John W. Lillpop
April 4, 1968 was truly a tragic and sad day in American history because of the assassination of Martin Luther King in Memphis, Tennessee.
Equally tragic is the fact that, before America could finish mourning the loss of Dr. King, on June 4, 1968, a cowardly madman blew out the brains of Senator Robert Kennedy with a hand gun in Los Angeles; thereby sending another one of the nation's best and brightest to an early grave.
Both the Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy killings were preceded by the slaying of America's thirty- fifth president, the man who brought Camelot to the White House, President John F. Kennedy.
President Kennedy was gunned down in Dallas, Texas on November 22, 1963.
Within the space of less than five years, America lost three prominent national and world leaders to assassination.
But while America has seen fit to commemorate the birthday of Martin Luther King as a national holiday in January of each year, neither of the Kennedy men, both of whom held elective office at the time they were murdered, has been so honored.
In fact, how many Americans would even be able to name the birthday of President John Kennedy? One in 10000, perhaps, could answer correctly that JFK was born on May 19, 1917.
Even fewer Americans would be able to correctly cite November 20, 1925 as the birthday of Senator Robert Kennedy, who was also a candidate for the U.S. presidency in 1968 before being felled by Sirhan Sirhan.
Although the 40th anniversary of the murder of JFK was reported five years ago, it received no where near the attention that was devoted to the 40th anniversary of Dr. King's death this past week.
That anniversary even prompted Republican presidential candidate John McCain to issue a mea culpa for his past opposition to making the birthday of Dr. King a national holiday.
Casting aside PC nonsense for a moment, the truth is that McCain would be better off apologizing for his wrong-minded plans for granting amnesty to 38 million illegal aliens than concerning himself with a position that actually made sense.
Is it not way past time to say "enough already!" to the national obsession with Dr. Martin Luther King?
