'Sealed with a kiss.' The continuing imbroglio concerning the papers of Senator Robert Kennedy and what must be done at once to solve it.

by  Dr. Jeffrey Lant

Author's program note. In 1962 every suburban girl's dream, bedroom-eyed Brian Hyland, released the ultimate bubblegum song, "Sealed with a Kiss." Just listening to it made your blood sugar soar. It was that sweet. See for yourself. Go to any search engine and hear it all over again...

"Though we've got to say good-bye/ For the summer/ Darling, I promise you this/ I'll send you all my love/ Everyday in a letter/ Sealed with a kiss."/

Yes, millions of tongue-tied adolescents mined this wistful song for the words they needed and couldn't come up with on their own:

"I'll see you in the sunlight/ I'll hear your voice everywhere/ I'll run to tenderly hold you/ But, darlin', you won't be there./"

It was all so cute... but not for everybody.

Some of those sealing their letters with a kiss were unfaithful... some deceptive and manipulative... some had absolutely no intention of doing what they pledged... and some, dying young, couldn't fulfill their vows... leaving instead a lifetime of bitter sweet memories, a compound of anger, regret, unendurable pain, sorrow, and always love, love that grew with time and never diminished.

Such a one was Ethel Skakel Kennedy, the woman loved by Robert Francis Kennedy, the man she idolized. June 5, 1968, the day Senator Kennedy was assassinated changed everything except one thing: his letters were sealed with a kiss and no one, absolutely no one but the widow Kennedy herself would be allowed to access them, no matter their importance or sensitivity, touch them, read them, study them, understand them, and put them in their proper context. And so the matter has rested from that day until this, with growing exasperation and anger on both sides.

The facts.

In 1968, an even-then controversial agreement was reached between the Kennedy family, lead by Ethel Kennedy, and the National Archives. The Kennedys were given expansive control of the RFK papers which include dozens of Pentagon, State Department, and CIA documents; in addition there are at least 62 boxes of files covering the three years he spent as his brother's attorney general. Historians have reason to believe these papers include crucial, perhaps embarrassing details about the Cold War, Cuban missile crisis, and Vietnam. But no one knows precisely what these archives contain because Ethel Kennedy long ago determined that the archives and whatever was in them were sealed with a kiss... inaccessible to anyone.

And that included Professor Arthur Schlesinger long-time Kennedy associate, JFK presidential assistant, and one of America's most distinguished historians.  He asked for access while working on his magisterial biography of Robert Kennedy (published 1978)... but Mrs. Ethel refused, to his consternation and inconvenience. If he, with a lifetime of devotion to the Kennedys was left standing in the cold, who then would be good enough, safe enough to enter? Who indeed!  Thus this incongruous situation emerged. Mrs. Kennedy was the only person who could get access... but because she did not have the necessary top-level clearance even she could not read the most sensitive documents. Thus, boxes of import, featuring reams of federally owned papers, boxes of the highest importance to specialists, simply sat in the vault accessed by no one, read by no one, thereby creating huge gaps of immense significance in the historic record. This is the situation today... where entirely reputable professionals are blocked because of Kennedy behavior which is selfish, ludicrous, peevish, illegal and patently unacceptable, for all that it's SWAK.

Battle lines.

So, on the other side are numerous government archivists and historians adamant that the Kennedy family should never have been granted control over official documents, retaining control only over materials patently personal, such as correspondence with Jacqueline Kennedy and Frank Sinatra. These people insist that the papers be opened to reputable personnel with the necessary clearances and the professional ability to determine that each document be properly marked and sorted... and that this long wrongly deferred task be done NOW.

On the other side are Ethel Kennedy and other members of the Kennedy family including her son, lawyer Maxwell Kennedy, who communicates his mother's adamant wishes. Her position is as it has always been "Katy, bar the door." This is an old Scottish story that goes like this:

Catherine Douglas, more royalist than the king, goes to the defence of her liege lord King James I of Scotland. On the lamb from his enemies, he has found momentary refuge in the Dominican chapter house in Perth, 20 February 1437. There Katy Douglas, as she was called, tried heroically to save her sovereign by barring the door with her naked arm. It was the ultimate gift...

... and it failed, her arm being mangled in the process, the King murdered. Thus she came down in history as Catherine Barlass, valiant but futile. Mrs. Kennedy needs to read this story and draw the long overdue conclusion. Her love while understandable is now an impediment, an obstacle making a resolution impossible. Thus, it is time for a fresh approach to the problem.

The Options.

There are, it seems to me, the following options:

1) The government could send Mrs. Kennedy a legal letter demanding she turn over the papers by a reasonable date. This would force her to hire reputable agents to sort the papers in her possession, then showing the federal authorities she was in compliance. Such a course, while legal, might be impolitic for all and would certainly raise the hackles of all. Not recommended.

2) The government could wait for Mrs. Kennedy's demise. Born April 11, 1928,  this inevitable event would enable her heirs to make a deal with the government, a deal which would give Mrs. Kennedy's estate maximum deductions and minimum taxes. It is ignoble but would be relatively easy to effect, not least because any representative of the Kennedy family, like son Maxwell, would not have the halo effect of his mother.

3) The final option is for Mrs. Kennedy to open constructive conversations leading to a solution at once generous and politic, a solution enabling her to keep what is rightfully hers and to open it or not as she desires, while giving unto Caesar that which is Caesar's. This should be her choice for it is the most statesmanlike.

Brian Hyland has the solution:

"Let us make a pledge/To meet in September/ And seal it with a kiss."

It's the right thing to do and long overdue.

 About the Author

Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., providing a wide range of online services for small and-home based businesses. Services include home business training, affiliate marketing training, earn-at-home programs, traffic tools, advertising, webcasting, hosting, design, WordPress Blogs and more. Find out why Worldprofit is considered the # 1 online Home Business Training program by getting a free Associate Membership today. Republished with author's permission by Ruthsella Corasol http://WorkingAtHome101.com

The lady from Maine laments and quits; the gentleman from Oklahoma saysshoot 'em, and we revisit the savage beating -- on the Senate floor no less -- of Sen. Charles Sumner by Rep. Preston Brooks

by Dr. Jeffrey Lant

Author's program note. There's a whole lot of lamenting going on in Washington, D.C. It goes like this: once upon a time the Congress of the Great Republic was a genteel place where ladies and gentlemen put on their white gloves and best manners, taking tea while cozily arranging America's affairs... thence home to a Dickens novel and well-earned slumber. The problem is that such a time never existed in the Congress of these factious United States. It's the merest myth... for all that the poor lads and lassies who represent us yearn for such a place, such a time, and such amiable, thoughtful, sympathetic colleagues on both sides of the aisle.

And so, these folks give way to frequent tears and even more frequent sighs and vapors... with lamentations loud, frequent, poignant, heart-rending -- and silly.

The most recent to give way to this "feel sorry for me" rubbish is the lady from Maine, senior Republican Senator Olympia Snowe. On February 28, 2012 the Honorable Olympia announced her inability to stomach the poisonous, internecine, downright nasty senatorial environment for another term. And so, lamenting, petulant, self-pitying, she said "basta!"... and started packing her valises with the accumulated treasures and heirlooms -- not to mention the pensions and emoluments -- of over 33 years in Congress. These will be substantial indeed.

As for me, I cannot find a single tear for the lady, rather the reverse. She says she was armed for another campaign, had money aplenty to fight the good fight... but she clearly lacked the stomach for so much closeness to her feisty and outspoken Mainers. Senators are revered, coddled, kowtowed to in Washington, D.C. Back home amidst the problems and bleakness of Portland, they are asked, insistently too, just what have you done for us lately, Missie... and you'd better have a detailed answer at the ready. Demigods like Senator Olympia find such directness rude, and long for fragrant camomile in a fragile cup of Old Worcester while aides fan her with cooling air.... unlimited incense... and deference to every word and wish.

Ms. Olympia says she's a Greek from Spartan stock... and while that might have been true 30 years ago in her elected salad days, it is most assuredly true no longer. She's gone Athenian, and now demands reverence, not the stark choice of returning with her shield -- or on it. And so she must retire... because she is no longer able to fight the good fight for Maine, for Mainers, and for the Great Republic which needs visionaries, fighters, not aging voluptuaries who crave comfort, not confrontation.

Enter Congressman John Sullivan (R-Oklahoma).

February 22, 2012 Representative Sullivan made a few red-blooded observations during one of his regular "town hall" meetings with constituents. The subject was how to get the Senate of the Great Republic to get serious, I mean really serious, about balancing the out-of-control federal budget.

"I'd love to get them /the senators/ to vote for it. Boy, I'd love that, you know. But other than me going over there with a gun and pointing it to their head and maybe killing a couple of them, I don't feel they're going to listen unless they get beat."

Cornered by the ever present Thought Police, Representative Sullivan, that able and forthright member for Tulsa, backed down. He didn't mean it....shouldn't have said it... certainly didn't imagine... and would never, ever do... You get the picture. The Honorable John was tripping over himself, back pedaling to beat the band. But why?

After all, he is far more what we actually want in our elected representatives, even while we say we prefer the Olympia model. No, we want our reps to represent us robustly, directly, rudely, shrewdly, without limits ... because unless they do that our share of the pie -- and the extra bucks we covet -- will go to others more able to bring home the bacon than our shrinking violets... and that will never do.

The great example of Representative Preston Brooks.

In 1856, the great issue of the day was slavery. It was a question which overshadowed all others. It was intractable, divisive, perhaps insoluble... certainly unavoidable. And because moderates could not prevail in resolving the matter, it was left to the zealots on both sides to see what they could do, using whatever means they chose to use.

And so on May 18, 1856 the Honorable Charles Sumner, the Senator from Massachusetts, arose to see what he could do to resolve the irresolvable... his vehicle being his great speech "The Crime Against Kansas" given to ensure that slavery did not encroach into the Kansas Territory and so augment the South and the slave owners he despised.

It was a great speech in every way -- 50 single-spaced pages in length, a detailed analysis of the problem, the most brilliant, vituperative language; language meant to insult, to scald, to enrage, with a position that absolutely no one could misunderstand, whatever side they supported.

Picture the scene. Not a cup of camomile to be seen.

Great Sumner rises sustained by sanctimony, rectitude and rage; each word is sonorous, delivered with venom, designed to sting, outrage, rebuke, condemn, no quarter asked, none given.

And so this man of Harvard, of Boston, of Massachusetts, this man of certainty, no doubt or hesitation rose to challenge the nation and to reshape the Great Republic.

Every eye was on the man, a mere man no longer, but the agent of a stern, implacable God, God the Avenger, majestic, awe-inspiring, I Am that I Am.

"Mr. President," he began, "You are now called to redress a great transgression."

And every word that followed in that vast torrent of words beat home this point.

There was no note of accommodation, no politics as usual, nothing less than total victory would do.

In the course of this great philippic, which ultimately saw one million copies distributed, Senator Sumner attacked Senator Andrew Butler of South Carolina, not just the man or his ideas but his stroke-impaired physique. It was brutal, it was hurtful; it was insulting... and a few days later inspired the Senator's outraged nephew, South Carolina congressman Preston Brooks to enter the Senate Chamber and, with his gutta-percha cane with solid gold knob, beat Sumner insensate, even when Sumner was comatose, lying in his puddling blood.

So did immoderate Sumner make his case...so did immoderate Brooks retaliate.

And so was the Congress of the Great Republic shortly peopled by representatives carrying devices of every kind, guns, knives, and of course the gutta-percha sticks with gold knobs made fashionable -- or abhorrent -- by this incident which moved the Civil War appreciably closer.

That is why, Senator Snowe, your decision to leave is a bad decision. The people of Maine need you.. the Congress needs you... the Great Republic still has great need of your services. No, it is not convenient for you; not least because you must present yourself again to your constituents, and, being Mainers, they will question you closely, for they are no respecters of persons and so may affront you. What of it? You have the Great Republic's work to do. And that is far more important and pressing than your own personal feelings or comfort. They count for nothing against what you can do, must do and cannot abandon now.

Thus I give you this song, "John Brown's Body", a rousing tune which arose from the American camp meeting tradition in the early 19th century and, after many changes of words, became the marching tune for people who understood the implementation of Truth was a long, difficult, often dangerous process. Go now to any search engine and find the rendition you like... and bookmark it, for you will have need of it in the work ahead:

"John Brown's body lies a-mouldering in the grave His soul's marching on."

And so must you, too, Senator Olympia Snowe, for your work for the people is most assuredly not finished yet.

Dedication: The author is pleased to dedicate this work to Joshua Aaron Sumner and Roshelle Elena Sumner, descendants of the magnificent Yankee who alerted the world to "The Crime Against Kansas," children of dear friend, Lance Sumner, fellow Internet argonaut.

About the Author

Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., providing a wide range of online services for small and-home based businesses. Services include home business training, affiliate marketing training, earn-at-home programs, traffic tools, advertising, webcasting, hosting, design, WordPress Blogs and more. Find out why Worldprofit is considered the # 1 online Home Business Training program by getting a free Associate Membership today. Republished with author's permission by Ruthsella Corasol http://WorkingAtHome101.com.