What Might Have Been

A Better Future?

Today marks the 45^th Anniversary of Robert F. Kennedy’s assassination.  After several years as a U.S. Senator, Robert F. Kennedy announced his candidacy for President of the United States, basing his platform on desegregation and economic equality. While most considered his run to be a long shot, Kennedy pressed on to oppose Eugene McCarthy and Hubert Humphrey in the primaries – Lyndon Johnson withdrew from the race shortly after Kennedy made his decision to run. Kennedy won a key primary in California and his campaign gained steam. The victory was short lived, however; only hours after winning the state, Kennedy gave a speech to his supporters at the Ambassador Hotel. After the speech, aides led him through the kitchen where he was shot in the head by Sirhan Sirhan, a young Palestinian upset at Kennedy’s support for Israel. – wiseGeek

Ever wonder what our present life might be like if he had survived and been elected president.  The chain reaction that would have been set off.  Who might have been the successive presidents after him?  Our life today might have been better or might have been worst.  We will never know, but what if the changes would have prevented, the direction that Iran went into, or perhaps no Middle East war.  What if all the money spent on war in the last 45 years, had been spent on curing illnesses?  What if the money had been spent on resolving the energy crisis?

Every decision we make affects us in the future in a positive, negative, or indifferent way, but it does come back to us.  What if a better security had been in place and Sirhan, who didn’t have journalist credentials, had not been allowed to enter the kitchen area?  What if Bobby’s security detail had chosen a different route out of the building?  What if he had stayed a half hour longer celebrating his campaign’s win?

As long as I am contemplating “What ifs,” what if President John F. Kennedy, had not been assassinated?  What would the line of presidents that followed him look like?  The best is yet to come…