Rediscover American History Through the Kennedy Family.
Get unforgettable insights into the life and times of the Kennedy family with Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s American Values: Lessons I Learned from My Family.
My parents would have loved this book. I wish they were alive so I could give it to them. The hardcover version of the course may be signed by the author, I’d wrap it up for Mother’s Day or Father’s Day. If you were of that generation that so admired the Kennedys, particularly true for Irish Americans, you will love this book. (Available in audiobook as well.) The view of a family member through those times of incredible achievements and tragedies is unforgettable.
However, this is not just a personal memoir, the historical events are put in perspective with a biographer’s eye. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. writes about his uncle, President John F. Kennedy, his aunt, Jackie Kennedy, his father, Senator Robert F. Kennedy and his mother, Ethel Skakel Kennedy. With quick details and short anecdotes, he shows these legends in the eye of the storm.
He details an amazing childhood with a multitude of pets more appropriate to a zoo than a Virginia estate, a sea lion, a coatimundi, snakes, horses and falcons. He describes how his grandparents and Ena, his Costa Rican nanny, were very involved in raising the 11 children in his family. (He does not mention his work as an adult for vaccine safety.) His main focus is on how both his parents, born into privilege, became such defenders of the poor, the working class, the disabled, and the disenfranchised. The adults in his life were greatly influenced by the Roman Catholic Church, the power of prayer and the gospels.
After President Kennedy’s murder, Robert F. Kennedy also was influenced by Albert Camus and the idea of the Stoics. Robert explained how he came to see it, “It is neither our position nor the circumstances that define us, according to the Stoics, but our response to those circumstances; when destiny crushes us, small heroic gestures of courage and service can bring us peace and fulfillment. In applying our shoulder to the stone, we give order to a chaotic universe.”
This book is helpful for those who are interested in the events of the 60s and how the CIA was behind the assassinations of his uncle, President Kennedy, his father, Senator Robert F. Kennedy, Malcolm X, and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
The Kennedys have had more than their share of tragedies and while many blame this on a genetically risk-taking nature I can’t help but think it may be that the CIA has painted a target on their backs. Knowing the history of the CIA’s introduction of psychedelics into the US (see John Potash’s documentary and accompanying book, Drugs as Weapons Against Us) I am curious if they orchestrated RFK, Jr’s. the first use of them and if they targeted him in other ways for drug abuse.
The CIA likes to control or influence everyone who comes in contact with those in power. From my experience, they do it a lot through timing. They will control traffic so that you will not see anyone they don’t want you to see. They use social media to focus or distract people from contacting you via phone. The CIA will blackmail or bribe kitchen staff and Starbucks employees into drugging/adulterating food and drink. They will also leave poisons on car steering and door handles. I assume rich people have their own security that solves some of these problems. It’s very sad that so many people are immoral and unethical and allow these things to go on. Look at the world we’re living in because of it.
I highly recommend reading American Values: Lessons I Learned from My Family. It will inspire you to stand up for truth and justice.
