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"An Honorable Profession": A Tribute to Robert F. Kennedy
To commemorate the 25th anniversary of the assassination of RFK, Doubleday/Main Street Books reissues a collection of articles and photos from the time immediately after the event. Part of the proceeds goes to the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Fund, which rewards individuals who have accomplished themselves in the area of human rights. Authorized by the Kennedy family.
212 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 1993
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
July 24, 2011
This collection of eulogies. letters, and other materials was published by Robert Kennedy's friends and close associates as a tribute to him following his assassination in June 1968. While those who had been close to him recalled his unique characteristics as a man and politician, many who knew little of him personally addressed the ray of hope his presidential candidacy had provided. For many of the latter, simply the fact that Kennedy had been willing to acknowledge their existence - the starving in American - or their plight - Native Americans on the reservations or the hopeless in the ghettos or African Americans in the Jim Crow South - had created a strong sense of devotion to his cause.
I can personally recall RFK's death, having witnessed it live on television at the age of 13 with my parents in quiet dismay. But only now - reading this book in our current political climate - do I think I can make some sense of it. I'm not referring to his assassination itself - does anyone really understand the motive for that? - but the hatred directed at him during his career. Bobby was remembered for the emotional commitment to his beliefs and his obsessive focus on truths he felt other politicians were refusing to face. His emotional genuineness was considered political suicide by the old-school political experts, but when his 1968 campaign seemed about to possibly prove them wrong, it was all suddenly ended.
In a society which seems to reward with power those most adept at political gamesmanship, every now and then along comes a leader who is rewarded through popular support for a sincere concern about the true state of affairs, and who can convince that support base that something can be done about it. This person is a threat to the existing power base, which attempts to discredit his ideas, and if that fails, destroy the character of that leader. The audacity...! The audacity of hope?"
I can personally recall RFK's death, having witnessed it live on television at the age of 13 with my parents in quiet dismay. But only now - reading this book in our current political climate - do I think I can make some sense of it. I'm not referring to his assassination itself - does anyone really understand the motive for that? - but the hatred directed at him during his career. Bobby was remembered for the emotional commitment to his beliefs and his obsessive focus on truths he felt other politicians were refusing to face. His emotional genuineness was considered political suicide by the old-school political experts, but when his 1968 campaign seemed about to possibly prove them wrong, it was all suddenly ended.
In a society which seems to reward with power those most adept at political gamesmanship, every now and then along comes a leader who is rewarded through popular support for a sincere concern about the true state of affairs, and who can convince that support base that something can be done about it. This person is a threat to the existing power base, which attempts to discredit his ideas, and if that fails, destroy the character of that leader. The audacity...! The audacity of hope?"
January 24, 2018
This book is a compilation of more than six dozen eulogies ... about the same guy. To enjoy “An Honorable Profession” you’d have to have be one of those people who either reads obits for fun or someone who has an interest in Robert Kennedy — some motivation, that is, to get you through what are, essentially (but with a few exceptions) the same words six dozen times, but in different order. I’m more of a Bobby Kennedy reader than an obit reader, myself, and that’s what got me through.
Consequently, if your admiration of Kennedy is sufficient for you to complete the book, then it’s unlikely that you’re going to find an anecdote you haven’t already heard that will crank your admiration up to 11. Instead, the book was revealing to me in a completely unexpected way — that is that, even in the face of national tragedy, the nation’s most elite and erudite editors, writers, and politicians couldn’t manage to say anything that hadn’t already been said — or won’t be said again — within 48 hours by 72 other Ivy League educated, white, male muckety-mucks with evident high self-regard. If I were Ethel Kennedy seeking solace, I can’t imagine finding it in this collection of testimonials in which each writer produces identical evidence to support their “this is what Bob was really like” editorials: that time he plunged into the crowd, the Black and Native American supporters who wept for him, that event in Indiana/Oregon where he sucked at speaking but still connected, his confusion at being called ruthless when he was really just passionate. This book is first and foremost evidence that the the bubble the elite travel in is not a recent development, nor is the mediocrity of their training.
There were a couple of exceptions, though. The first being the Look magazine essay written by Charles Evers, NAACP official and brother of murdered activist Medger Evers. Evers’ anecdotes are of a kind that illustrate Kennedy’s compassion for others, but they are also of a kind that illustrate that Evers was in a position to truly know the man. So many of the other essays lack that credibility. In addition, Evers’ eulogy better conveys the national character of the tragedy: not only has a man who inspired the confidence of others been lost, but God has not arranged to send another in his place. Not only was another man assassinated, but — without some sign from the heavens — so was hope.
Another exception was the radio eulogy by Steve Bell, but largely because he offers a new anecdote of Kennedy’s political courage: a revealing and charming story about Kennedy confronting college students who oppose the draft. After Kennedy says, to boos, that he supports the draft, he argued that without it only the poor and the people of color would be fighting the war. One kid of clueless privilege argued that military service is a way for those poor young men to get ahead. Kennedy responds with contempt, asking the kid how he can “sit on [his] duff and ask a question like that.”
In this more cynical age we live in, many will roll their eyes at this book and the beer-goggle credulousness it demands — it doesn’t mention wiretapping MLK, authorizing Castro’s murder, or visiting Marilyn Monroe. But if you can overcome the books’ limitations to see through to what editor Pierre Salinger sought to accomplish, you can see what Bobby Kennedy did and said and compare it to what we see Trump-era politicians do and say and thereby see the distinction between people who do bad things in the course of a life that seeks to lift the world up and those people who do bad things to bring the world low to make the pickings easier. If you do see that distinction, you’re very likely to ask yourself after you turn from the last page — 50 years on from the assassination — “Where, God, is the man to take his place?”
Consequently, if your admiration of Kennedy is sufficient for you to complete the book, then it’s unlikely that you’re going to find an anecdote you haven’t already heard that will crank your admiration up to 11. Instead, the book was revealing to me in a completely unexpected way — that is that, even in the face of national tragedy, the nation’s most elite and erudite editors, writers, and politicians couldn’t manage to say anything that hadn’t already been said — or won’t be said again — within 48 hours by 72 other Ivy League educated, white, male muckety-mucks with evident high self-regard. If I were Ethel Kennedy seeking solace, I can’t imagine finding it in this collection of testimonials in which each writer produces identical evidence to support their “this is what Bob was really like” editorials: that time he plunged into the crowd, the Black and Native American supporters who wept for him, that event in Indiana/Oregon where he sucked at speaking but still connected, his confusion at being called ruthless when he was really just passionate. This book is first and foremost evidence that the the bubble the elite travel in is not a recent development, nor is the mediocrity of their training.
There were a couple of exceptions, though. The first being the Look magazine essay written by Charles Evers, NAACP official and brother of murdered activist Medger Evers. Evers’ anecdotes are of a kind that illustrate Kennedy’s compassion for others, but they are also of a kind that illustrate that Evers was in a position to truly know the man. So many of the other essays lack that credibility. In addition, Evers’ eulogy better conveys the national character of the tragedy: not only has a man who inspired the confidence of others been lost, but God has not arranged to send another in his place. Not only was another man assassinated, but — without some sign from the heavens — so was hope.
Another exception was the radio eulogy by Steve Bell, but largely because he offers a new anecdote of Kennedy’s political courage: a revealing and charming story about Kennedy confronting college students who oppose the draft. After Kennedy says, to boos, that he supports the draft, he argued that without it only the poor and the people of color would be fighting the war. One kid of clueless privilege argued that military service is a way for those poor young men to get ahead. Kennedy responds with contempt, asking the kid how he can “sit on [his] duff and ask a question like that.”
In this more cynical age we live in, many will roll their eyes at this book and the beer-goggle credulousness it demands — it doesn’t mention wiretapping MLK, authorizing Castro’s murder, or visiting Marilyn Monroe. But if you can overcome the books’ limitations to see through to what editor Pierre Salinger sought to accomplish, you can see what Bobby Kennedy did and said and compare it to what we see Trump-era politicians do and say and thereby see the distinction between people who do bad things in the course of a life that seeks to lift the world up and those people who do bad things to bring the world low to make the pickings easier. If you do see that distinction, you’re very likely to ask yourself after you turn from the last page — 50 years on from the assassination — “Where, God, is the man to take his place?”
August 25, 2021
Just an incredible collection of writings about the life and death of Robert Kennedy. I really spent so much time to read it because I wanted to feel every word written, and I did; sometimes to the point of being moved to tears and unable to read the next essay - feeling as though I was there, and feeling the raw emotion that was left behind when he was killed.
What an honor it would have been just to live during the time Bobby was alive, let alone to have been someone lucky enough to have known him. We shall perhaps never again see someone who can inspire so much in so many people - not just politically, but as a human being.
What an honor it would have been just to live during the time Bobby was alive, let alone to have been someone lucky enough to have known him. We shall perhaps never again see someone who can inspire so much in so many people - not just politically, but as a human being.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews