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My friend Stephen sent me this earlier in the year, and it gave me great hope that, just maybe, our individual actions could make this world a better place. At the time, Australia was in the midst of terrible bushfires, and I was questioning whether our attempts over the previous two years to live more sustainably had really made any difference at all in the grand scheme of things.
It’s an excerpt from Robert Kennedy’s address to the National Union of South African Students members at the University of Cape Town, given at a time when South Africa was still an Apartheid country and the American Civil Rights Movement was at its peak. Over the years, it’s become known as the “Ripples of Hope Speech”. In 2020, the problems facing our world may have changed, but the message is as powerful as ever. I hope you find it as inspiring as I did. ♥
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DAY OF AFFIRMATION ADDRESS, CAPETOWN, SOUTH AFRICA, JUNE 6, 1966 (excerpt)
Robert F. Kennedy
“First is the danger of futility; the belief there is nothing one man or one woman can do against the enormous array of the world’s ills – against misery, against ignorance, or injustice and violence. Yet many of the world’s great movements, of thought and action, have flowed from the work of a single man. A young monk began the Protestant reformation, a young general extended an empire from Macedonia to the borders of the earth, and a young woman reclaimed the territory of France. It was a young Italian explorer who discovered the New World, and 32 year old Thomas Jefferson who proclaimed that all men are created equal. “Give me a place to stand,” said Archimedes, “and I will move the world.” These men moved the world, and so can we all.
Few will have the greatness to bend history; but each of us can work to change a small portion of the events, and in the total of all these acts will be written the history of this generation.
Thousands of Peace Corps volunteers are making a difference in the isolated villages and the city slums of dozens of countries. Thousands of unknown men and women in Europe resisted the occupation of the Nazis and many died, but all added to the ultimate strength and freedom of their countries. It is from numberless diverse acts of courage such as these that the belief that human history is thus shaped.
Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.”
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 
Thank you so much for your post about Bobby Kennedy. I was in grade school when he and his brother were Assassinated. He came to Juneau Alaska, where we lived, as a fuel stop. My sister was in high school and was among students who got to meet him. We all felt so honored! The United States is a hotbed of senseless conflict these days. It’s impossible to list everything that is wrong here. I cannot count the number of times I have wished we could bring those two brothers back.
I needed those words today, Celia. There is so much division here in the US! Thanks for the hope!
A ripple of hope…..now that is truly food for thought! Thank you.
Ditto to the first two commenters, hope is in short supply right now in the U.S. Also short is any kind of inspired leadership. Thank you.
Let us remember ! Let us learn ! Let us have hope eternal . . . !
Celia, after 3 months of Gospers Mountain fires hovering at us from across the river; ripples of hope inspire and sustain us.
Celia – when I was in high school in Hornsby, in 1968, I cut out this quote of Robert Kennedy’s – he was one of the only things I liked about America! I lived in West Pymble, far from the places and things he talked about, but his words resonated. That yellowing piece of paper stayed with me for many years, even after I moved to America. It has since been lost in one of my many shuffles. Thank you for sharing it with us, and for reminding me what is important and why he was my idol.
This made me think of an Australian woman, Joice Nankivell Loch, born in the middle of a cyclone on a north Queensland cane farm in the late 1800s. Susanna de Vries wrote a book about her life, ‘Blue Ribbons Bitter Bread. Joice had so much grit and pragmatism and created thousands of ripples of hope and and helping hands in the most challenging of circumstances. So little is known of her in Australia. The book is well written and quite unforgettable. I bought and gave it to as many people as I could.
Celia, thanks for that post. I have been a little despairing about my mindful living given the world’s circumstances. This has made me remember that it is worth the effort.
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