He would never have surrendered in Vietnam, yet he believed it was a war we could not win, and even if we did, it would not stop the bloodshed and the loss of human life.

With a successful record of fighting organized crime, he said that punishment is not the prevention of crime. Domestic tranquility was his goal that would be achieved if every American had a fair chance to a job, an education and a place to live.Like his brother, he advocated civil rights and the integrity of the American family. He said, "I am concerned about our country's future, not only as a citizen, but as a father."To many political pundits, he was going to be elected as president of the United States instead of Richard Nixon.At the midnight hour of June 5, 1968, while my mother and I were asleep, my father ran down the hallway, shouting, "Kennedy was shot!"I opened my sleepy eyes and said, "Dad, he died years ago.""No! Robert Kennedy was shot!"I dragged my body to the front of our black-and-white television set. Through the grainy images of the bedlam that followed RFK's primary victory speech in Los Angeles, I could see his body lying on the floor. We watched through the early morning hours of the next day until a newscaster announced that Robert Kennedy had been shot three times and died from a bullet to his brain.My mother and I cried in each other's arms - again, just like we had after JFK's assassination five years before.To this very day, I believe that Robert Kennedy would have been one of our greatest presidents and better than any who has taken the oath in my lifetime. I make no political statement here; I simply believed in his sincerity to do what this country had needed.In my mind, the bullets that killed JFK and RFK also murdered the optimism of our country's youth from which we have never recovered.Robert Kennedy was unknowingly prophetic. In one of his final speeches, he spoke against the very violent behavior that ironically ended his life. His message still resonates to our problems today, some 50 years later. Here are his words from April 5, 1968."I … speak briefly to you about the mindless menace of violence in America which stains our land and every one of our lives. The victims of violence are black and white, rich and poor, young and old, famous and unknown. They are, most important of all, human beings whom other human beings have loved and needed. No one - no matter where he lives or what he does - can be certain who will suffer from senseless acts of bloodshed. And it goes on and on and on."What has violence ever accomplished? What has it ever created? … No wrongs have ever been righted by riots and civil disorders. A sniper is only a coward, not a hero, and an uncontrolled mob is the voice of madness, not the voice of the people."Whenever an American life is taken by another American unnecessarily - whether it is done in the name of the law, by one man or a gang, in cold blood or in passion, in an attack of violence or in response to violence, whenever we tear at the fabric of life which another man has painfully and clumsily woven for himself and for his children, the whole nation is degraded."Yet we seemingly tolerate a rising level of violence that ignores our common humanity and our claims to civilization alike. … We glorify killing on movie and television screens and call it entertainment. We make it easy for men of all shades of sanity to acquire weapons and ammunition. …"Violence breeds violence. Repression brings retaliation, and only a cleaning of our whole society can remove this sickness from our soul."When you teach a man to hate and fear his brother … when you teach that those who differ from you threaten your freedom or your job or your family, then you learn to confront others not as fellow citizens, but as enemies to be met, not with cooperation, but with conquest. … We must admit that our children's future cannot be built on the misfortunes of others. We must recognize that this short life cannot be ennobled or enriched by hatred and revenge. …"Those who live with us are our brothers and sisters. They share with us the same short movement of life … they seek as we do - nothing but the chance to live out their lives in purpose and happiness, winning what satisfaction and fulfillment they can."As he lay dying on the floor, Kennedy looked up at a young hotel worker and asked, "Is everybody OK?" Seconds later, he said to the worker, "Everything is going to be OK."Robert Kennedy was 42 years old when his life ended. If he had lived and been elected president, perhaps we might walk without fear down any street in America today and our children could go to sleep tonight believing in the universal goodness of the human spirit.In his dying words, everything would be OK.Rich Strack can be reached at

katehep11@gmail.com.