Robert F. Kennedy Collection, STUMP SPEECH, Clyde Keller RFK Photos

Today, looking back on these images, one cannot help but be struck by the sharp contrast between Robert Kennedy and the political leaders that came after him. Regardless of political party it is now clear that RFK was a seminal figure in an age of crisis. He could not be imitated, duplicated, or replaced. He had become an American Messiah. His position on almost every single issue was cutting edge and even ahead of the times. What other politicians chose to ignore Kennedy placed front and center. No matter how uncomfortable the realities of poverty, war, and dissent might be for some audiences Kennedy never altered his message to fit the audience. Rather, he truthfully confronted the hard facts and painful realities of the victims of social injustice, social exclusion, and economic deprivation. His constituency was not Wall Street.

Unlike the leadership brands of Reagan, Bush, Clinton, and Obama, what we find in Kennedy is a candidate who is entirely committed to being against the misguided priorities of the “Establishment.” He had learned and grown as attorney general in his brother’s administration. Now, in 1968, he was truly on his own. This reality also had the added benefit of freeing him from the more conventional aspects of John Kennedy’s approach to governance and campaigning. Robert’s message and the crowds to which he delivered that message were in many respects more diverse, more in tune with a time of turbulence. A sensitive man, Kennedy shared the anguish of a bitter age. These aspects of Kennedy’s character and times come through Clyde Keller’s photographs in a new and stunning way.

From the perspective of 2010, Keller’s photographs of Kennedy remind us of what might have been. Yet, they are more than that alone because they also have the capacity to place us back into contact with the ideas and hopes of what we still need to achieve. Watching RFK speak, respond, and connect with his audience serves as a dramatic reminder that we must hold America’s current leaders to a standard of accountability that honors and reflects Kennedy’s message and meaning from 1968. To do less would be treason to his legacy and the best that America has to offer.

Kennedy himself said at the close of many of his speeches, quoting George Bernard Shaw, “Some men see things as they are and say ‘why’? I dream things that never were and ask ‘why not’?”

TERRENCE EDWARD PAUPP is Senior Research Asssociate at the Council on Hemispheric Affairs (COHA), Washington D.C. and Vice President of North America for the International Association of Educators for World Peace (IAEWP). He is the author of several contemporary books including "Exodus From Empire" and "The Future of Global Relations."

Article Copyright © 2009 Terrence Edward Paupp

Portrait of Terrence Edward Paupp, December 30, 2009

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