In 1968 Robert Kennedy waged a war for the soul of America. And he awakened the souls of those who listened. He walked in the streets of both metropolis and the ghetto, and everywhere he went crowds of people reached to touch him. He gave himself to the people, sometimes shaking hands until his own were bloody from being scratched by fingernails. Kennedy did something rarely seen in politics, he went over the heads of the party bosses and Washington insiders, and took his message directly to the people.
He did things more "prudent" politicians wouldn't. He went to Alabama to deliver a speech on racial equality the same year that Ronald Reagan spoke in neighboring Mississippi on behalf of "states rights". When speaking at University of Indiana Medical School, a heckler asked where he would get the money for his proposed health care plan, Kennedy retorted ,"From you". Then added "Let me say something about the tone of these questions. I look around this room and I don't see many black faces that will become doctors...Part of a civilized society is to let people go to medical school who come from ghettos...You are the privaleged ones...It's our society, not just our government, that spends twice as much on pets as on the poverty program. It's the poor who carry the burden in Vietnam. You sit here as white medical students, while black people carry the burden of the fighting in Vietnam."
Bobby didn't have time for bullshit. He had a country to save. In photos from this campaign one can see the gravity of his concern burned into his face.
The ghosts of 1968 loom large over the American presidential election some 40 years later. Again we find ourselves deeply divided, embattled needlessly in a foreign land, lead by an administration that seems delusional in its very stubbornness, and ready for great change.
Monday night John Edwards came to Memphis, Tennessee to speak about poverty. The site he chose couldn't have been more appropriate: the Memphis Inter Faith Alliance building on Peabody and Vance, about halfway between the temple where Dr. King imparted his final wisdom to the world and the hotel balcony where man thought he could silence the dream by slaying the dreamer. The very heart of the "poorest zip-code" in Tennessee. I was very proud of Edwards for choosing this location as I had criticized him in 2004 for campaigning at Memphis's plush Orpheum Theater.
The room was filled with people as the First Baptist Church choir sang with their soulful and funky praise band. There were inspiring speeches a two homeless women whom MIFA was helping get back on their feet, and then John Edwards took the stage, and I realized that unfortunately he is not Bobby Kennedy.
His speech was mostly what you would expect a Democratic politician to say about poverty and what he did say was very true, but something about Edwards's remarks left me wanting. I don't doubt Edwards truly wants to fight poverty, but the authenticity just wasn't apparent. Even though he never once mentioned his presidential campaign, and no 'Edwards '08' signs were visible, the event still had the polished stink of a political rally. Perhaps it was the discord between the subject matter he spoke of and his all too easy smile that peppered the speech. Maybe it was the fact that he never once mentioned the war in Iraq, though it is not the rich who fight it. Or it could be that he only made indirect references to our current health care crisis, although it is the poor who bear it's brunt. Maybe what bothered me was that I couldn't imagine Bobby Kennedy or Martin Luther King practically congratulating themselves for talking about poverty, as Edwards basically did when he went into his "people ask me, why do you talk about this" routine. Everyone in his audience already knew why poverty needed to be discussed, that's why they were there.
I left the event less certain that Edwards really understands the gravity of the issue of poverty, and how it is deeply connected to most other major issues we face today.
As Edwards finished his speech, he walked around the front of the stage to shake hands with people who were close enough, then zipped out to a waiting campaign van and was off as quickly as he had come. As I left the building, I overheard some of the comments of other who had gathered there and learned that my feelings weren't unshared. "He deserves a seat at the roundtable", one woman said, "but not the big one".
When Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King talked about war and poverty, they found the language of politics to be inadequate,so they spoke in the language of the spirit. They showed that these issues are bigger than us, and even bigger than America itself, they strike at the very core of humanity. This is why they rejected offering simple political platitudes in favor of quoting from the Bible and the wisdom of the ancient greeks. Hearing their words even today can prick a listener's conscience and inspire him to act. I believe John Edwards is a decent man who wants to make this country a better place, and improve the situation of the dispossessed, but he could learn a lot by studying the ghosts of 1968.
Walking in the dark Memphis night and seeing the shadows of the convenience stores with steel-barred windows, or the crumbling apartment complexes lining the streets of a neighborhood in desperate need, I was left with one thought. John Edwards showed up. That is more than this neighborhood has been able to say about any politician in a long time.
