Saturday, August 25, 2007

America's best hope for reform, liberty, justice, equality and freedom is ahead of us -- what RFK told us in 1966

In the words of the first homily of Pope John Paul II, "Be not afraid."

America's best hope for reform, liberty, justice, equality and freedom is ahead of us. My role model, hero and indirect mentor during the 20th century was murdered in L.A. in 1968. I was 11 years old and a 6th grader at J. Mason Tomlin Elementary Schhool in Mantua, N.J. at the the time. Repeatedly, for decades, from Hoffa through Vietnam, RFK stared the devil in the eye, including corruption, the mafia, arms merchants and warmongers. Although very young, only 11 years old, I was politically aware, under the ministrations of my Sixth Grade teacher, Mrs. Patricia Catell. I was as probably as traumatized as anyone else in America. After RFK was murdered in 1968, I resolved to win victories for human rights, and not to yield to our oppressors. Only six years later, I was in college, working for RFK's only surviving brother as an intern, a position I obtained through my aunt, Mrs. Helen Theresa Donlon Carey, who turns 90 next month and who referred me to her Philadelphia Inquirer ad-taker friend, Vera McShane, whose son Terrence was working for EMK and studying at Georgetown. Aunt Helen celebrates her 90th birthday on September 14th. I owe my career to her and to EMK.

Nearly 40 years later, RFK's words survive and inspire us here in St. Augustine, whose civil rights victories in 1964 by people like my friend Barbara B. Allen live on, inspiring us all to work harder, smarter and better.

My first boss, as a freshmaa at Georgetown University almost 1/3 of a century ago, was RFK's sole surviving brother, Senator Edward M. Kennedy, for whom I was honored to work 1974-1976, working my way from volunteer to intern to staff assistant (at the pay rate of $53 per4 week for part-time work in the mailroom) and casework and legislative offices in Washington, D.C.

We do not need an adult entertainment zone and environmental destruction blocks from the place where the first Roman Catholic Mass in North America was said on September 8, 1565. We can stop it. As Albert Camus said, "if you do not help us do this, then who else in the world can help us do this?"

As RFK, who was my first mentor (albeit indirect) said in 1966: "It is not enough to allow dissent. We must demand it. For there is much to dissent from. .... We dissent from the fact that millions are trapped in poverty while the nation grows rich. ... We dissent from the conditions and hatreds which deny a full life to our fellow citizens because of the color of their skin. ... We dissent from the monstrous absurdity of a world where nations stand poised to destroy one another, and men must kill their fellow men. ... We dissent from the sight of most of mankind living in poverty, stricken by disease, threatened by hunger and doomed to an early death after a life of unremitting labor. ... We dissent from cities which blunt our senses and turn the ordinary acts of daily life into a painful struggle. ... We dissent from the willful, heedless destruction of natural pleasure and beauty. ... We dissent from all these structures – of technology and of society itself – which strip from the individual the dignity and warmth of sharing in the common tasks of his community and his country."


As my first boss, Senator Edward M. Kennedy, said August 12, 1980, "For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die."

Question authority and work to save our city and our country. America -- and St. Augustine, Florida -- are worth saving from thuggery, flummery and dupery.

My aunt the nun, Sister Margaret Mary, FMM, taught me at age 10 that human rights were worth fighting for -- she risked expulsion from South Korea as a human rights activist and perservered. She is still there today.

Again, in the words of the first homily of Pope John Paul II, "Be not afraid."

Always and everywhere, work to presever and protect our environment and for freedom, liberty, justice and equality every single day of your lives.

You will be glad you did, and your grandchildren will honor you for your service to humanity.

With kindest regards, I am,

Sincerely yours,
Ed
Ed Slavin
EASlavin@aol.com
www.cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com
Box 3084
St. Augustine, Florida 32085-3084
904-471-7023
904-471-9918 (fax)

No comments: