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Letter to Vanity Fair re: Why RFK Still Matters
This letter-to-the-editor was published by Vanity Fair in its August issue. The letter was written by the Center's Executive Director Deepak Bhargava in response to Vanity Fair's cover article on the enduring importance of Robert F. Kennedy.
Cover of the June 2008 edition of Vanity Fair
THANK YOU, Vanity Fair, for devoting the cover to one of America’s political greats, Robert F. Kennedy. As head of a nonprofit that was founded as a living memorial to R.F.K., I could not agree more that R.F.K. still matters, perhaps now more than ever.
We continue to face serious and divisive challenges: the gap between the rich and poor continues to widen; regular folks are hurting more and more from soaring gas and food prices, rising foreclosures, lack of adequate health care, and failing schools. We watch as more and more young people are sacrificed to an unpopular war and our stature in the world falters. Now, as we did then, we search for the ever elusive American dream, and we are resolute that this time everyone will be able to realize the dream. In Kennedy’s words, we must “concentrate on what unites us, and secure the future for all our children; or we can concentrate on what divides us, and fail our duty through argument and resentment and waste.” Yes, R.F.K.’s hope and vision still matter.
—DEEPAK
BHARGAVA, executive director, Center for Community Change, Washington, D.C.
