VOTE YOUR CONSCIENCE ON TUESDAY! SANDERS, YES!

June 6, 2016

Pat Willson, posts almost daily on Facebook, bits of historical information.  Today she reminded us of the assassination of Bobby Kennedy at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles.  With politics making me crazy today.. (gripe to follow), this incident stands out as one of the worst memories from my past.  Bobby may or may not have had an intimate relationship with Marilyn.  That romantic notion is intriguing because of the pure celebrity of it.  The 'apparent suicide' of Marilyn and the rumor that Peter Lawford and Bobby may have been on hand that terrible night will never be confirmed.  The death of celebrity: show business, politics, athletics/sports.. bring us all into the same arena with feelings.  

Feelings get stirred up now and then and today, I noted some feelings in me with my attempt to convince one former friend that a minority vote makes a 'statement.'  If one candidate declares victory before the votes are cast, I seldom want to support that idea, even if eventually I might be happy with the candidate.  I want to make MY statement and in a way it is like the young man in Tiananmen Square all those years ago: almost thirty now..  who stood in front of an oncoming tank in the protest for democracy in China.  One kid.  One vote. One gesture.  The difference is that he didn't call on his fellows to join him.  He just stood there and the image is indelibly printed on my mind.   So, I'll stand at the polls on Tuesday and cast not a 'loser vote' but a vote for progress and hope that won't necessarily be lost if Mrs. Clinton moves forward, but I'll have the satisfaction of knowing that I made my comment.  

If I can convince one person to, at least, in the California primary, to vote for Mr. Sanders, then, my point has been made.  Coming up against any machine: a tank or a political movement or even an institution like my alma mater, only to be ignored, that proves a challenge that is hard for me to ignore.

Bobby Kennedy.  Shot on this date in 1968. 

Years later, I was with my friend, Johnny Gunn, when we were checking out the facilities at The Ambassador for a gathering.  We left the ballroom where the event would take place and he rushe in front of me and stepped onto a rubber mat that opened a doorway into a kitchen.  It looked familiar, but I didn't know why.  It was the kitchen where an assassin robbed the world of a legacy and potentially a world more inclined to peace.  It was chilling and as in important times in our lives, stays with me in a complete moment. The lighting.  My friend. The door opening into the murder scene. Indelible in memory. 

Pat's FB post quoted Bobby's brother. Ted delivered a simple eulogy: eloquent.  As  you read this, can you hear his voice?

"My brother need not be idealized, or enlarged in death beyond what he was in life; to be remembered simply as a good and decent man, who saw wrong and tried to right it, saw suffering and tried to heal it, saw war and tried to stop it. Those of us who loved him and who take him to his rest today, pray that what he was to us and what he wished for others will some day come to pass for all the world."

June 6, 2016

michaelsheehan