. . . recalled some history

I just finished reading "The Last Good Campaign", an article in Vanity Fair magazine about Robert F. Kennedy's 1968 presidential campaign, a campaign that last only from the middle of March until early June, when he was killed. It is an excerpt from the book The Last Campaign: Robert F. Kennedy and 82 Days That Inspired America, by Thurston Clark



The article was especially relevant and interesting to me, because RFK announced his campaign at the Alf Landon Lecture at Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kansas in March of 1968. Much of the last part of the article dealt with that speech. In September of 1968, I started college at that school. I knew several people in my dorm who had not only heard the speech, but had signed up and campaigned for him, traveling throughout the country.



K-State was considered the "hick" college, and KU was the liberal colllege. No wonder RFK was worried about his reception there. The only thing that I took exception to in the article was the following: "He saw girls in long skirts who had never worn makeup, and short-haired boys in neckties who were brave enough to leave their prairie towns but not to burn their draft cards." Puh-leez. . . I wonder what happened to all those long-skirted no-makeup girls in the six months between March and September? The article recounted the impressions of young people at the time, like Dan Lykins and Jim Slattery, who are still active in Kansas politics.



RFK had become an outspoken critic of the war in Vietnam, and campaigned against LBJ citing moral reasons for ending that war. Reading parts of his speeches is like deja vu all over again. Very applicable to our country's current situation.

The pictures today are more collages of photographs I took last week. Enjoy.