R.F.K., R.I.P., Revisited

June 1, 2008
R.F.K., R.I.P., Revisited
Text by JAMES STEVENSON
June 8, 1968
Earlier in the day, the vast St. Patrick’s Cathedral, all chandeliers and gold, was jammed with mourners. Senator Edward Kennedy spoke, his voice cracking as he struggled to say, “My brother need not be idealized or enlarged in death beyond what he was in life, to be remembered as a good and decent man, who saw wrong and tried to right it, saw suffering and tried to heal it, saw war and tried to stop it.”
Now the long train carrying Robert F. Kennedy’s coffin rumbled south, passing miles and miles of people who had come to the railroad track to honor him, to say goodbye.
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Regular readers know that RFK was/is important to me. I have written on this before (here, here, here). I will always stop to read an article that mentions him. Today's NYT magazine had this article and it's very interesting. The author writes about Paul Fusco, a photographer who was aboard the train which carried RFK from New York to Washington. Fusco has written a book which will come out in September. Meanwhile his work will appear as an exhibit in New York. Much as it pains me to contemplate going to New York.....I will go. I have wanted to go and visit Ground Zero, so two birds, one stone. His exhibit is titled “R.F.K. Funeral Train— Rediscovered,” and will appear at Danziger Projects in New York from June 6 to July 31.

The article had an interactive feature that captivated me. It is a series of photographs that Fusco took from the train of those along the tracks. He narrates it sparingly.
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"Is Everybody O.K.?"
"June 6, 1968"
"He loved life completely and he lived it intensely.'
"The Train"