neocortical element

Typology: INFJ ♥

As a young man Bobby Kennedy got a popular Boston priest excommunicated after openly challenging the man in the pews of church and writing a letter to the local Cardinal for preaching ‘no salvation outside the church’

Sarcastically stated how Queen Victoria was ‘so moved’ by the Irish Famine in 19th century that she donates five pounds to the relief fund

Tried to choke a fellow reservist in World War Two for having the attitude that he ‘wouldn’t be the last man killed,’ and telling Bobby that his brother, who had just died in the war, was an idiot for not having the same viewpoint.

Felt guilty for the rest of his life that his own family prevented him at eighteen from getting sent to Europe in the waning years of WW2

Whose own sister politely stated he had a ‘gift for estrangement’

Told JFK to ‘kick [Nixon] in the balls’ during the infamously famous televised debate between the two

Was the Chairman and brought about the initiation of the President’s Committee on Juvenile Delinquency and Youth Crime

‘Contempt for Liars’

’Chief of the Clan’ after his father’s stroke

‘Idealism to the Extreme’

Own brother described as ‘high moral standards’ and ‘strict personal ethics,’ a ‘Puritan, absolutely incorruptable’

Told his brother JFK to consider some of the other ‘best minds’ in government in periods other than crisis, then literally wrote an asterisk on the memo and wrote “*ME” as a footnote.

Was given a standing ovation for twenty two minutes at the Democratic National Convention of 1964 Did after his brother died, enshrining him in the immortal words of Romeo and Juliet, then broke down alone on a fire escape afterwards

His leg and hand shook during speeches

Went to South Africa during the height of apartheid and compared America to South Africa, essentially stating that America was not on a heightened national pedestal, and in the same speech, called on the world’s youth, which he stated ‘was not a time in life but a state of mind’ to join the cause of greater human fairness. Often referred to as his famous ‘Day of Affirmation’ Speech and one of the greatest speeches of all time.

“One of Regan’s many strengths was that he did not indulge in nuances, and one of Robert Kennedy’s many strengths was that he did indeed see, and ponder, nuance.”

On April 4th, 1968 Martin Luther King was shot and killed. On that night, Robert F Kennedy, then New York senator, wanted to deliver the news to the people of Indianapolis, IN himself.  Local police warned that they won’t be able to provide protection if the people wold riot because he was in the heart of the African-American ghetto. He wrote his notes on his ride and started the speech without any drafts or prewritten words before his assistance would give him their proposed draft. This speech was delivered on a back of a Flatbed truck. Although all major cities had riots, Indianapolis remained calm after RFK’s speech.

Went to the Mississippi Delta to study the effects of a local policy requiring indigent families applying for food stamps to make cash payments: ‘The next house at which they stopped belonged to a woman with seven children. Roaches were everywhere. A toddler, playing on the filthy floor, was covered in sores, his stomach distended. Bobby sat down and stroked the boy’s cheek. When he talked to the child and couldn’t get him to respond, the grown man began to cry. Returning [home], standing at the doorway of his family dining room, bobby now saw through a different prism the familiar sight of his wife and children seated around the table. ‘He was shaking, saying, “Do you know how lucky you are?” And he just kept repeating it. Unable to dispel those lingering images, he continued to need to share with others what he’d seen and experienced. To the wife of one of his staffers, he lamented: “I’ve done nothing in my life… everything I’ve done was a waste… everything Ive done was worthless.” For him, it was a searing reexamination of who he’d been and who he was.”

It was his idea to call a child psychiatrist to testify before a subcommittee on the Mississippi Delta about the brutal and long-lasting effects of extreme poverty on young children

Was the first large famous supporter of Chavez and Mexican Workers Rights in California during the Hunger Strikes

First large-scale political figure to support Indigenous peoples rights and became an honorary Sioux with the name “Brave Heart”

“When people came to Bobby- as they did, saying “YOU can change this. YOU can do it-”- he felt obligated to do something.” - Ted Kennedy

“Is everybody else all right?”- Bobby’s last recorded words after being shot

“What made Robert Kennedy so unique, Jack Newfield wrote, “Was that he felt the same empathy for white workingmen and women that he felt for blacks, Latinos, and Native Americans..”

Often quoted Aeschylus after being recommended to him by Jackie Kennedy after JFK’s death: “He who learns must suffer. Even in our sleep, pain that 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.”

At Tokyo’s Waseda University, he emphasised the need for political involvement: “Dante once said that the hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in time of moral crisis maintain their neutrality… And is not sufficient just being against, just saying, “Well I don’t think I like the way things are going.” We have a responsibility to offer an alternative.”