I spoke with several members of the group that is now in its eleventh year including three charter members: Sallie O’Donnell (the founder), Barbara Kenny and Joyce Sadler. The group is open to new members and [...]]]> I recently dropped in on a R.E.A.D. book club meeting that meets monthly at the New Smyrna Beach library.

Reading, Enjoying And Discussing

I spoke with several members of the group that is now in its eleventh year including three charter members: Sallie O’Donnell (the founder), Barbara Kenny and Joyce Sadler. The group is open to new members and meets on the 4th Thursday of the month at 2:30PM.

…We read books by the bunch,
Go to shows and have lunch.
And create great friendship-yes indeed!

Barbara, Sallie and Joyce

Their reading list, a compilation of titles that goes back to their first year, includes selections that are both thoughtful and enticing such as Einstein’s Wife by Andrea Gabor, The Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela, Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert, The Pickup by Nadine Gordimer, Rabbit at Rest by John Updike, Reading Lolita in Teheran by Azar Nafisi, The Bolyn Inheritance by Phillipa Gregory, Stolen Lives by Malika Oufkir, Island Beyond the Sea by Isabel Allende.

A Children’s Guide to a Healthy Lifestyle

I also learned that Sallie O’Donnell is the author of a children’s book. It seems that even before Michel Obama brought the nation’s attention to the need of a more healthy lifestyle for our children, Sallie had focused on the subject in her book, Animals, Vegetables and Minerals from A to Z. On the Amazon website I found these reviews:

• “There is a Dr. Seuss quality to the humorous and educational verses which teach healthy nutritional habits early in life.” — Dr. Steven R. Sabat, Professor of Psychology, Georgetown University, Washington, D.C.
• My four year-old granddaughter keeps talking about the quail who never overeats and the cougar building speed with calcium. — William D.A. Hill, weekly columnist for the Daily News Journal, New Smyrna Beach, FL, retired editor, film writer, reporter and magazine writer

The book is of course available through Amazon, but Sallie will also take your order and arrange shipping. You can reach Sallie by phone on 386.428.0881.

Journalist Joe Klein has called it “politics in its grandest form and highest purpose” and [...]]]> Chicago columnist Mike Royko moved many with a column he wrote after the national tragedy.

Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy

Journalist Joe Klein has called it “politics in its grandest form and highest purpose” and said that it “marked the end of an era” before American political life was taken over by consultants and pollsters. It is also recounted in the prologue of his book, Politics Lost.

The speech announcing the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. was given on April 4, 1968, by New York Senator Robert F. Kennedy (who was assassinated two months later). Kennedy was campaigning for the 1968 Democratic presidential nomination and had spoken at the University of Notre Dame and Ball State University earlier that day.

Before boarding a plane to fly to Indianapolis for one last campaign speech in a predominantly black neighborhood of the city, he learned that Martin Luther King had been shot. Kennedy press secretary Frank Mankiewicz suggested that he ask the audience to pray for the King family and ask them to follow King’s deeply-held belief in non-violence. They did not learn that King was dead until they landed in Indianapolis.

Both Mankiewicz and speechwriter Adam Walinsky drafted notes immediately before the rally for Kennedy’s use, but Kennedy chose to use some that he had likely written on the ride over. Mankiewicz arrived after Kennedy had already begun to speak. Prior to arriving at the rally, the Chief of Police in Indianapolis told Kennedy that he could not provide protection and that giving the remarks would be too dangerous. Standing on a podium mounted on a flatbed truck, Kennedy spoke for just four minutes and fifty-seven seconds.

Robert F. Kennedy was the first to inform the audience of the death of Martin Luther King, causing some in the audience to scream and wail. Several of Kennedy’s aides were even worried that the delivery of this information would result in a riot.

Screenshot of Robert Kennedy speaking to a crowd in Indianapolis the night of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr’s death.Once the audience quieted down, Kennedy acknowledged that many in the audience would be filled with anger. But then Kennedy went on: “For those of you who are black and are tempted to fill with — be filled with hatred and mistrust of the injustice of such an act, against all white people, I would only say that I can also feel in my own heart the same kind of feeling. I had a member of my family killed, but he was killed by a white man.”

These remarks surprised Kennedy aides, who had never heard him speak publicly of John F. Kennedy’s death. Kennedy continued, saying that the country had to make an effort to “go beyond these rather difficult times,” and then quoted a poem by the Greek playwright Aeschylus, on the theme of the wisdom that comes, against one’s will, from pain. Kennedy said that the country needed and wanted unity between blacks and whites, asked the audience members to pray for the King family and the country, and once more quoted the ancient Greeks.

The speech was credited in part with preventing post-assassination rioting in Indianapolis, where it was given, though there were riots in many other parts of the country. It is widely considered one of the most important speeches in American history.

Joe Klein told NPR: “Well, when I first started thinking about writing this book, I tried to search my memory for an example of real true political nobility, and this came to mind immediately.

“It was the night that Martin Luther King was killed. Kennedy was supposed to speak in the Indianapolis ghetto that night, and he lands in Indianapolis, the police chief tells him we’re not going to be able to protect you because we’re going to protect the rest of the city from the African-Americans who they assume are going to start rioting as soon as they find out that Martin Luther King has been killed. Well, Kennedy goes in there anyway, and members of his staff scribble some notes, some talking points for him and he just dismisses them with a curt wave of his hand and he gets up in front of this audience, which still hasn’t heard about Martin Luther King’s death, and he tells them that King has died.

From an NPR interview with Joe Klein:

Then Senator Kennedy speaks to the crowd: “I have very sad news for all of you and that is that Martin Luther King was shot and was killed tonight in Memphis, Tennessee.

(Soundbite of people screaming)

“Martin Luther King dedicated his life to love and to justice between fellow human beings. He died in the cause of that effort. In this difficult day, it’s pressed well to ask what kind of a nation we are and what direction we want to move in. You can be filled with bitterness and with hatred or we can make an effort, as Martin Luther King did, to understand and replace that violence, that stain of bloodshed that has spread across our land with compassion and love.

KLEIN: Gradually, he senses how respectful they are of him, I think. I think it’s very clear when you listen to it. And he does something that his staff is completely amazed by; he talks about the death of his own brother, which is something that he had never done in public. And you know, I can’t tell you it was directly related, but Indianapolis was one of the very few American cities that didn’t explode in flames over the next few days.

“Robert Kennedy: Delivering News of King’s Death” at NPR’s Morning Edition, April, 2008 The report contains audio recording of Kennedy’s remarks.

Many people were also moved by a column written by Mike Royko in the Chicago Daily News on April 4, 1968:

Millions in his firing squad

FBI agents are looking for the man who pulled the trigger and surely they will find him.

But it doesn’t matter if they do or they don’t. They can’t catch everybody, and Martin Luther King was executed by a firing squad that numbered in the millions.

They took part, from all over the country, pouring words of hate into the ear of the assassin.

The man with the gun did what he was told. Millions of bigots, subtle and obvious, put it in his hand and assured him he was doing the right thing.

It would be easy to point at the Southern redneck and say he did it. But what of the Northern disk-jockey-turned-commentator, with his slippery words of hate every morning?

What about the Northern mayor who steps all over every poverty program advancement, thinking only of political expediency, until riots fester, whites react with more hate and the gap between the races grows bigger?

Toss in the congressman with the stupid arguments against busing. And the pathetic women who turn out with eggs in their hands to throw at children.

Let us not forget the law-and-order type politicians who are in favor of arresting all Negro prostitutes in the vice districts. When you ask them to vote for laws that would eliminate some of the causes of prostitution, they babble like the boobs they are…

They all took their place in King’s firing squad.

And behind them were the subtle ones, those who never say anything bad but just nod when the bigot throws out his strong opinions.

He is actually the worst, the nodder is, because sometimes he believes differently but he says nothing. He doesn’t want to cause trouble. For Pete’s sake, don’t cause trouble!

So when his brother-in-law or his card-playing buddy from across the alley spews out the racial filth, he nods.

Give some credit to the most subtle of the subtle. That distinction belongs to the FBI, now looking for King’s killer.

That agency took part in a mudslinging campaign against him that to this day demands an investigation.

The bullet that hit King came from all directions. Every two-bit politician or incompetent editorial writer found in him, not themselves, the cause of our racial problems.

It was almost ludicrous. The man came on the American scene preaching nonviolence from the first day he sat at the wrong end of a bus. He preached it in the North and was hit with rocks. He talked it the day he was murdered.

Hypocrites all over this country would kneel every Sunday morning and mouth messages to Jesus Christ. Then they would come out and tell each other, after reading the papers, that somebody should string up King, who was living Christianity like few Americans ever have.

Maybe it was the simplicity of his goal that confused people or the way he dramatized it.

He wanted only that black Americans have their constitutional rights, that they get an equal shot at this country’s benefits, the same thing we give to the last guy who jumped off the boat.

So we killed him. Just as we killed Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy. No other country kills so many of its best people.

Last Sunday night the President said he was quitting after this term. He said this country is so filled with hate it might help if he got out. Four days later we killed a Nobel Peace Prize winner.

We have pointed a gun at our own head and we are squeezing the trigger. And nobody we elect is going to help us. It is our head and our finger.

Book cover: Robert Kennedy and the 1968 Indiana Primary

Book Cover

You were only 9 when Robert Kennedy was assassinated, but even at that young age, Kennedy appears to have made an impression on you. Can you tell us more about the inspiration for writing this book?
One of the seminal memories of my childhood growing up in Mishawaka, Indiana, was sitting in the living room of our home on West Battell Street and watching Robert F. Kennedy’s funeral on television. Even at that young age, I could not believe that someone so young and vibrant could be snatched away like that in the blink of an eye. I told my mother, Joyce, as she walked into the room, that I hoped someone—anyone—would kill the person responsible for this horror.

Perhaps my mother remembered the death of another young politician—President John F. Kennedy—and the subsequent shooting of the alleged assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, by Dallas nightclub owner Jack Ruby. Perhaps she had watched on television as Ruby rushed up to Oswald as authorities were taking him from police headquarters to the nearby county jail on November 24, 1963. All I know for sure is that my mother reproached me for my remark, noting that Robert Kennedy had been known as a compassionate man who, because of the tragedy in his own family, abhorred such violence and had worked to heal, not harm.

My late mother’s words that day have stayed with me and, perhaps, were the impetus behind my research and writing about Kennedy’s famous speech in Indianapolis following the killing of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.

Several challenges—negative local press, the formidable opponents of Eugene McCarthy and Indiana Gov. Branigin, and late entry in to the Democratic primary race—faced Kennedy during his 1968 run in Indiana. How did he overcome these obstacles to achieve a victory in Indiana?
Kennedy realized that entering the Indiana primary was a gamble and realized he needed to make an all-out effort to win the state. “Indiana is the ballgame,” Kennedy said. As one of his aides later recalled, a loss in Indiana could have derailed the entire campaign, so the senator’s staff and friends flocked to the state and worked long hours on his behalf. Nobody, however, worked harder than the candidate himself. He campaigned furiously and often ended the day with his hands raw and sometimes bloody after shaking countless hands of would-be voters. Through the force of his own character, Kennedy convinced often skeptical Hoosiers of the sincerity of his beliefs. In doing so, he also honed his message and became a better candidate for the primaries to come.

Kennedy also benefited from having the advice of a man—John Bartlow Martin—who knew the state’s history and the character of its people. Martin, who produced one of the best books ever written about the state, Indiana: An Interpretation, played a key role in the campaign and offered Kennedy vital information on every community he visited leading up to primary voting on May 7.

At an outdoor rally in the heart of Indianapolis’s African American community, Kennedy delivered the news that Martin Luther King had been assassinated. His speech is considered one of the greats in American political history. Describe the impact it had upon the crowd gathered at the rally.

Those who were a part of the crowd that gathered on April 4, 1968, at Seventeenth and Broadway streets, to hear Kennedy, blacks and whites alike, compared what they saw and heard to a religious experience. The candidate had reached out and touched their hearts with his words calling for compassion and understanding in the face of violence and bloodshed. One of the people I interviewed for the book who was at the speech remembered feeling as if the candidate had “laid his hands upon the audience” and healed them, deflating the powerful anger that surged through the packed audience. The crowd, another person recalled, walked away in pain, but with no thoughts of revenge. While countless cities across the country exploded in violence, Indianapolis remained calm.

Some in the media are comparing Obama’s run for presidency to RFK’s. What similarities do you see between the two men’s campaigns? Any key differences?
Both Obama and Kennedy seem to share a certain charisma that has attracted a large a devoted following of people who have never before been involved in politics. Obama’s appeal to young, college-age voters, however, reminds me more of the campaign of the other Democratic candidate in 1968—Eugene McCarthy. Attracted by his McCarthy’s anti-war candidacy and defiance of incumbent President Lyndon B. Johnson, college students from across the country shaved off their beards, cut their hair, and became “Clean for Gene.” Obama seems to generate the same level of enthusiasm from his young supporters as McCarthy did. Obama also shares McCarthy’s eloquence on the stump. Kennedy always did better interacting with audiences on a one-on-one basis during question and answer sessions, as compared to delivering a set stump speech.

How do you think the course of history might have changed if Robert Kennedy had been elected president?
I always get this question when doing talks on my book to audiences. I always remind people that Kennedy faced a tough fight to even win the Democratic nomination at the Chicago convention in August. While he and McCarthy were battling each other in the various primaries, Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey, who had announced his candidacy too late to enter any of the primaries, was traveling around the country picking up sizable blocks of delegates from state party conventions and caucuses. Johnson, no fan of Kennedy, would also have done everything he could to deny his rival the Democratic Party’s top prize. Kennedy’s own staff said the odds were 50-50 that he would capture the nomination from Humphrey.

Still, if Kennedy had won the nomination and beaten his GOP opponent, Richard Nixon, in the fall, a Kennedy administration probably would have removed American troops from Vietnam much sooner than did the Nixon administration. Without Nixon as president, of course, there would have been no Watergate scandal, and perhaps Americans mistrust and suspicions of politicians in Washington, D.C., might have been allayed for a time. Kennedy has also made increasing benefits for Social Security recipients an issue during the Indiana primary, which might have resulted in a closer and earlier look at the solvency of the system.

Visit your local library to learn more.

Robert F. Kennedy and the 1968 Indiana Primary
Ray E. Boomhower, (2008).

Politics Lost: How American Democracy was Trivialized by People Who think that You’re Stupid
Joe Klein, (2006).
In 1948 when Harry S. Truman accepted the Democratic nomination, his spontaneous reference to Turnip Day in Missouri evoked a candor and authenticity that later helped him win the presidency. Klein, author of Primary Colors (1995), frames much of his analysis in the context of Truman’s remark. Unfortunately, political consultants have been intent on purging Turnip Day spontaneity in favor of poll-based, risk-averse blandness that bodes ill for American democracy. Most modern candidates have allowed consultants to market them to the point that they will never deviate off message and buy into packaged campaigns based entirely on research. This is a passionate, often hysterical, but ultimately sad look at modern American politics. — Excerpt of review by Vanessa Bush first published March 15, 2006 (Booklist).

Robert Kennedy: His Life
Thomas, Evan (2000).

Robert Kennedy and His Times
Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., (1978).

Kennedy, Robert F. “Remarks on the Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.” (speech, Indianapolis, IN, 1968-04-04), American Rhetoric Online Speech Bank. Retrieved 2012-05-02.

Images:
1. Article illustration:
Photograph of White House Meeting with Civil Rights Leaders. June 22, 1963
Photograph of meeting with Civil Rights leaders. Front Row Martin, Luther King, Jr., Robert F. Kennedy, Roy Wilkins, Lyndon Baines Johnson, Walter P. Reuther, Whitney M. Young, A Philip Randolph Second Row Second From Left Rosa Gragg Top Row Third From Left James Farmer.
Department of the Interior. National Park Service. (1916 – 1933), Photographer (NARA record: 1185522).

2. Book cover:Robert F. Kennedy and the 1968 Indiana Primary by Ray E. Boomhower.

Kennedy said that all types [...]]]>

Caroline Kennedy

Kennedy said that all types of libraries are, “tabernacles of personal freedom: freedom of thought, freedom of expression, freedom of opportunity and the true test of liberty – freedom to dissent,” and noted that, “Libraries have a critical role in teaching the higher order thinking skills that students need under the Common Core curriculum, and the research techniques and analytics that are so critical in the information age.”

Celebrate National Library Week 2013 (April 14-20) with Honorary Chair Caroline Kennedy. View 2013 National Library Week Public Service Announcement featuring Caroline Kennedy.

Join us for a discussion with Dan Smith, author of The World’s Greatest Beach.

“When I began to write the history of our beach, I knew it would be heavy with [...]]]> The World’s Greatest Beach: 40 miles of sand that rims Volusia County

New Smyrna Beach

• March 5th, 2013 at 2pm at the New Smyrna Beach Regional Library

“When I began to write the history of our beach, I knew it would be heavy with racing and land speed record facts, but I also knew it would have to be a lot more. It was a daunting task. I began and stopped over and over again. How could I be so arrogant as to think that I could write such a comprehensive tome? After much deliberation, I decided to try and keep the focus on the beach itself and leave the story of the adjoining cities and towns to another. In this book, I only touch briefly on the beach south of Ponce Inlet and opted instead to concentrate on the Ormond -Daytona strand.” — Dan Smith

Read More

Top 3 entries in Middle & High School, Grades 6-12
CASH PRIZES: $75 $50 $25
Deadline: April 12th
Winners will be notified. Participants are invited to share their poems April 24th at 5:30pm

To Enter

I just read The Sandcastle Girls by Chris Bohjalian for my Book Club’s book of the month. This one was too good not to share. It was a historical novel of the highest quality–well researched and informative, but also mesmerizing the reader with skillful, compelling storytelling and great emotional [...]]]> By Stephanie Debry | Book Review

The Sandcastle Girls

I just read The Sandcastle Girls by Chris Bohjalian for my Book Club’s book of the month. This one was too good not to share. It was a historical novel of the highest quality–well researched and informative, but also mesmerizing the reader with skillful, compelling storytelling and great emotional impact. The innocuous sounding title is deceptive. Far from being a nostalgic beach tale, The Sandcastle Girls tells of the Armenian genocide at the hands of the Syrians and the Turks during World War I. Over a quarter of a million Armenians died of starvation, dehydration or outright murder. The horrific nature of the many sadistic crimes and the senseless cruelty were hard to read about, but some incidents of human kindness sprinkled throughout the book made it bearable, rather than totally demoralizing. Not least among these were the German soldiers who risked their lives and military careers to photograph the victims, and to smuggle this evidence out of the country. Also admirable were the efforts, frustrated as they were, of the American group, Friends of Armenia, to save lives. These Americans left comfortable lifestyles in the states to come do humanitarian work in a war zone, at great risk to themselves. One Turkish doctor is also a hero, countering the atrocities he witnesses as best he can by his kind and conscientious care of any Armenian refugees who find their way into his hospital.

Most dominant in the heroic tale is the protagonist Elizabeth Endicott, who invites one woman and little girl to live with her in spite of discouragement coming not only from the local officials, but also from her own peers, who are uncomfortable with this unconventional way of helping. Like many of us, these officials, volunteer physicians and one missionary prefer to keep a tasteful amount of distance between themselves and the objects of their beneficence. They also have trouble rationalizing the singling out of two human beings for special help, when multitudes of the less fortunate are overwhelming the hospitals, orphanages and refugee camps in the desert, where most of them die. In the midst of all this tragedy, however, there is the refreshing sweetness of a love story.

This is a life-changing book. Like books about the Holocaust and other testimonies of man’s inhumanity to man, it challenges us to be on our guard lest we get lulled into thinking that “it can’t happen here,” and also it spurs us to greater courage and compassion in our outlook and actions. The creative ways in which the heroic characters manage to help a few people, although they cannot help everyone, demonstrates for us how a lot of people doing little things can make a big difference when evil threatens. Books like this motivate us to think about where our priorities would be if we were faced with life and death moral dilemmas. Also, this is a must-read because this forgotten people who were almost wiped out deserve to be remembered.

Stephanie Debry is a resident of New Smyrna Beach, Florida, and the author of The Shoebox: Growing Up in America in the Babyboom South.
Visit Stephanie’s Blog

GWS features links to high-quality websites of interest to children 14 years of [...]]]>

Photo: Flickr by Timberland Regional Library

GWS features links to high-quality websites of interest to children 14 years of age and younger, organized into diverse subject headings such as animals and dinosaurs; games and entertainment; history and science; art and music; and much more. Each site entry includes a brief annotation and a grade-level rating. GWS users can also rate sites and save their favorite sites for easy access later.

Recent additions include:

Bedtime Math – www.bedtimemath.org
Butterflies and Moths – www.butterfliesandmoths.org
Climate Kids – climate.nasa.gov/kids
Computer Science Student Network (CS2N) – www.cs2n.org
Fred Rogers Center Early Learning Environment – ele.fredrogerscenter.org
Jet Propulsion Laboratory – www.jpl.nasa.gov/education/videos
KidsThinkDesign – www.kidsthinkdesign.org
SciJinks – scijinks.nasa.gov
TurtleDiary – www.turtlediary.com

Updated regularly, the site uses a list of criteria that you can use at home or in the library when searching the Internet with your children.

Ask the following questions when you review a new online resource:

• 1. What is the authorship/sponsorship for this site?
• 2. What is the websites purpose?
• 3. Does the site have personality or character that will engage young users?
• 4. Does the site feature meaningful and useful content that educates, informs or entertains?

For more ideas on how you and your children can explore the Internet together, check out the It’s a Digital World section of the Connect with your kids @ your library Family Activity Guide.

New York Times best-selling author Tim Dorsey will discuss his newest Serge Storms novel, “The riptide ultra-glide,” at 4 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 2, at the New Smyrna Beach Regional Library.

“Lovable serial killer Serge Storms is back and coming [...]]]> Tim Dorsey returns to New Smyrna Beach library

• Save the date: February 2, 2013 4:00 pm

The Riptide Ultra-glide by Tim Dorsey

New York Times best-selling author Tim Dorsey will discuss his newest Serge Storms novel, “The riptide ultra-glide,” at 4 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 2, at the New Smyrna Beach Regional Library.

“Lovable serial killer Serge Storms is back and coming to the rescue of a Midwestern couple who aren’t finding Florida quite as charming as he does in Riptide Ultra-Guide, the sixteenth installment in Tim Dorsey’s bestselling series. When newly unemployed Patrick and Barbara McDougal decide a vacation in Florida is just what they need to put life back on the right track, awful accommodations, a robbery, and a not-so-helpful police department make them rethink their decision to drown their troubles in paradise. Luckily, charismatic (and crazy!) tour guide Serge Storms and his sidekick, Coleman, are up for another action-packed adventure in this outrageous crime thriller that Tim Dorsey fans won’t soon forget.”- Amazon book description

Tim Dorsey was a reporter and editor for the Tampa Tribune from 1987 to 1999, and is the author of thirteen novels. He lives in Tampa, Florida.