One of those moments that all remember. June 5 is my birthday. I woke up that morning to the alarm clock radio news. I had gone to bed a little late and disappointed in the results from the California primary. I was a supporter of Eugene McCarthy for President.(McCarthy was the early "peace candidate".At a time when nobody else - including Kennedy - seemed inclined to declare a candidacy in defiance of the incumbent vice-president and undeniable party standard bearer and presumed nominee, Hubert Humphrey, McCarthy stepped forward in an act of what was considered political suicide. His early campaign success drew Kennedy into the race. I resented Kennedy - who I knew would be a much more politically appealing and effective candidate (and capable president) - for "using" McCarthy as a stalking horse. (Forgive me. I was 25 and politically naive.) I also considered Kennedy to be somewhat of a "carpetbagger" - establishing citizenship in New York so that he could run for the senate and serve as senator from a state far more influential than Massachusetts - a move that seemed to me as calculating "political". (There's that naivete, again.) After having lost California and it's critical "winner take all" block of delegates in a fairly close race McCarthy then made the highly disingenuous statement that he had not paid as much attention to the California primary as he should have as he had focused on the primary in Oregon which was on the same day (which McCarthy won). That statement caused me to lose some respect for Gene - who I had thought had conducted himself with high candor during a very unorthodox campaign. ("Come on, Gene, you probably just lost the nomination - which had to be an enormous disappointment. Don't pretend that you are the happy winner of the Oregon trophy!") In reality, of course, Kennedy was the candidate with any real hope of unhorsing Humphrey. His strategy to wait and see if there was enough anti-war support to build a national campaign around was the smart strategy.
When Kennedy survived the initial attack I thought that he might survive. After all: 22 caliber ammunition looks puny when held in the hand. (Not so puny when fired into a human brain from a range of three inches.)
It's all nearly 50 years in the rear view mirror, now. Hard to comprehend the upheaval of that decade. A senseless unwinnable war (with an uncertain prize) with 1,500,000 dead (60,000 of them US servicemen), the assassinations of John Kennedy, Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy the raw and ugly Democratic convention of 1968 and the Kent State shootings.
Can any of us imagine how a moment such as Romero experienced would change our lives? Just an "ordinary guy" performing an entry-level service job in a hotel and trying to "get by". Suddenly at the center of a world event that would shadow him forever.
Written by the Pennsylvania Pundit
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