Family of Robert F. Kennedy Rethinks His Place at Library

[alp227]

Source: The New York Times

WASHINGTON — As archivists prepare to make public 63 boxes of Robert F. Kennedy’s papers at the John F. Kennedy Library in Boston, his family members are having second thoughts about where they should be housed and are considering moving them elsewhere because they believe that the presidential library has not done enough to honor the younger brother’s legacy.

Many of the papers, dealing with Cuba, Vietnam and civil rights, are classified as secret or top secret. There are also 2,300 other boxes covering every stage of Robert Kennedy’s life, including his years as a United States senator and attorney general, most of which have already been opened for research.

But for decades, his family has refused to sign over title to the papers to the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum and is now talking openly about the possibility of finding a permanent home for them elsewhere. The family is also having Sotheby’s appraise the papers.

“There is a very large building, and there is a remembrance of President Kennedy and there’s one for Senator Edward Kennedy,” said former Representative Joseph P. Kennedy II, a son of Robert Kennedy, describing the presidential library that opened in 1979 and an adjacent construction site for the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate. “But there is nothing out there for Robert Kennedy.”

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/12/us/12rfk.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&pagewanted=all

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This is a front page story on Tuesday's NY Times

[Ken Burch]

1. JFK was assassinated forty-eight years ago.

Why should ANYTHING involving his administration still be classified?

With the sole exception of the fact that(fortunately)the Cuban Revolution was not overthrown and Fidel Castro, although elderly, continues to live, every situation that existed in those days is over, and every figure the administration dealt with is dead.

Is there any good reason, at this very late date, that we STILL shouldn't get the full story about what occurred at the highest levels of the U.S. government between January 20, 1961 and November 22, 1963?

This is sort of where Top Secret just turns into Top Stupid.

[MADem]

2. Fidel won't die, that is why. nt

[BeFree]

3. No good reason at all

A bad reason is that if the truth were known, faith in government by all people would be severely harmed. They think.

I hope RFK gets his own place. He was far and away the best of the Kennedys.

[Ken Burch]

4. I agree with you about Bobby getting his own place

He wasn't a saint(and, I suspect, wouldn't want anyone to see him as such), but he was an example of the sort of figure you don't see in national politics anymore and that we may not ever see again in that sphere: A mainstream, establishment politician who, through personal tragedy, allowed his mind and spirit to be opened and was willing to acknowledge most of what he'd been wrong about in the past. As a result of JFK's death, Bobby let himself be cleansed of the bullshit of our ruling elite, realizing finally...

-That this country has no right to act as if the world exists solely for our priveleges and our "right" to overconsume ratheer than for the majority of its people who spend their days struggling to just to survive.

-That the building of a decent society within this country meant getting those who are without to break through the barriers of race and religion to make common cause with each other.

-And that our wars are NOT automatically justified simply because our political and military elites tell us they are.

I'll always believe that that is why he was killed(and, btw, those who hold to and defend the establishment theory on that act need to look at the simple truth...from where he was standing in the Ambassador pantry, it was physically impossible for Sirhan Sirhan to have fired the shot that killed Bobby. Sirhan may have wanted to, but he simply couldn't have done it. You can't shoot someone in the back of the head at point-blank range at a sharply upward angle while you're in front of that person, jumping off of a steam table, and your the barrel of your gun is three feet away from the guy. It really is that simple. And there really does need to be a new and full investigation into the assassination).

[Liberalynn]

5. I agree with you that his legacy deserves its own place

and that he was the best of the Kennedys.

[No Elephants]

6. This just occurred to them?

In their shoes, I would rather endow or fund something that would help liberal Democrats than build another monument.