50 years ago, we Americans, maybe even the greater world, lost something when JFK was killed. What ever that was, whatever might have been, was lost forever.

But the truth is we seem to lose our national innocence over and over. It may be more accurate to say we lose a layer of naiveté with each episode. Crazy bad things happen that force us to look closer at ourselves. Stripping off another layer of innocence, allowing us to see deeper into out national soul. American history is full of glaring examples of this loss of innocence.

I was just beginning first grade when JFK was killed. I was old enough to love a girl who lived up the street in Pacifica. But, so young I needed help from my older brother in spelling LOVE in a letter to her. I'd never written that word before.

Suddenly I was being drawn into a discussion about death. What did I know about death? Not so much. A 6 year old being asked to reflect on death? A bigger take-away for me was the fact that cartoons were not going to happen this particular weekend. Eventually the loss of our president started to sink in.

As students at Our Savior Lutheran School in Sacramento, my brother and I had written a letter to Robert F Kennedy, sometime after JFK was murdered, asking him to help get his brothers birthday made a holiday. I remember the excitement when we got a letter back in a big manila envelope. The letter basically said this may never happen, but that there were more important things to work for. We were sad, but also happy to have had the chance to connect with Bobby.

150 years ago, President Lincoln spoke at Gettysburg, where brave men gave their lives in the struggle to uphold the proposition, "that all men are created equal." That battle at Gettysburg ended long ago. Civil War victory was declared. But then, and still today, equality remains a work in progress. There are those who romanticize visions of gentility in the old south, while maybe forgetting the core reason why so many gave their final measure of devotion in support of the ideals of true freedom. The evil pollution of hatred lives on in the hearts of men today. The measure of a persons potential must never again be allowed to be shackled to ancestry.

In the senate, one of RFK's assignments was a seat on the Subcommitte on Migratory Labor. He came to know Cesar Chavez. His first visit to meet Chavez began with a public hearing on the standoff between striking grape pickers and law enforcement. During questioning, a sheriff admitted to arresting strikers who, "looked ready to violate the law." RFK shot back, "may I suggest that during the lunch period that the sheriff and district attorney read the Constitution of the United States?"

On March 10th 1968, RFK met with Chavez to help end a 25 day fast that Chavez felt compelled to, as public penance for violence that resulted from his strike tactics. Chavez ended his fast and wrote a speech that greatly affected Bobby. Chavez said, "It is how we use our lives that determines what kind of men we are. I am convinced that the truest act of courage, the strongest act of manliness, is to sacrifice ourselves for others in a totally nonviolent struggle for justice. To be a man is to suffer for others. God help us be men."

On March 16th, 1968, RFK announced he was running to become the Democratic nominee for president.

RFK was in. We found out he would be speaking at Florin Center, a new shopping mall, seven days after he joined the race. My brother and I rode our bikes across town Saturday March 23rd, to see our hero. We enjoyed many epic rides all around town. We explored Sutter's Fort, the State Capitol, state office buildings, the rivers and lakes and even and abandoned gold dredge. The modern terms for kids like us would be free range. We were out on our own, being where we wanted to be. But this ride was different. Our previous rides were to explore new and different places, this was the only time we rode to see a person.

I could not remember much of Bobby's speech that day. The one part I do remember was his admonishing a couple of youngsters who had climbed up onto a wall for a better view to "be careful up there." Years later, I searched the web with no results. I eventually contacted Stephen Plotkin, a Reference Archivist at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library, and found a source for his short speech, in an unpublished book written by Michael J. Aguirre.

"It is good to be here in Sacramento today. You live in a unique town. Most of your fellow citizens are politicians. My friend Jess Unruh told me the other day that his friends who were visiting him from out of town found it hard to get directions around town... it seemed no one wanted to commit themselves to anything specific.

Let me just say - be careful up there - let me say that I believe in what this campaign is about. For this is no ordinary election year. This is a year where the effort for which we strive to succeed must succeed. For at stake is nothing less than our national soul and I believe the American people realize that and seek change as well.

I believe the men and women of America will win new leadership, for themselves and for their country. And out of this effort will come the spirit of discussion and debate, of confrontation and cooperation which will begin to bridge the gaps - of age, of belief, of religion, of race, and of all the disintegrating matters which have, in the past, so divided this country. I think these are things the American people wish to confront. I do not believe the American people are willing to settle for anything less than the truth, which is what this administration has given them over and over again.

I think the American people deserve better. And I think the American people can do better. That is why I run for President of the United States and that is why I seek your help here in Sacramento. Thank you."

Three days into the spring of 1968 the sun shined brightly here, warming to a comfy 78 degrees, as hope began to sprout.

"This is a year where the effort for which we strive to succeed, must succeed. For at stake is nothing less than our national soul and I believe the American people believe that and seek change as well.

I believe the men and women of America will win new leadership, for themselves and for their country. And out of this effort will come the spirit of discussion and debate, of confrontation and cooperation which will begin to bridge the gaps - of age, of belief, of religion, of race, and of all the disintegrating matters which have, in the past, so divided this country. I think these are things the American people wish to confront."

Powerful words worth repeating. Only twelve days later, the leader of the nonviolent civil rights movement was killed while trying to bring truth to the notion repeated by Lincoln at Gettysburg, "that all men are created equal."

RFK was campaigning in Indiana, and spoke in the poorest part of Indianapolis that night. The crowd was unaware, until informed by Bobby, of the death of Dr. King. Quoting from an ancient play by Aeschylus, RFK said, "Even in our sleep, pain which cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart until, in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of God."

Exactly seventy five days after I saw Bobby speak, he too fell from this life. To put this in simplistic sports jargon, that's three up - three down. In humanistic terms, was there ever a five year period in our history when greater promise of progress was more completely crushed?

Tonight, as you enjoy your beverage of choice, drink to them, and pour funeral libations over their graves in your mind, in hopes of warding off any harm aimed at the next in the line of brave men who are willing to stand up and loudly speak truth to evil. And drink to the end of this cycle of violence and hatred.

Wow, that sure is a heavy meal for someone as skinny as yours truly. I'm still just wondering if there are any of your fellow country women and men on this actual site who really give a fig enough to comment? I hope that there are even if they are skinny-dippers like simple me. People get lost in history but words, even letters, even numbers can move people and nations in all sorts of future directions. It is perhaps the usual words like hatred and love etc etc that become kind of boring to read when read in the normal sort of everyday way but it is when they take us by surprise, when they suddenly become odd, out of place, not what we the people, (i) expected, that is when the power of just one simple, tiny wee word like "We" is turned into a humdinger that electrifies just two folks, no two absolute 'strangers' on this wee earth we're clinging to, to somehow agree to something or other that can move a mountain of violence and hatred into the stinking rotting dump where it belongs. One may just be a hair on a wee toe while the other may be a brain cell but together….who knows but arn't we all part of the one body, the one human race. The same bloody race that since 'Cain and Abel' have been doing what we do best which in the end will mean the end!

It will take some time for my dumb grey cells to take in what you write but DRR, I promise I will try too in order to try your slippers on, (not borrow!) but we shall see. Thanks again for your words. (We are Arlo fans, right? I mean isn't that the reason we happen to be on this particular site?)

Peace to you DRR

first off DRR, thank you for your thoughts here! i grew up learning it was the end of the world, from day one. and any of those things you mentioned would just be further proof of it.

but,,,the end of innocence ?

it seems there has always been a bit of treachery in the most unlikely places

and innocence, as you say, can be in perhaps the most unlikely of scenarios?

wow, your post (woodstock69) was not there when i went to post, i haven't even had a chance to read it yet!

Wow to you too Agnes I just read yours! Hello Agnes.

hello

Hello Agnes and warmest greetings from Ireland. I thought the end of Innocence began in the Garden?

in the garden? you mean, the garden of eden? in the beginning of the beginning you say

if you think that is an accurate account of all things.

i think it is an interesting story. an interesting manmade story.

I agree it is a 'manmade' story and certainly not made by a woman. (Imagine if it was!)

human made story is where my head was when i said that.

but all things considered, calling it (the bible) man made would not be at all inappropriate.

still, women are humans too. and humans all can be kind of goofy, or not.

anyhow, got stuff to do, gotta run!

"The idea that the sun is stationary is foolish and absurd in philosophy, and formally heretical since it explicitly contradicts in many places the sense of holy Scripture." Pope Gregory XV 1616.

"Some still seek an exaggerated doctrinal security as they stubbornly try to recover a past that no longer exists." Pope Francis 2013.

Opinions, beliefs and interpretations change. Galileo was convicted of heresy and sentenced to house arrest for the rest of his life because he would not recant his belief that the earth was not the center of the universe.

Speaking truth to power back then often brought on a good bit of church sponsored torture, kept up until you confessed to a crime that always had a punishment of death. We are still evolving.

Supple and turbulent, a ring of men
Shall chant in orgy on a summer morn
Their boisterous devotion to the sun,
Not as a god, but as a god might be,
Naked among them, like a savage source.
Their chant shall be a chant of paradise,
Out of their blood, returning to the sky;
And in their chant shall enter, voice by voice,
The windy lake wherein their lord delights,
The trees, like serafin, and echoing hills,
That choir among themselves long afterward.
They shall know well the heavenly fellowship
Of men that perish and of summer morn.
And whence they came and wither they shall go
The dew upon their feet shall manifest.

She hears, upon that water without sound,
A voice that cries, "The tomb in Palestine
Is not the porch of spirits lingering.
It is the grave of Jesus, where he lay."
We live in an old chaos of the sun,
Or old dependency of day and night,
Or island solitude, unsponsored, free,
Of that wide water, inescapable.
Deer walk upon our mountains, and the quail
Whistle about us in their spontaneous cries;
Sweet berries ripen in the wilderness;
And, in the isolation of the sky,
At evening, casual flocks of pigeons make
Ambiguous undulations as they sink,
Downward to darkness, on extended wings.

"We are still evolving." Dust to dust, everything else is meaningless but its good to kick at the goads as well as the gods. They too are evolving.
Way over my head but knowledge to kick around. Thanks

It is part of a Wallace Stevens poem called Sunday Morning, from (I think) 1915.

To me, he is trying to show that the cycles of nature are the alterative to Christianity. That the rhythm and order we see in nature is what we also hope to find in death.

They shall know well the heavenly fellowship
Of men that perish and of summer morn.
And whence they came and wither they shall go
The dew upon their feet shall manifest.

The truth is I don't know rabbit poo from cocoa puffs, but it has not stopped me from thinking about the bigger picture.

The End is near (maybe)