@chicago It’s a fair point, and a premise that science fiction has often addressed. But as someone who was alive when these men were and remember all the hope that they represented, I find it natural to wonder “what if ?” Especially seeing the dream that did not quite come to fruition and some of the reversals that possibly will.

@bijouxbroussard Very interesting response.

@bijouxbroussard Good answer. I get what Chicago is saying and in addition political and economic forces can often disrupt the will of one man. But certainly one’s personality and makeup can make a difference.

I don’t think there’s any question that John Kennedy would not have committed hundreds of thousands of US troops to Vietnam had he been President throughout the 60s. It does not make him a saint nor does it absolve him of his responsibility in the whole fiasco. But In that instance the absence of one man in the office of the President affected hundreds of thousands of lives, mostly in a worse way.

@ladycae 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽

@SageWanderer I disagree, that wasn't Johnson's instinct in any fashion - he gave no voice to the black slaves, none at all. He's the reason Reconstruction failed in the long term, and why it started out headed that way.

Otoh, Lincoln had already showed the world his strength as a leader by reuniting a divided, warring nation back into the one United States of America. He was the promise of America, shot down by a coward, a blindside, like all assassinations.

Abe and JFK and MLK and RFK were the promise that our Founders gave to all future Americans to perfect, to always strive for a more equal society, ever improving the rights of the disenfranchised, always seeking more opportunity for all...that's the promise of America that has yet to be fully fulfilled, and right now we're under this President we're heading backwards.

@freedomlover But don't you find it odd that those who have stood up for the disenfranchised, opportunity and promises are silenced?

@SageWanderer This is a question that has bothered me for a very long time. Why were these people assisinated?

I don't go for conspiracy theories and, in the case of MLK, the answer seemed quite self-evident, but why the others? Is the common denominator racism? After all, here were people who fought for the rights of black people. So was there some sort of concerted effort to silence the efforts of those who stood for black people?

NB: when I use the phrase "concerted effort", I'm not implying that there is a singular organisation that orchestrated these assassinations.

@SW-User Bobby's grandson is giving the rebuttal to Trump's State of the Union speech. Joe Patrick Kennedy III, he's the real deal, seems empathy for all skipped a generation in the Kennedy clan. Joe's going places.

@freedomlover I read that...excited. ☺

@room101 Dion was the first one to record it. Marvin Gaye covered it.

@freedomlover WOW! I didn't know that. I thought that it was a Motown original (Smokey Robinson also released it).