Honoring Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy

No one can doubt how Robert Francis Kennedy chose to use the law when he was Attorney General.  He taught us that law can be a powerful force for good – if we are willing, as he was, to roll up our sleeves, to summon our courage and our best efforts, and to lead from the front lines of change.  In doing just that, Attorney General Kennedy championed the cause of the least among us – and made our nation more just, more fair, and more humane.  He was not afraid to dream a better world and to act to create it.

In his first speech as Attorney General, Robert Kennedy argued that the time for apathy had long since passed; that it was time to, “[prove] to the world that we really mean it when we say that all men are created free and equal before the law.” “All of us,” he said, “might wish at times that we lived in a more tranquil world – but we don't.  And if our times are difficult and perplexing, so are they challenging and filled with opportunity.” Despite all that’s been accomplished in recent decades, we – still – do not live in tranquil times.  We continue to face difficulty, injustice, division, and an array of challenges that can serve to sharpen our skills, steel our resolve, focus our energy, and impel us to action. In times like these, the importance of Robert Kennedy’s work becomes ever clearer... So, as we celebrate Robert Kennedy’s life and his impact on this Department, let us also commit ourselves to carrying on – and carrying out – his mission to make gentle the life of this world, and to make good on the promise of our nation.  Let us answer his call, “to face up to our nation’s problems and live up to its founding principles.”  And let us heed the wisdom of his extraordinary example.