Memorializing

Once again, [Adam] Walinsky intervenes to put the Kennedy memorializing in perspective. He refuses to indulge in the senseless "what if they had lived" ritual. "I was at one of those memorial events once," Walinsky recalled, "and Arthur [Schlesinger] got up and went into this long deal about if John Kennedy had lived, this would be different, that would be different, and this struck me wrong. So when it came my turn to talk, right after Arthur, I just put aside what I was planning to say and I said, 'Look, the entire time I worked for Robert Kennedy, I never heard him say, 'If only President Kennedy had lived, this would be different.' Because to him that would have been a statement of weakness. That would have been saying, 'My brother didn't succeed in doing it, therefore we can't.' The question to him was not 'what if?' It was 'what now?' He felt 'Here we are, we are responsible, it's up to us.' And there's a real logic in this. Because if you say, 'Too bad President Kennedy isn't still alive'-why stop there? What about Lincoln, Washington-isn't it a pity George Washington isn't still here with us! And how about Socrates, Moses? Jesus could walk among us again! The fact is, other people can't solve your problems for you-they can only give you an example of how to live, then it's up to you what to do about it."

--David Talbot, "Brothers: The Hidden History Of The Kennedy Years", page 376