Of course, this poem has an especial connection to Kennedy who is indeed a life-long falconer. Tony explained that Kennedy, who is running for office for only one purpose – to serve the people and to bridge the divides we have in this country – is the only candidate who can hold our nation together and prevent it from slipping into the anarchy that Yeats wrote about.
Kennedy took the floor and gave one of the greatest political speeches I have ever heard. Kennedy quoted his uncle, JFK, who said that the main job of a US President is to preserve the peace, and to keep us out of war. Indeed, as Kennedy explained, JFK had told Washington Post reporter Ben Bradley that he wanted only four words on his tombstone: “he kept the peace.”
Kennedy explained that JFK – resisting the generals and the military brass who saw their job as providing a limitless conveyor belt of soldiers to the military-industrial complex – was true to his word: he did not send one American combat troop abroad during his presidency. And while he did send some military advisers abroad, he sent more troops during his term to Oxford, Mississippi to ensure the safe entry of James Meredith, a Black man, to the University of Mississippi.
With eyes glistening with tears, Kennedy also explained that the other goal of the president, as articulated by JFK, is to be a defender of the poor. One of JFK’s favorite international trips as president, RFK Jr. related, was to Colombia. There he met the man JFK believed was the greatest world leader he had ever met – Colombian President Alberto Lleras Camargo. During their meeting, President Lleras asked JFK, “Do you know why they love you? Because you put America on the side of the poor.” JFK, according to Kennedy, wanted people around the world to think of a Peace Corps worker when they thought of America, and not a soldier with a gun.
Kennedy explained that because JFK saw his role as protecting America’s economic interests abroad and not its military might, there are probably more streets, town squares and neighborhoods named after him than any other leader in history, many in Latin America. Kennedy mentioned that there are people in Africa named “Kennedy” for the very same reason. Coincidentally, I met an African American woman at the party who introduced herself as “Kennedy.”
While we were gathered outside on a cool, rainy night to hear Kennedy, everyone was warmed by the sincerity of his words and the decency and purity of his desire to be our next president.
People stayed late into the evening to greet Kennedy after his speech and to have their photo taken with him. He was happy to oblige.
At age 55, as someone who has heard many politicians over the years in person, including great orators like Jesse Jackson in 1984 and Barack Obama in 2008, I can honestly say what I heard that night was one of the greatest political speeches I’ve ever heard. And while I’m too young to have listened to JFK or Bobby Sr. in person, I felt them channeled and resonating through RFK Jr.