April 4, 1968, during the last time that the Indiana primary was this significant.

On that night, Robert F. Kennedy was scheduled to give a campaign speech in downtown Indianapolis, when news of the assassination of Martin Luther King reached him. Rejecting the advice of many around him, Kennedy continued toward the inner-city playground where he was to give his speech, undeterred by a police warning that they could not provide him with protection if things got out of control.

There, a raucous, happy crowd — unaware of the tragedy in Memphis — waited for the candidate to arrive. Kennedy informed the gathering of King’s death, and an audible wail of agony rose from the crowd. He then delivered, extemporaneously, one of the great speeches in American history. Some of the words from that speech are etched near Robert Kennedy’s grave site at Arlington National Cemetery; they still speak to us today:

"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 is love, and wisdom, and compassion toward one another, and a feeling of justice toward those who still suffer within our country, whether they be white or whether they be black."

Riots, fires and violence broke out in more than 100 cities in the United States that night — but not in Indianapolis. A park and a memorial to nonviolence now stand at the spot where Kennedy’s words made such an incredible difference that night. His widow, Ethel Kennedy, is scheduled to appear there on Friday, as part of a campaign swing through Indiana on behalf of Barack Obama.

For me, the story of this event isn’t only historical, it’s personal. A few weeks before that fateful night, during an earlier swing through Indiana, the Kennedy campaign was looking to film a TV commercial at a small business that was operating in an “urban renewal” area. The advance staff found its way to a family-owned plumbing supply company downtown, near the site where Kennedy later gave his April 4 remarks. That plumbing supply business was my father’s, and on that March day, 40 years ago, when I was 7 years old, I met Robert Kennedy — a meeting that fired my interest in politics and changed my life. A photo taken that day of Kennedy and my family still hangs in our house, a treasured political relic.

In the days after April 4, 1968, my father explained to me that — unlike a lot of other small businesses in other urban areas around the country — his business remained standing and undamaged because of the man we had met. Ultimately, the “ripple of hope” that Robert F. Kennedy launched that night failed to achieve its full potential because he was assassinated just two months later, but the power of words, of the best that campaigns have to offer, were impressed on me for good.

Forty years later, whenever I hear people say that a politician’s speeches don’t matter, that campaigns are a waste and that the sort of conflict we have in the 2008 Democratic primary is “destructive,” I think of Robert Kennedy’s words in Indianapolis that night — a speech that would have never happened but for the hard-fought, highly competitive 1968 primary campaign — and the millions of people like me who were inspired by them and their impact on that city.

For all the complexity and conflict in the 2008 race, the anniversary of the Kennedy speech reminds us that campaigns can leave lasting legacies of activism and idealism. I see it in my own children this year, a son who is a rabid “Obamafan,” and a teenage daughter who is a devoted “Hillarista.” They are part of a new generation, for whom the 2008 campaign will be their “1968” — the start of a lifetime of involvement and participation in politics. With the Democratic Party set to nominate the first-ever major party African-American or female candidate this year, we are not just remembering history — and the vision of social change that Robert Kennedy so brilliantly set forth on April 4, 1968 — we are living it.

04-04-2008, 12:29 PM	#1 (permalink)
winthrop Mediator for the Messes Join Date: Jan 2008 Posts: 2,368 Thanks: 35 Thanked 104 Times in 79 Posts	The Speech of April 4 Calm - and Hope - in Indianapolis By Ron Klain The New York Times April 3, 2008 Ron Klain was a member of Bill Clinton’s 1992 campaign policy and debate preparation staff. As a Hoosier, it’s exciting for me that the Indiana primary — for the first time in a long time — will be an important part of the Democratic nomination contest. With so many people despairing of the long and hard-fought Democratic primary campaign this year, it’s worth remembering what happened 40 years ago, on April 4, 1968, during the last time that the Indiana primary was this significant. On that night, Robert F. Kennedy was scheduled to give a campaign speech in downtown Indianapolis, when news of the assassination of Martin Luther King reached him. Rejecting the advice of many around him, Kennedy continued toward the inner-city playground where he was to give his speech, undeterred by a police warning that they could not provide him with protection if things got out of control. There, a raucous, happy crowd — unaware of the tragedy in Memphis — waited for the candidate to arrive. Kennedy informed the gathering of King’s death, and an audible wail of agony rose from the crowd. He then delivered, extemporaneously, one of the great speeches in American history. Some of the words from that speech are etched near Robert Kennedy’s grave site at Arlington National Cemetery; they still speak to us today: "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 is love, and wisdom, and compassion toward one another, and a feeling of justice toward those who still suffer within our country, whether they be white or whether they be black." Riots, fires and violence broke out in more than 100 cities in the United States that night — but not in Indianapolis. A park and a memorial to nonviolence now stand at the spot where Kennedy’s words made such an incredible difference that night. His widow, Ethel Kennedy, is scheduled to appear there on Friday, as part of a campaign swing through Indiana on behalf of Barack Obama. For me, the story of this event isn’t only historical, it’s personal. A few weeks before that fateful night, during an earlier swing through Indiana, the Kennedy campaign was looking to film a TV commercial at a small business that was operating in an “urban renewal” area. The advance staff found its way to a family-owned plumbing supply company downtown, near the site where Kennedy later gave his April 4 remarks. That plumbing supply business was my father’s, and on that March day, 40 years ago, when I was 7 years old, I met Robert Kennedy — a meeting that fired my interest in politics and changed my life. A photo taken that day of Kennedy and my family still hangs in our house, a treasured political relic. In the days after April 4, 1968, my father explained to me that — unlike a lot of other small businesses in other urban areas around the country — his business remained standing and undamaged because of the man we had met. Ultimately, the “ripple of hope” that Robert F. Kennedy launched that night failed to achieve its full potential because he was assassinated just two months later, but the power of words, of the best that campaigns have to offer, were impressed on me for good. Forty years later, whenever I hear people say that a politician’s speeches don’t matter, that campaigns are a waste and that the sort of conflict we have in the 2008 Democratic primary is “destructive,” I think of Robert Kennedy’s words in Indianapolis that night — a speech that would have never happened but for the hard-fought, highly competitive 1968 primary campaign — and the millions of people like me who were inspired by them and their impact on that city. For all the complexity and conflict in the 2008 race, the anniversary of the Kennedy speech reminds us that campaigns can leave lasting legacies of activism and idealism. I see it in my own children this year, a son who is a rabid “Obamafan,” and a teenage daughter who is a devoted “Hillarista.” They are part of a new generation, for whom the 2008 campaign will be their “1968” — the start of a lifetime of involvement and participation in politics. With the Democratic Party set to nominate the first-ever major party African-American or female candidate this year, we are not just remembering history — and the vision of social change that Robert Kennedy so brilliantly set forth on April 4, 1968 — we are living it.
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