I began blogging in retirement about nineteen years ago, reflecting on events that have shaped my beliefs and opinions over a lifetime now approaching eighty years. My thumbnail bio in the right sidebar has changed a few times but it still says I knew that in management I was supposed to become Conservative (which meant Republican) but I was not cut from the right fabric and I remained an old-fashioned Liberal. And even now I sometimes have flashbacks to my younger years reminding me why that remains true after all this time.
Channel-surfing yesterday afternoon I watched key parts of recent history which included formative events which occurred during my young adult life shaping core beliefs which have remained solid ever since -- the possibility of another use of nuclear weapons (Cuban missile crisis), the unfolding Vietnam conflict, the assassinations of JFK, RFK and MLK and my decision to register as a conscientious objector anticipating the military draft which commenced in 1964.
During the Vietnam War era, between 1964 and 1973, the U.S. military drafted 2.2 million American men out of an eligible pool of 27 million.
Even now, years later, Robert Kennedy's historic speech, delivered without notes shortly after the King assassination, still brings tears to my eyes.
The reason I labeled it as "The Greatest Speech Ever" was simply the fact that it was never written, it wasn't read from a piece of paper, while there are numerous speeches that are life-changing and timeless, they were almost all written and thought of much more than this one. This one was only written in his heart.
You should see Teddy Kennedy's speech in Sitka in 1968. It was a few weeks before Bobby was murdered. https://40yrs.blogspot.com/2009/08/best-speech-that-ted-kennedy-ever-gave.html
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