Korean Job Discussion Forums

billybrobby · Joined: 09 Dec 2004

There's a clip on youtube that I've listened to maybe 10 or 15 times, and for some reason, without being too corny, it really touches me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9JTYnMpRyg

It is Ted Kennedy speaking at Robert Kennedy's funeral. He is giving his brother's eulogy, the third brother that he has seen die, if my history is correct. The words come from a speech given by Robert Kennedy in South Africa a few years before, followed by some of Ted's own words. What strikes me is that the speech comes from such a different time, from the optimism and fear that characterized the 60s. You just don't hear American politicians speak that way any more. Except maybe Barack Obama, but time will tell what kind of person he is. It's been almost 40 years since Robert Kennedy was shot that day. I realize he was far from perfect, after all, he was Joe McCarthy's right hand man during the communist witchhunts. But there was something there, an ideal, that is rarely seen these days. Anyways, I really like this clip.

JohnTeacher · Joined: 10 Mar 2007 Location: Ansan-Si, South Korea

The lines....
Some men see things the way they are and say "Why?"....I dream of things that never were and ask "Why not?" come from the great English writer and playwright George Bernard Shaw.

I remember as a boy watching it live.....terribly moving....and so memorable....alll these years since...

billybrobby · Joined: 09 Dec 2004

I will say, when I listen to speeches that Barack Obama has made, I do think that carries the same idealism that shaped Bobby Kennedy's campaign. I don't know yet whether or not he'll be a good president, but it is exciting to have that kind of candidate in the running. The times we live in now are very different from 1968, but we do live in very important times, and I hope that we make the right decisions.

Ecumenist · Joined: 04 Mar 2007

blaseblasphemener · Posted: Thu Mar 29, 2007 2:35 pm Post subject:

Barack Obama just rings phony to me. I'm not buying him. I'll take Hillary, who I'm sure will get a hell of a lot more done and knows how to wield power. Idealism is for college kids. Some of the greatest makers of change in history did so reluctantly, brought into situations they did not ask for, and reacted the best way they knew how. They didn't walk around with love beads. Look at the civil rights movement. It was ushered in by a woman being disrespected on a bus. Look at AIDS. It took celebrities, and one famous basketball player, to move the conversation into more rational discussion.

Now hopefully, someday, people will rise up together through a stream of conciousness, and will demand something better from this world. The Global Warming alarm comes from that place-even though it is a bull sh it cause-but already that has been co-opted by Multi-Nationals.

Unfortunately, the days of camelot and free love are dead and buried. That kind of idealism seems so out of sorts with the world we live in. Everything is about money now. Good things that are done on a grand scale always involve vast sums of money. We've painted ourselves into a corner this way.

What the inevitable rundown to all this could be is a massive global recession. When the money runs out, and people get desperate, that's when you get a sea change in people's thinking; as long as there's a booming economy, people just see dollar signs.

spliff · Joined: 19 Jan 2004 Location: Khon Kaen, Thailand

blaseblasphemener · Posted: Thu Mar 29, 2007 3:18 pm Post subject:

jinju · Joined: 22 Jan 2006

Ecumenist · Joined: 04 Mar 2007

jinju · Joined: 22 Jan 2006

blaseblasphemener · Posted: Thu Mar 29, 2007 4:12 pm Post subject:

jinju · Joined: 22 Jan 2006

But atleast a prsident should stand for someting or atleast have some convictions. What does Hilary stand for? What are her principles and convictions? I really cant find any, can you?

Gopher · Joined: 04 Jun 2005

Nice music in that video's background. The Kennedys have always publicly stood for all that is good about America (less McCarthyism and the Bay of Pigs invasion, of course). Without a doubt there must have been some sincerity to their idealism. But "far from perfect" does not quite cut it, BillyBrobby.

We need to drop the romanticization and indeed the myth-making on the Kennedy Clan -- especially Robert F. Kennedy. I agree with Gore Vidal's assessment that between the Kennedys as we see them and the Kennedys as they were/are lie millions of dollars in public relations campaigns.

Robert F. Kennedy served as CIA's de facto White House overseer between April 1961 and his brother's assassination. His behavior did not represent dovish idealism but rather warmongering. And he virtually terrorized others in the executive branch from his White House office.

CIA officer Thomas Parrot, the Special Group's executive secretary/notetaker once remarked...