Robert Kennedy: A New Direction for America

Stephanie Robert Kennedy: A New Direction for America To Robert Kennedy, moral courage is a higher valued quality than bravery in battle or great intelligence. It is an essential virtue for those who seek to change the world. Kennedy’s world was America (Brown 1). His goal was to return government to the people, grant justices to the oppressed, and restore faith in Americans. From these actions, a new America would evolve. Kennedy believed, as Jefferson, that “we are the last and the best hope of the world” (Pilger 1). The poor and the disempowered were special to Kennedy. He would often refer to them as “my people” (Thomas “RFK's Last Campaign” 3). Interest in the excluded and disempowered entwined with Kennedy’s compassionate life style. So much of what Kennedy did was on instinct. His actions were with love, not for publicity (Brown 1-2). Kennedy was a multisensory learner. What he saw, felt, and heard stirred his desire to act ("Kennedy, Robert Francis" 6).

In order to understand the conditions of the poor America, Kennedy traveled; in order to see things first hand. In his travels, Kennedy focused on the poverty that was frequently forgotten or unseen. However, Kennedy also made it clear that he wasn’t promising income he was promising jobs (Brown 2-3). Kennedy’s 1967 discovery of near-starvation in Mississippi resulted in a desire to feed hungry Americans ("Kennedy, Robert Francis" 6).

Although America was Kennedy’s “world”, he was not blind sighted to the poverty in other countries. He spoke in Africa, India, Japan and Indonesia to promote the ideals of democracy. He interacted with the students, workers in intellectuals in Japan and they were won over by his understanding and knowledge of their concerns. The late 1965 trip to Latin America resulted in a campaign to reform U.S aid and his visit to South Africa in 1966 brought Kennedy to the head of the antiapartheid cause ("Kennedy, Robert Francis" 2, 6). Trying to train the police