“In this difficult day, in this difficult time for the United States, it is perhaps well to ask what kind of nation we are and what direction we want to move in.”

When it seems that division and anger characterize many so many conversations, it helps to look back to see how we made it through terrible times before.  This week’s quote comes from a speech given by Robert F. Kennedy three hours after Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated.  Speaking at a rally in Indianapolis, Kennedy reminded them that his brother had been assassinated also. He said, “What we need in the United States is not violence . . . but love and wisdom and compassion toward one another, and a feeling of justice toward those who still suffer.”

Kennedy, Robert F. “”Statement on Assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.” Extraordinary Speeches of the Amerian Century, edited by  Robert Torricell and Andrew Carroll.Washington Squre Press, 1999, p. 273.