It was just past midnight on June 5, 1968 when a candidate for the Democratic nomination was assassinated. Like Bernie Sanders, Bobby Kennedy was also a Senator who posed a threat to the power structure of his party. He had just won the California primary and was well on his way to winning the nomination and then the presidency. Bobby gave a speech (seen in the cover photo) to his supporters and was leaving the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. Within a few minutes, he would be shot three times and he would be declared dead 24 hours later. With him went the hopes of tens of millions of Americans. To those of us who witnessed it live on television, it is a scene forever burned into our memories.
Bobby Kennedy's body lay in repose at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City from the night of June 7th through the morning of June 8th. The requiem mass was attended by President Lyndon Johnson, his wife, and the members of his cabinet, as well as by many dozens of Senators and dignitaries. Outside, over 100,000 mourners gathered. Bobby's brother, Senator Ted Kennedy, gave the eulogy, in which he stated:
"My brother need not be idealized, or enlarged in death beyond what he was in life; to be remembered simply as a good and decent man, who saw wrong and tried to right it, saw suffering and tried to heal it, saw war and tried to stop it. Those of us who loved him and who take him to his rest today, pray that what he was to us and what he wished for others will some day come to pass for all the world. As he said many times, in many parts of this nation, to those he touched and who sought to touch him: 'Some men see things as they are and say why? I dream things that never were and say why not?'"
The casket was transported by train from New York City to Arlington Cemetery in Virginia. The four-hour journey took eight hours because the entire 225-mile route was crowded with people--to whom Bobby had given hope--standing and waiting in tears to wave goodbye. Bobby was buried in a nighttime service near his brother and fellow veteran of the United States Navy, John F. Kennedy. Thousands of mourners spontaneously lined the route holding candles, guiding the motorcade to the burial site. The gravesite service was performed by Cardinal Patrick O'Boyle, Archbishop of Washington, D.C., and Cardinal Terrence Cooke, Archbishop of New York. Kennedy family friend, astronaut John Glenn, presented the folded flag to Teddy Kennedy, who passed it to Bobby's oldest son Joe, who gave it to Bobby's widow Ethel.
On June 9th, President Lyndon Johnson assigned security to the remaining presidential candidates. Shortly thereafter, the U.S. Congress mandated that the Secret Service would from now on be tasked with protecting all presidential candidates.
With the assassination of Senator Robert F. Kennedy, the Democratic Party fell into disarray, the Democratic convention in Chicago turned into a war zone, both inside the convention and outside on the streets, Richard Nixon narrowly defeated a badly compromised Hubert Humphrey in the general election, the Vietnam War went on another seven years and spread into Cambodia, and the political-cultural environment of the United States was forever altered by the events surrounding Watergate. We have never fully recovered from this dark period in our history.
According to 18 United States Code § 3056, the Secret Service is mandated to protect:
"Major presidential and vice presidential candidates and their spouses within 120 days of a general presidential election. As defined in statute, the term 'major presidential and vice presidential candidates' means those individuals identified as such by the Secretary of Homeland Security after consultation with an advisory committee."
But the President of the United States and the Secretary of Homeland Security are authorized to assign Secret Service protection to any candidate at any time, even longer than 120 days before the general election. On May 4, 2007 (which would be the equivalent of May 4, 2015 in this election), President George W. Bush, worried about the large crowds candidate Barack Obama was drawing and his vulnerability on the campaign trail, wisely directed the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Michael Chertoff, to authorize Secret Service protection for Senator Obama after consulting with a Congressional advisory committee that reviews security for presidential hopefuls. The decision to assign agents to Obama, nearly nine months before voting began in the Democratic primaries for president, is the earliest the Secret Service has ever issued a security detail to a candidate. At the time, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton was the only other presidential hopeful receiving Secret Service protection, due to her being a former first lady.
We now request that President Barack Obama do for Senator Bernie Sanders what President George W. Bush did for Senator Barack Obama--provide Secret Service protection for Senator Sanders to prevent a calamity that would seriously damage the nation and our political process. Recent disturbances at Sanders campaign events have shown his vulnerability with regard to potentially violent confrontations. When President Bush provided Senator Obama with Secret Service protection, Obama had not even experienced such disturbances yet, nor was Senator Obama attracting crowds of over 25,000 regularly, as Senator Sanders has been. This situation is extremely dangerous and must not be allowed to continue a moment longer. Bernie Sanders must have immediate Secret Service protection, just as the other leading candidate, former First Lady Hillary Clinton does. American elections should be decided by ballots and not bullets. We do not need to re-live the horrors of 1968.
Please sign the petition to the White House:
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/...
Thank you.