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[WillyT]

The Greatest Speech Ever - Robert F Kennedy Announcing The Death Of Martin Luther King

[maced666]

1. Ever? Obama has three of four I'd put ahead.

Including the one last Thursday on immigration.

[WillyT]

3. Mind Telling Me Your Age ???

Because historical context is important.

That's why judging somebody's life's work... is usually undertaken after their dead.

[Spazito]

2. Your OP title is causing issues, please reduce the number of ::::::,

thanks

Edited to add: fixed now.

[WillyT]

4. Oh Alright...

KillJoys...

[Spazito]

5. LOL, thanks, much better! n/t

[malokvale77]

6. Thanks WillyT

It saddens me that we have failed that vision.

[WillyT]

7. I'm Not Normally Into "Heroes"

Yet... we had some... "politically" at one time...

And could use them now.

[malokvale77]

10. Yes we could

It would be suicide to take up that mantel. Heroes will not be tolerated.

We have become a sorry, sad ass nation

[Stellar]

8. I still get chills when I hear that speech.

[KingCharlemagne]

9. Where does the "Gettysburg Address" fit in (if at all)? I'd say

it's at least tied with RFK's speech:

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

~Abraham Lincoln (1863) - Emphasis added

[WillyT]

11. Whoa... Thanks For Your Input...

[Journeyman]

13. At Gettysburg, Mr Lincoln remade America, and resolved an issue that had festered . . .

for 87 years: What is the basis for this nation? Is it the Declaration, and its avowal that equality for all is paramount, or is it the Constitution, and the belief that compromise and accommodation should be supreme?

What Mr Lincoln, and the War resolved, was that the Constitution was deeply flawed, terminally flawed, and the true basis for our continued existence could only be found in Jefferson's ideals, the belief that we are all fundamentally equal and deserving of a life of our individual choosing. It was a determination that had been debated for as long as possible, and was then being decided at last on battlefields spread across the land.

There would be one speech that would join Mr Lincoln's remarks at Gettysburg, and share with it preeminence among the nation's many examples of inspired oratory. And that would be Mr Lincoln's Second Inaugural. What else could join the new birth of freedom which Mr Lincoln had bequeathed to us, what else but the only Presidential speech that boldly asserted that the nation had sinned by sanctioning slavery, and had been punished by God for its crimes?

[hfojvt]

12. "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, feeling of justice toward those who still suffer within our country, whether they be white or whether they be black..."


To read DU though, is to see people who embrace division, and hatred, if not also violence and lawlessness.

"The vast majority of white people and the vast majority of black people in this country want to live together, want to improve the quality of our life and want justice for all who abide in our land."

To say that in 1968.

Yet, here in 2014, that is not widely believed on DU. Almost 50 years later.

[AwakeAtLast]

14. That was in Indianapolis, i believe

As red as Indiana is, there have been peaceful protests there for many reasons. There is a group of ministers who work closely between police and citizens. While not perfect, it has helped the community remain peaceful in difficult circumstances.

Thank you for the reminder of where it began.

[WillyT]

15. You Are Quite Welcome !!!

[Brigid]

16. Yep, that was here in Indy.

That is why the city didn't blow up like so many others did when the news broke.