THINKER'S ALMANAC - April 4

What political leader demonstrated courage by speaking on April 4, and what literary character demonstrated courage by writing on April 4?

Subject:  Courage to Speak and Write - R.F.K.’s Speech and Winston Smith’s Diary

Event: Robert F. Kennedy speaks after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., and Winston Smith begins writing in his diary.

Let us dare to read, think, speak, and write. -John Adams

On this day we remember two individuals: one a historical figure who demonstrated courage by speaking, the other a fictional character who demonstrated courage by writing.

On this day in 1968, Senator Robert F. Kennedy, who was running for the Democratic nomination for president, was preparing to give a campaign speech in Indianapolis, Indiana.  Just before he was scheduled to speak to the predominantly African-American audience, Kennedy learned that Martin Luther King, Jr. had been assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee.

Kennedy was warned by the police that the crown had not yet heard the bad news and that they might become unruly or violent once they heard of King’s death. Despite the danger, Kennedy decided not only to address the audience but also to inform them of the tragedy.  

Kennedy spoke for fewer than five minutes, but what he said will never be forgotten.  He began by immediately delivering the bad news. After pausing for a moment to allow the shocked crowd to gather its wits, Kennedy reminded the audience of King’s efforts to replace violence with understanding and compassion.  He showed empathy for his audience, comparing the anger they were feeling to the anger he felt when his brother was killed by an assassin five years earlier in Dallas. Instead of focusing on the racial divide in the United States, Kennedy instead made an appeal for unity and for justice:

What we need in the United States is not division; what we need in the United States is not hatred; what we need in the United States is not violence and lawlessness, but is love, and wisdom, and compassion toward one another, and a feeling of justice toward those who still suffer within our country, whether they be white or whether they be black.

Like Martin Luther King, Jr. did before him, Kennedy appealed to hope over despair and to peace over violence:

And let’s dedicate ourselves to what the Greeks wrote so many years ago: to tame the savageness of man and make gentle the life of this world. Let us dedicate ourselves to that, and say a prayer for our country and for our people.

Kennedy did not have to speak on April 4, 1968, and no one would have faulted him for canceling his appearance under the sad circumstances.  Nevertheless, Kennedy seized the moment to courageously present what was much more than just a campaign speech. His brief words transformed a moment of sorrow into a time of rededication to the mission of Martin Luther King, Jr. and to what Abraham Lincoln called “the better angels of our nature.”

Two months later, on June 5, 1968, Kennedy himself was assassinated after winning the California presidential primary (1).

The second act of courage that took place on this day was in George Orwell’s novel Nineteen Eighty-Four.

In the novel’s opening chapter, the protagonist Winston Smith commits a forbidden act of rebellion, an act that we all take for granted. In the world of the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, the simple act that Winston performs could lead to punishment by death or a sentence of twenty-five years of forced labor:

The thing that he was about to do was to open a diary. . . . He dipped the pen into the ink and then faltered for just a second. A tremor had gone through his bowels. To mark the paper was the decisive act. In small clumsy letters he wrote:

April 4th, 1984.

He sat back. A sense of complete helplessness had descended upon him.. . .

Suddenly he began writing in sheer panic, only imperfectly aware of what he was setting down. His small but childish handwriting straggled up and down the page, shedding first its capital letters and finally even its full stops:

April 4th, 1984. Last night to the flicks. All war films. . . .

In the dystopian world of Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, the one-party government of Oceania is in a perpetual state of war and is led by the all-seeing but unseen leader called Big Brother.  By putting his pen to paper, Winston Smith, a party worker, is committing the radical and unlawful act of expressing his own individual thoughts and questioning his government.

Recall, Retrieve, Recite, Ruminate, Reflect, Reason:  What did Robert Kennedy and Winston Smith do that showed courage?

Challenge - Courageous Call for Communication: What are the reasons we should not take our ability to read, think, speak, and write for granted?  In the years leading up to the American Revolution, John Adams wrote an essay called “A Dissertation on the Canon and the Federal Law” (1765).  In this essay, Adams laid the legal groundwork for the Revolution, challenging his readers to remember the important role that literacy plays as the foundation of human freedoms:

Let us tenderly and kindly cherish, therefore, the means of knowledge.  Let us dare to read, think, speak, and write.

Write a Public Service Announcement (PSA) that challenges your audience to reconsider and reimagine the importance of literacy — of speaking, writing, thinking, and writing.  Motivate your audience to rededicate themselves to these skills that we so often take for granted. 

ALSO ON THIS DAY:

-April 4, 1874:  On this day entomologist Samuel H. Scudder published the story “Look at Your Fish”  in Every Saturday magazine.  In the story, Scudder recounts his early education as a scientist under the tutelage of renowned zoologist Jean Agassiz (1807-1873), whose first lesson was to have his student scrupulously study a grunt fish.

-April 4, 2016:  Julia Galef presented a TED Talk entitled “Why You Think You’re Right Even When You’re Wrong” on this day.  Her talk focused on the Dreyfus Affair (See THINKER’S ALMANAC - January 13) and especially on the heroic efforts of Colonel Georges Picquart who searched for the truth when others wouldn’t.  Galef warns against the “soldier mindset,” which employs “motivated reasoning” to see what it wants to see rather than to objectively seek out the truth.  Her prescription is to take on the “Scout Mindset,”  which sets aside personal bias and prejudice to objectively seek the kinds of facts and evidence that will lead to the truth.

Sources:

1-Kennedy, Robert F.  STATEMENT ON ASSASSINATION OF MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR., INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA, APRIL 4, 1968.  John F. Kennedy Library.