Saturday, February 28, 2009

The Mindless Menace of Violence


Bobby
DVD, 2006, R

Bobby is a fictionalized account of the hours leading up to the June 5, 1968 shooting of Robert F. Kennedy following his win in the California Democratic Party primary. The last scene (#16, 10 minutes) shows the assassination and its aftermath. As we watch in horror, Kennedy’s voice engages us, slowly intoning the speech he delivered the day after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. just a month before, “On the Mindless Menace of Violence.” This is incredibly powerful: in my opinion, one of the finest American speeches ever written. A printable version is available online from the JFK archives. Give everyone a copy. This could be a thoughtful opening for the first session, or a concluding meditation.

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