Reflections -- the Bobby Kennedy We Revered

If you're like us at My Rural America, you likely remember how Bobby Kennedy reached out to farmers in his 1968 presidential campaign. He personally walked into the farm organization offices and made promises on the Farm Bill and we all believed. I still do. I lived on the farm then (600 acres -- corn, beans, hogs, cattle & 1300 laying hens), and I worked for Bobby/voted for him in the Iowa Caucuses. I also cried when we lost him that sad California day -- June 5, 1968.

Forty years later, the New York Times op-ed section has shared with us remembrances from three of his children. Years later, when Senator Ted Kennedy -- now fighting for his life was running for president, one of the memories I have from that campaign is about Kerry Kennedy, and for those of you who know me personally, I make this confession ... I remember when we "stole" her purple cowboy boots and mailed them back to her house. She was in Iowa campaigning for her dad and she wore those boots every single day. The PURPLE boots were so distracting that people talked about the boots, rather than her message, so the boots went back home. Years later, some of us still wonder if she every figured out who did it. Her memory -- without the purple boots -- is worth reading: Lessons of the Magnolia Tree.

Taking "No" For an Answer is her brother Joseph P. Kennedy II 's memory. His is a wonderful remembrance about how his father, "Bobby", could make you understand ... and feel ... the pain of people of who had nothing at all. In this way, it reminds me of Barack Obama, the Democratic nominee for President, who has such a great skill of reminding us ... without hope, we have nothing at all.

Kathleen Kennedy Townsend also remembers: The Delta in Our Home ... learning to take personally the poverty in Mississippi. It's a lesson we still need to remember today ... for those of us who have been given much, we need to both share ourselves and help our children to be generous, too.