1968 was deemed the beginning of the ‘Age of Aquarius’ by some, but honestly, it was a tough year.
I was an awkward preteen, not turning 13 until December. In San Antonio, we held the World’s Fair, Hemisfair 68, from April 6 to October 6.
The day I’ll never forget was June 6.
It marks the anniversary of the assassination of Robert Frances Kennedy. He was tragically killed not even five years after the assassination of his brother President John Fitzgerald Kennedy.
Senator Kennedy, a candidate for President was shot three times—once in the head and twice in the back—with a fourth bullet passing through his jacket.
That night I followed live news from the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles and across the nation with coverage on my transistor radio until sunlight the next morning. Reports indicated his condition was not good. He died almost 26 hours later at Good Samaritan Hospital.
Often referred to in newspapers and media as RFK, I guessed it was because they did the same with his brother, JFK.
When JFK was elected, RFK (also known as Bobby) became the 64th United States Attorney General.
He served from January 1961 to September 1964, and as a U.S. Senator from New York from January 1965 until his death.
RFK left a strong impression just two months before when another leader referred by his initials, MLK, was assassinated.
Martin Luther King, Jr. was shot from a distance standing out a hotel room balcony in Memphis on April 4, 1968. The country was disillusioned. Millions were angry.
Bobby Kennedy was in Indianapolis to speak to a crowd of mostly African-Americans, most who had not heard of Dr. King’s death.
A burden fell upon Kennedy to share the tragic news. He appealed for calm by acknowledging not only their pain, but his own abiding grief over the murder of his brother.
Bobby Kennedy looked down and solemnly quoted a variation of an ancient poem by Aeschylus (526-456 BC):
“Even in our sleep, pain which cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart until, in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom from the awful grace of God.”
“Wisdom through the awful grace of God” is a remarkable and meaningful statement.
It means God’s grace fills us with awe and gives us the opportunity to grow in wisdom during life’s most difficult moments.
That August, of 1968, was the most horrific of my life. I witnessed a beating and someone I love placed a gun to my head. Before he could cock it, under horrific duress, I had the instinct, or the “wisdom” to kneel and pray.
God answered my prayer.
Later, when I talked with Pastor Randall of Bellaire Baptist Church in his home, he shared James 1:1-8 with me. The verse I keep dear to my heart is this:
“If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask of God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.”
James says that this wisdom is grown in the soil of hardship. We not only learn from the wisdom of God, we can rest–Be Still–in the grace of God.
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Clever Journeys 
I was sitting on the floor of my dorm room working on an art project when the news of the shooting of RFK’s was announced. It was horrible coming right behind the murder of Martin Luther King. I can’t begin to imagine what happened to you that August, 1968, but thank God, you did not let it define you.
Warmest regards.
Joyce Morris
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That was one unique and life-changing year!
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The generation that fought alongside JFK was fighting against National Socialism. Likewise, they stood against the red tide of the USSR. Now, a Gallup poll finds 57% of Democrats having a positive view of socialism while only 47% hold a similar view of capitalism.
And while MLK may have allowed his ear to be bent by socialist influencers of his day (don’t forget that the NAACP was set up by four White and one Black socialists), his focus was freedom for the Blacks of his day.
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None of us who were alive then can ever forget those times. I pray, believe, that the wisdom and grace of God are in operation now, in the healing and redemption going forward in spite of the evil pressing on us. They will lose. We will live in the light and Spirit of Christ.
How beautifully you wrote this. What He does in us when He captivates our hearts!
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How awful it must have been to be betrayed by someone you loved! Dropping to your knees (or did God’s angels lower you?) surely saved your life. Anyone who lived in that decade likely has the song “Abraham, Martin, and John” by Dion engraved in their hearts: https://youtu.be/ZBiH5fsKJB8
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I was going into my senior year of high school in Plano, Texas. I remember all of that year as if it were a week ago. I wasn’t yet a political follower, but I did admire King and Kennedy and was shocked and dismayed by their deaths. I would be in the first lottery for the Vietnam War in December, and that weighed heavily on me and my parents, especially my mother. I didn’t believe in the age of Aquarius or any of that hippy dippy crap, even though I had long hair and played in a rock band. I guess I was conservative long before it became acceptable.
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