Bobby

Has it already been 40 years?, he asked himself in disbelief. What the hell did we learn from the Tet offensive, the Chicago 10, MLK, LBJ, or Cool Hand Luke? Not a damn thing was the sad retort. We're doing it all again, like clockwork. Same stupid mistakes but this round in the name of homeland security and our foreign "interests". Worse, they're not even mistakes, they're out and out planned and orchestrated crimes against humanity. By our own hallowed standards we have violated every moral, ethical, political and spiritual standard ever established, and had the outlandish arrogant audacity to spin it off as necessary because if we don't do it there, we'll have to do it here. Excuse me while I go puke, he gurgled.

So it was 40 years ago. The Tigers behind Mickey Lolich and Al Kaline beat the Cards (behind Bullet Bob Gibson and Lou Brock) 4 games to 3 in the series. Ohio State went 10-0. Hey Jude was number one on the Billboard pop charts. The average household income was $7,743 and a first class stamp was a nickel. There was no e-mail. Arthur Hailey's Airport was at the top of the NY Times best seller list and "In the Heat of the Night" won the best picture award. I was a sophomore in high school, he mussed, remembering it as a time of great change.

As his thoughts began their quasi-scientific dot connecting journey, he saw John Lennon, Bill Freehan, Rod Steiger, Paul Newman, Charlie Escalier, Lt. Calley, Jane Fonda and twenty thousand Vietnamese, all shaking their heads in disbelief. "Wait, there's still hope", he shouted, desperately wanting to change the course of the river with his bare hands, "all we need is some truth, courage and integrity, it CAN happen. Please let's just try, all of us, together, and NOW". His call to action faded as his eyes welled with tears understanding that, "Tomorrow may be too late." And he heard Bobby say:
"Too much and for too long, we seemed to have surrendered personal excellence and community values in the mere accumulation of material things. Our gross national product, now, is over $800 billion a year, but that gross national product — if we judge the United States of America by that — that gross national product counts air pollution and cigarette advertising and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage. It counts special locks for our doors and the jails for the people who break them. It counts the destruction of the redwood and the loss of our natural wonder in chaotic sprawl. It counts napalm and counts nuclear warheads and armored cars for the police to fight the riots in our cities. It counts Whitman's rifle and Speck's knife and the television programs, which glorify violence in order to sell toys to our children. "Yet the gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages, the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our wit nor our courage, neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country; it measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile. And it can tell us everything about America except why we are proud that we are Americans."

RFK, 1968.