Still Missing You, Bobby

It was fifty four years yesterday
that we lost a connector of hopes
a link between many communities
whose ilk may not be seen again

Born into a family with wealth
his father still had the scars
of the prejudice of being devoutly Catholic
new money in the established corridors of power

Trained as a lawyer but with scant court experience
he worked for Joe McCarthy and it has even been said
conservative tendencies lined his politics
courting advocates of "segregation for ever"

As campaign manager for his brother
who became President of the United States
he danced politically with all kinds
and admitted that civil rights wasn't a top priority

Admonishing Doctor King for too aggressive an agenda
and demanding Doc denounce any connection to Communism
he went along with wire taps
and supported clandestine actions to oust Castro

The conventional wisdom is that his brother's death
marked his conversion to a character empathetic
to the needs of the downtrodden, the isolated, the ignored
a champion whose wealth insulated him from political gravy train

This view misses the early concern for freedom of speech
using tact and diplomacy to secure desegregated audience
for Noble Prize Winner Ralph Bunche,
an African American in a sea of predominately white faces

"Sunday Bloody Sunday", peaceful marchers bloodied and bruised
shocked a nation and the Attorney General
touched a chord in nonviolent protesters being beaten to a pulp
the gears inside his head alerted to blatant inhumanity

The trek to Appalachia, the voice given to Native American struggles
the support for the United Farm Workers
and one of the greatest pleas for peace in his address to Indianapolis
the night of Doctor King's murder

Bobby was a work in progress not the least of which
was having to reconcile the placement of troops in Vietnam
a lingering misstep from his brother's administration
that took him too long to delink himself from

It may be asking too much to wish for another Bobby Kennedy
events and the times shape the road taken
but is it naive to ask for a boldness
in political speech that addresses wrong done to fellow human beings

To "tame the savageness of man and make brighter the life of the world"?