The Berkshire Eagle reports:

 It has been 55 years since Sen. Robert F. Kennedy stepped onto the presidential nominating stage to try to mend the massive breach that had opened in American society.

The country was torn asunder by the Vietnam War, racism, poverty, the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and the soon-to-be assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. A great divide — between white and Black Americans, rich and poor, the working class and the upper class — was opening wide. The Tet Offensive had just ripped the face off the official lies about the course of the war in Vietnam and the emperor, President Lyndon Johnson, stood naked and would soon announce that he would not run again.

On March 16, 1968, Sen. Kennedy declared his candidacy with these words: “I run to seek new policies — policies to end the bloodshed in Vietnam and in our cities, policies to close the gaps that now exist between black and white, between rich and poor, between young and old, in this country and around the rest of the world.”

By the end of 1968, a plague year if there ever were one, Richard Nixon and his goon squad prepared to occupy the White House, Vietnam raged on and everything King and Kennedy stood for seemed lost. Something died, all hope seemed lost and the perilous course RFK spoke of was never stopped.

Today, hope is resurrected. Enter Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who declared his candidacy for the Democratic nomination for president on April 19 in Boston.

Read the full opinion piece here.

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