Bobby Kennedy: 50 years on and his legacy lives.

Fifty years ago today, Bobby Kennedy’s life was taken at the age of 42 in the middle of his campaign for the presidency of the United States. A campaign he had launched a few months earlier with the simple words “I Can Not Stand Aside’ and one it looked like he might indeed win. June 1968 was a time of enormous upheaval and discord in America – of rising inequality, racial tension and decreasing trust in government – his campaign was a whirlwind of passion as he appealed to the best in America: social justice, compassion and dignity. After the shots rang out, the world was left wondering – what might have been?

The ideals he articulated so clearly and powerfully inspired millions around the world. I know, because I am one of those he deeply inspired. Indeed, I am literally finishing writing this blog as I approach the entrance to Arlington National Cemetery to join a celebration service for his life, with his family, by his graveside. It will be a reminder that his moral imagination and leadership called on us to be motivated by the best in ourselves and in consideration of one another. It’s a call that his family has continued through the work of Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, which was founded shortly after his campaign ended.

Having worked closely with the organisation for many years, I am always struck how Bobby’s ideals were universal, essential and are needed as much now as they were then. It is why I am very proud to announce that we are bringing the vital work of Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights to the UK. I’d like to share why:

We are at a critical moment in the writing of British history: our society is becoming increasingly defined by division, hatred and callousness. We see this trend in every part of our society as we see it across the world.

Fake news. Emboldened Racism. Indifferent Institutions. Intolerant partisanship. Profit at the expense of people.

How did we get here?

We at Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights UK believe our society is shaped by the decisions taken day-in, day-out in every part of it – in our homes and communities, our businesses, and our government and institutions, from local council agencies to the national media. Ultimately, those decisions, from the minute to the existential, should be driven by the beliefs we hold about how the world should be and what ideals we should seek to realise.

However, in order for each of us to do that, we have to actually know what those beliefs are and be able to articulate them. When ideals, values and beliefs are absent in decision-making; expedience, self-interest and the lowest-common-denominator take over.

In some cases, this becomes malicious – in the intentional spreading of fake news, the deliberate stoking of division in pursuit of profits or an election result, and the pursuit of partisanship over common interest. Even when not intentionally mean-spirited or malicious, they can often tend towards the unthinking and uncaring, with sometimes devastating consequences.

When ideals, values and beliefs are absent – usually so are the interests of the people and our perception of our society becomes de-humanised. These are the trends that we’ve seen in every part of our society that have brought us to this point of division and hatred.

But imagine if all of our decision-making was inspired by a belief system that championed humanness and human rights as the ideal we should be aiming for? A belief system defined by mutuality, universality, compassion and social justice precisely because it is informed by and aims for the realisation of human rights.

If you believe in human rights, you believe that the interests of people come first. If you believe in human rights, you recognise that we are all equal. Human rights are simply the best framework we’ve found for articulating those beliefs and for making them part of the laws on which our society is founded. But the spirit of human rights, which comes with truly having them as your goal, goes far beyond laws and into the decisions you make every day. I’m reminded that eight of the 15 people who planned the Holocaust in 1942 held PhDs. They shone academically, and yet they failed to show the smallest shred of ethics and understanding. Highly intelligent men, making highly inhuman decisions, totally divorced from human rights beliefs.

In 1966, the same year I was born, Bobby Kennedy said “Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centres of energy and daring, those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.”

That is, ultimately, how one sustainably builds a compassionate and socially-just society: by creating a citizenry that is empowered with a belief system, understanding and agency to take the acts of consciousness in decision after decision, day-in and day-out, that send out ripples of hope and create a new reality for our society.

It is around this effort that Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights UK will undertake its work. Our programmes in schools, universities, businesses and beyond will establish a resonance with people’s beliefs so that we all have more confidence to stand up when we see something we don’t like and do something about it.  It may seem ambitious, but – in words often used by Bobby Kennedy himself– “Some see things as they are, and ask why. I dream of things that never were, and ask why not.”

If you’re interested or would like to get involved, please visit www.rfkhumanrights.uk and get in touch.