RePost... And Reminder... If I May, A Word Or Two About David Kennedy, RFK's Fourth Son...

[WillyT]

David Anthony Kennedy died of a drug overdose in 1984, and has been kicked around ever since by the right-wing fascists who pull his name out of their ass anytime they feel the need to take the Kennedy family down a peg or two. But unlike the partying the current frat-boy in the White House was used to, David self-medicated to relieve himself of terrible personal pain. At least that's what I believe.

I met David back in the late 70's\early 80's at a local watering hole. My sister, who worked with him, introduced us. And although I may have been a back slapping, coke snorting, skirt chasing BMOC back then, David certainly was not. He was soft spoken, gentle, and would only smile, never laugh. He had the look of someone much older than he was. He liked to sit back and observe the comings and goings of others, and none of us EVER spoke the thousands of questions we had for him about his family. So it was with some shock and chagrin that I learned of David's story while reading a book on his father in the 1990s. Many people only know the second half of the story.

Early on the day of (or day before) his father's death, David and some of the other kids were down swimming at one of the beaches in the LA area. At some point David got caught in a rip-tide and started panicking a bit. When others noticed him struggling to get back to shore, his dad ran into the surf, swam after him, calmed him down, and showed him how to get back to shore. IOW - Bobby saved his son's life that day. And when you are 12, and your dad might be the next president, and he saves your life... well RFK's hero status with David must have gone up in orders of magnitude that day.

So it was with major sorrow that somebody from the campaign, or family (I can't remember which), found David the night of the assassination. With Bobby and Ethel downstairs thanking the crowd for their support, and congratulating everyone involved for an impressive victory in California, the kids were scattered in various rooms about the hotel. David was by himself, sitting on the edge of the bed, watching TV. He watched the results by himself, he watched the victory speech by himself, and he watched the man who had just saved his life, get gunned down right there in front of him , on the TV, in the very same hotel... all by himself.

When somebody finally realized, after ambulance rides, reporters calls, and a national freak out, that nobody had seen David, they went looking for him. They found him, still sitting on the edge of that bed, never having moved, eyes still transfixed on the TV set, in total shock. He was almost delirious, and somebody had the good sense to wrap him in a blanket, and have him checked by medical personnel. His 13th birthday would be nine days later. That Christmas he wrote,

"There will be no more football with Daddy, no more swimming with him, no more riding and no more camping with him. But he was the best father there ever was and I would rather have him for a father for the length of time I did than any other father for a million years."

RIP to you too David

Peace to us all...

:grouphug:

And...

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OG4vJxi9Kis

:grouphug:

[bleever]

1. A heartbreaking story.

Thank you for re-posting it.

[rurallib]

2. agree - thanks

[WillyT]

5. You Are Quite Welcome !!!

:grouphug:

[KittyWampus]

3. That was quite a remembrance

[az chela]

4. This is so sad but also beautiful

I was watching tv alone when I saw Bobby Killed and I went into shock.It wasnt real to me.
I thought it was just a bunch of people running around and screaming.Who could have guessed that another one of our great heros was dead.
The sorrow that I felt was beyond belief and I cried for days.When JFK was killed I just could not accept it.Then Martin Luther King and last but certainly not least out beloved Bobby Kennedy.
I still think of those days and wonder why them,such great men and not the evil ones in the white house now??
Life is not fair

[WillyT]

6. Yep...

I saw him a day or two right before he was murdered.

:banghead:

[me b zola]

7. Thank you (n/t)

[Cha]

8. That's really a sad repercussion

of the night Bobby Kennedy was assassinated..poor David Kennedy.

There's no way the rw should be able to make hay out of that. I'm hoping that can change when Obama's way of doing things comes on the National scene as our Prez.

[truedelphi]

9. Sometimes when I think of how against the odds it is

That Cindy Sheehan has risen up out of the ashes of her son's death, that Kucinich ran for President, that Obama is now the nominee, I wonder if it isn't possible that JFK, Martin, Bobby, and yes, David, have been involved in pulling some major strings on the cosmic plane.

Those five souls would really want this country to get back on track.

RIP John. RIP MArtin. RIP Bobby. And David. And Casey.

[slinkerwink]

10. that made me cry.

:-(

[windbreeze]

11. How terribly sad this is...

How all the Kennedy children must have suffered in a personal way...The horrible death of JFK and RFK didn't just affect the immediate siblings' kids...it affected every last one of them, not once, but twice...so sad..RIP David...We lost something in those years, that we have never gotten back...wb

[CitizenLeft]

12. painfully sad about David

...and the funeral train... no way to watch that with a dry eye.

[sandnsea]

13. Thank you

That poor poor boy. :cry:

[bevoette]

14. gah..."Bobby" was just on cable and i watched it for the first time...

i was already weepy, this just pushed me into bawling territory

i pray this country...just...

i pray

[WinkyDink]

15. Our true American history is a dark and murderous one, from the get-go.

Sad, sad story.

[cali]

16. I too knew David

met him at Hickory Hill the summer before he entered Harvard and continued our relationship back in Cambridge. I did speak with David about the things you didn't. One thing about David- screwed up as he was, he was also incredibly bright, overly sensitive and very perceptive.

[WillyT]

17. Yes He Was...

:hug: