Joe Kennedy On the Horizon

I’ve been checking in via Facebook and other online venues, from time to time, with Joe Kennedy III–Robert F. Kennedy’s grandson–for the past year or so. I’ve been watching him, wondering if Bobby’s DNA and his upbringing have created a man whose heart, spirit and soul are as transparent and as constant as his grandfather’s (who he never met, sadly) were.

 

I loved Robert F. Kennedy. As a human being and as Attorney General, he worked for the marginalized and against powerful interests that abused their positions to take advantage of other human beings.

 

In my opinion, RFK was by far the best Kennedy male of his generation–and the one before. Which is not to say that I didn’t also respect POTUS JFK and Senator EMK as politicians despite their shortcomings. (I just expected them to be perfect gentlemen and husbands–didn’t we all, back then?–and they weren’t, but a lot of men have disappointed me in that way, so infidelity isn’t a drop-dead deal-breaker for me.)

 

I’m 66, so I was a Kennedy-era kid. My life was upended/disrupted/obliterated twice by Kennedy assassinations, the first time when I was 12, the last time when I was 17. To say their murders scarred me is  entirely accurate.

 

I remember a particularly-poignant one-panel cartoon that appeared not long after the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Bobby Kennedy in 1968. It showed a UFO with a humanoid-looking alien standing next to a sad-looking 20-something-year-old man. The young man was telling the alien (in response to the standard alien request), “I don’t have a leader. They shot all of my leaders.”

 

That was exactly how I felt in 1968.  Since then, I have always wondered what the USA would have become as a nation under RFK’s leadership. We already know what it became under Nixon’s.

 

For starters, there would have been no Watergate scandal. And I seriously doubt that Reagan (a lapsed Democrat-turned-Republican) would ever have become President, so the slow bleeding-out of our middle class in favor of the rich and powerful at the expense of the rest of us, which started with Reagan’s administration, would not have gotten underway (at least as early as it did; and it has taken decades to get us to this pathetic point in the process).

 

I think Native Americans, migrant workers, African-Americans and Latino/Latina citizens would have found it easier to achieve the American Dream.

 

I think we would live in a different America entirely, one measurably closer to the American ideals that we hold dear as a nation. I think we’d be celebrating and capitalizing on immigrant diversity instead of demonizing it.

 

So to still be here, alive, to see Joe Kennedy III come on the scene is almost more than I can bear.

 

I love Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden.  I respect and admire Elizabeth Warren and the others on the horizon who may, or may not, throw their hats into the ring during the 2020 election season.

 

But what separates Kennedy from the pack (except for Joe Biden) is that he fights for decency, fairness and equality in a positive way. Instead of the constant drumbeat of bellyaching, fault-finding, finger-pointing and circular firing squads–which has gotten really OLD to me, as non-stop as it has been for almost three years now–he is presenting a positive, uplifting vision of the future. Instead of hammering on what’s wrong, he calls us to focus on what’s right, what can be better, what most Americans can agree on. It’s refreshing.

 

And he’s young. Joe and Bernie are getting up there in age. So am I. I just think it’s time to start passing the torch to the people who will have to live with the consequences of their policies. Old men and women, especially on the GOP side, apparently aren’t as vested in the future of the planet and our policies (do they not have children and grandchildren?!) as young people are. We old-timers are outta here before too much longer. Perhaps it’s time to embrace the next leaders who are in the wings eager  to carry on the struggle.  I presume one of them is Joe Kennedy III!

 

And to be frank (and earnest), as much as I like, admire and respect Bernie, Elizabeth and some of the other progressive candidates, I’m tired–really, really tired–of hearing, like a broken record, the litany about what’s wrong with our present policies. I want my leaders to call us to focus on a vision of what can be done to make things better, not on what all of us already acknowledge is FUBAR (F—-d Up Beyond All Resolution)! You know?

 

I much prefer the vibration of positive, uplifting, forward-thinking, policy-making proponents to the constant negative drumbeat that is so much a part of our political discourse now.  Uplifting vibrations create energy, hope and enthusiasm; constant negativity in the public square creates depression, despair and a sense of hopelessness. Constant negative energy makes me want to tune OUT, not IN!

 

Joe Kennedy III is like his grandfather in a good way. Like Bobby, although he briefly and candidly acknowledges where the American Dream has fallen short for so many of us, he doesn’t camp out there, flailing away in the ditch. He asks us to do what we can to make tomorrow brighter and better for each other. He calls us to the better angels of our natures. He wants us to use our energy and resources to move toward what we want instead of against what we don’t want.

 

As he alluded to last night, this isn’t about Donald Trump. This is about the starkly-different directions that various leaders want our country to move in.

 

And if we’re ever going to change things for the better, we need to be energized, encouraged and uplifted, not demoralized, frustrated and endlessly-angry.

 

I just hope I live long enough to see America regain its footing and head in the direction of its highest ideals again: justice and a fair playing field for all… no exceptions!