"Even in our sleep, pain which cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, until, in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of God."
Again.
Robert Francis Kennedy, Jr. has always been that rarest of men -- a progressive not in ideology or narcissistic stance, but in heart, soul, and deed. He has bled for others. While so many of his generation became vampires, pimps, and baboons, Kennedy instead chose to be a protector of all those needing protection: the powerless, the weak, the sad. His father's son indeed. His estranged wife Mary, with whom he had four children, was often by his side as they battled the worst in our midst. In 2001, they were arrested together for trespassing at Camp Garcia -- the U.S. Navy's training facility on the island of Viesques, Puerto Rico. The trespassing caused the suspension, for merely a day, of "live-fire exercises" by the goons who have basically seized the island. He and Mary were co-directors of the Pace University Environmental Litigation Clinic -- a clinic that trains law students in suing corporate polluters of the nearby Hudson River. And on. . . He and Mary separated two years ago.
Media ghouls and carrion-birds will now descend on her passing. Both RFK, Jr. and the family were tricked and exploited by the Obama campaign throughout '08. In February of that year at American University (the site of JFK's greatest speech), Ted, Caroline, and RFK Jr. passed the torch to the man who would become the anti-JFK: elected as peacemaker, governing as mass-murderer. Several times during the campaign, Obama made us all believe RFK Jr. would be his EPA head. When the time came for the appointment, Kennedy didn't even get a sniff. The appointment instead going to Lisa Jackson -- a corporatist woman of color.
The family has always brought out the best and the beast in man and fate. Once again, the beast was waiting.
Mary Kennedy, RIP.
