A job and some hope

Robert Kennedy campaign badge
Originally uploaded by amsterboy

First week done at the office after holidays. You know, always after holidays it is easy to think that you just aren't not made for working. But after a few days it gets better. And if nothing else cheers me up at the office, my gigantic Disneyland coffee mug (Welcome to the Fabulous Disneyland Resort. Experience the happiest place on Earth!) makes the day.

I have also cheered my week by wearing my birthday present, original campaign badge from Robert F. Kennedy's presidential campaign in 1968. It is sort of a hologram as you can see from the pic and it states: Kennedy for a better America. I think it is (insert Californian accent here) like the coolest thing like ever.

Robert Kennedy is my new hero. After seeing Emilio Estevez's film Bobby, I realised that I knew embarrassingly little about the Kennedy brothers and therefore I decided to improve my knowledge. And it was an investment worth making. Robert Kennedy's way of doing politics and way of speaking fascinates me. The US would have been quite different under his leadership - you don't see Bush quoting Albert Camus and Ancient Green playwrights that often. As journalist Jack Newfield states in the RFK book I am reading at the moment, Robert Kennedy was one of the very few American politicians who managed to connect with white working class, the blacks and the Washington elite. RFK was impatient, shy and at times even arrogant in his willingness for equality. I like that in politicians - too many "leaders" of our time lack his human qualities. And above all, he had dreams. In a TV interview I saw with him, he defined leadership as allowing people to perform at their best. I haven't heard much better.

"It's class, not color. What everyone wants is a job and some hope." - Robert F. Kennedy 1968 during the Indiana primary