In a past issue of “Vanity Fair” magazine, there was a feature about Bobby Kennedy called “The Last Good Campaign”. It is a meld of a collection of pictures from “A Time It Was: Bobby Kennedy in the 60’s”, by Life Magazine photographer Bill Eppridge and text from a book that covers some of the same events, “The Last Campaign: Robert F. Kennedy and 82 Days That Inspired America”, by Thurston Clarke.
It is a look back at March of 1968, when before the coming tragedies of that year, there were high expectations, hopes and joys when many Americans, both young and old, thought that they had found the man who would bring an end to the Vietnam War, wipe out poverty and make the world a better place.
We never got the chance to find out what impact, what changes, what great things might have happened if Bobby Kennedy had lived. I regret that.
I think of so many things when I wonder what might have been, and maybe more importantly, what might NOT have been. No Richard Nixon. No Watergate. Vietnam would have ended for this nation, most likely in 1969.
Bobby, to this very day 40 years on from his murder, inspires such imagination. He represented such hope and belief that we could change as a nation. Of course, all we have been left with is "what if", and "what might have been". I regret he never had the chance to lead us where he wanted us to go. I think he'd have done a fine job of it.
In a way, it's just too sad to think about what could have been….