Tyger Tyger Burning Bright

The day Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, Robert F. Kennedy was scheduled to speak at a campaign event before a largely African American group in Indianapolis, Indiana. Instead, he had to inform them of the assassination. He gave a beautiful speech, sharing their pain at such grave injustice and offering them some hope of getting through the awful tragedy with this: "My favorite poet was Aeschylus. He once wrote: "Even in our sleep, pain which 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." He shared what he found transforming with those he spoke to and I bet it left a lifelong mark on many of those who heard that speech or read it later, as I did. He ended with this: "Let us dedicate ourselves to what the Greeks wrote so many years ago: to tame the savageness of man and make gentle the life of this world." Hard to imagine a politician today having such depth and also such respect for the voting public to cite the ancient Greeks in offering comfort and asking for restraint and civilty in what surely was "the worst of times."