Robert F. Kennedy's Assassination Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Robert F. Kennedy's Assassination - Essay Example In one of the speeches that Robert Kennedy in 1962, he was quoted, "The future is not a gift: it is an achievement. Every generation helps make its own future. This is the essential challenge of the present.†1 It is truly a tragedy for the American government to lose leaders with advocacies like the 2 Kennedy’s. Robert Francis Kennedy (RFK) was filled with not just emotion but passion towards leading and serving the country and its people. Yet, just like his older brother John, RFK was assassinated. The will within the person to live is so strong that RFK only died more than 24 hours after the assassination.2 RFK was said to be just like his older brother to have both the brains, the heart and the capabilities to assume the presidency. Bobby, as RFK is fondly called, failed to achieve the coveted post despite the credentials that he has under his belt. The odds are very much going his way and Bobby was just a few more steps towards becoming the next American president. A ll was shattered a couple of minutes past midnight on the 5th of June 1968. His life was ended during his presidential campaign at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, CA by a gun shot. A man with a very promising future was killed by an assassin identified as the Palestinian-American Sirhan Bishara Sirhan.3 Since it was the period for the presidential campaign, media was all over the place. ... All of the 3 assassinations were highly publicized. However, RFK’s assassination seemed to be more traumatic since it was the 2nd Kennedy assassination in less than half a decade. In the filed video coverage of RKF’s presidential campaign in 1968, the crowd’s jubilation was turned into panic and fear as the sound of the gunshot echoed in the atmosphere. According to Melanson et al: Cameras captured the frenzied struggle to subdue the attacker. They showed us the terrible vision of Robert Kennedy lying on the floor and bleeding profusely. To this day, many people believe that these same cameras captured the actual shooting (as the Zapruder film had done in President Kennedy’s assassination); some are insistent to the point of anger that it’s all in film†¦No photographic record of the actual shooting is known to exist.5 The picture of the blood-covered RFK lying on the floor is truly quite disturbing and heartbreaking. It is disturbing because of the graphical representation of a man respected and eyed to be the next president of a very powerful nation. One can think that the photo being published and circulated in media can be considered as an invasion of privacy. Even if the person involved in the picture is a public servant, such situation should be kept private as to reserve the dignity and respectability of the person. The picture of a dying man lying on the floor covered with his own blood can trigger so many emotions within a nation.6 Since the assailant was identified, the assassination case was considered closed. That is what the public was made to believe. People from different walks of life might agree or disagree with the previous