LETTERS IN VIEW : Different Perspectives on Bobby Kennedy

Re “The Cult of Bobby” (Oct. 20): I am continually amused by attempts to prove the “Kennedy mystique” invalid.

The author of this article draws the picture of the struggle to see Bobby “for who he really was” as perplexing and full of contradiction.

I say you are missing the point. The point is not, “Does Bobby, and for that matter his brother Jack, deserve to be elevated to the stature that some Americans have placed him?”

The point is: How did they touch so many, so deeply in such a short period of time? The point is not about Bobby or Jack; the point is about us.

We as Americans need to believe that we are special, that there is something about this country that is unique.

What Bobby did best was to remind us of who we are and what we could be. He, like his brother, ignited a fire inside us--that our individual and collective destiny was in our hands, not in the hands of some aloof government.

The Kennedy mystique was more than charisma, because Bobby had none.

It was the deep understanding of the good side within all Americans, a compassionate and impassioned belief in the rightness of the American spirit.

We felt it and loved it, and bestowed upon the messengers our faith.

Robert Kennedy’s untimely death, coupled with the violent deaths of Jack Kennedy and Martin Luther King, left us with the haunting feeling that somehow we had blown out the fire.

What is too painful to realize is that we must search inside ourselves to find it.

We are not yet ready to do that. Rather, we continue to search for a leader who can light the fire for us.

MARK A. PETERSEN

Pacific Palisades