INAUGURATION DAY + MLK DAY

I watched a lot of documentaries including A Ripple of Hope about the speech Robert Kennedy made in Indianapolis the day MLK was shot in 1968. It was supposed to be a campaign rally speech. But he had to tell them, not all of them knew. Some of the crowd came prepared to riot. But after hearing his speech, they did not.

Extemporaneously, without reading from a prepared text, he said:

"My favorite poem, my — my favorite poet was Aeschylus,"
Robert Kennedy said, "and he once wrote":

"Even in our sleep, pain which cannot forget
falls drop by drop upon the heart,
until, in our own despair,
against our will,
comes wisdom
through the awful grace of God."

Interesting....he turned to the Greek poets for comfort after the death of his brother, JFK.

You can watch the speech here. Hearing it in the distinct, Kennedy boston accent brings it to life along with the energy of the time. Very different than our own.

A Ripple of Hope is on YouTube, parts 1-6. Part four gives the context of the speech, the events of the day leading up to the speech at night. Even the police did not want to go into the neighborhood where he gave the speech in front of thousands of people on a flatbed truck at the corner of 17th + Broadway.