Things That Never Were

This is a story. This is a story about the leading characters of Midcentury American life. It is not events as they happened. It is about an America that lived through the Summer of '68, the violence of Vietnam, and the mismanagement of Johnson. It is one where people could tell themselves that the embers of liberal optimism still burned, that America's children need not perish at home and abroad. It is a story about Robert Kennedy. He believed he understood what America—the real America—cried

This is a story. This is a story about the leading characters of Midcentury American life. It is not events as they happened. It is about an America that lived through the Summer of '68, the violence of Vietnam, and the mismanagement of Johnson. It is one where people could tell themselves that the embers of liberal optimism still burned, that America's children need not perish at home and abroad. It is a story about Robert Kennedy. He believed he understood what America—the real America—cried out for. He understood that the people had been abandoned by a White House more invested in intra-party machinations than the burdens of war. Kennedy dreamed of a better tomorrow. He sided with love over hate, with peace over war. He would fight not for the few but We the People. And with his victory over the doubters, he would demonstrate the American Dream could still triumph. This is the truth as he believed it to be. It is the story he told with absolute devotion. We are nothing without stories and, so, we invite you to believe as he did. If only for a moment, we ask that you believe in things that never were.