(Glad I'm not) a Kennedy?

On a recent trip to Canberra, I was somewhat amused to hear the Shona Laing track '(Glad I'm not) a Kennedy'.

For one, I would have thought that is the kind of song that is so hideously dated that it is astonishing it's still on anyone's playlists (although regional radio is the home of ongoing royalties cheques for artists like Tom Petty and Daryl Braithwaite).

However, I suppose I have to thank Ms Laing for something, the song got me to thinking about Robert F. Kennedy and the destiny that his assassination left, to many people's minds, unfulfilled.

RFK was, to my mind, one of those archetypal political "good guys". His more radical civil rights agenda was the catalyst for JFK's public action on segregation and civil rights (despite his somewhat worrying approval of wire-taps on Martin Luther-King).

It was RFK, as Attorney-General, who ordered the troops to the University of Mississippi to ensure that James Meredith could enrol there and ensured that the Freedom Riders to the South had as much Federal protection as he could muster in the face of racist bigotry and violence.

As a Senator, Robert Kennedy also virtually coined the term "disaffected", to describe minorities whose lives were so very distant from the actions of government, and those who most needed its support. He represented New York in its entirety, visiting slums and working with local communities to build government support programs that helped desperately poor communities access education and jobs.

What would the United States be like now if he had been elected the President? Would his Presidency have ensured a social justice agenda that united the country for the long-term? Or would he have, as his brother did, fallen prey to the glossing over that denies the strength of true change and inevitably delays its full effect?

Robert Kennedy is significant to me, because he was not only a champion of those who really need the support of government, but also because he expressed his support for this constituency in a way that we've lost. Talking about social justice, or building social capital, or achieving equity is, in many circles, bound to have you derided as a left-wing nutter with a crazy brand of Marxism in your eyes.

It also reminds me of a scene from 'Primary Colours':

"It must have been very different when my grandfather was alive," Henry Burton (Adrian Lester) tells Mrs. Stanton (Emma Thompson). "Hey, you were there. You had Kennedy. I didn't. I've never heard a president use words like 'destiny' and 'sacrifice' without it being bullshit. And, okay, maybe it was bull with Kennedy too, but ... but, people believed it. And, I guess, that's what I want. I want to believe it."