WE MUST TALK OF ROBERT KENNEDY because he matters, especially this year; a presidential election year, the 40th since he died tragically young and needlessly. Many of us ache, and I mean ache, when we think what might have been. Had Bobby lived.

To describe Bobby Kennedy as the Barack Obama of his generation is, sorta, kinda, maybe or perhaps -- EXACTLY -- like what is going on today.How couldn't he win? And that's why I'm getting a creepy feeling all over because I am about to add, "Unless." Unless something happened. We are a nation of assassins, are we not? We kill our neighbors and our presidents. Why? Because we don't like one and the other is dating Jody Foster. Nothing has made sense in America since the hurt of Robert F. Kennedy's life. Ended the way it was.

It took me years to understand it, and I'm not even sure I do. All I know is that everything would be different if Bobby had lived. No Nixon, no Cambodia, start with that. No Kent State. No Watergate. That's what I mean, it's impossible to imagine. And Bobby Kennedy was everything Barack Obama is except colored. Harvard educated. Erudite. Yet with a common touch. Eliteists. Only in America is eliteism considered a flaw in a candidate for president. I kinda like my president being smarter than me. I don't want him to think I think he's smarter than me, but it would be comforting to know he probably was.

This brings us to George Bush. Which of course sends me running screaming from the room. And here comes the best shot for the Democrats to change the world since Bobby Kennedy and the candidate's last name rhymes with Yo'mama. And this is real life in the world of America in the year 2008. For a lot of us, and I know there are a lot of us, this is a huge page to turn. The weight is so very heavy. The hurt so real it's hard to believe it's a memory from long ago. Or last week.

Race in America doesn't go away. It just goes on television. So, yes, let me just put it out there. I fear for Barack Obama the same way I feared for Bobby Kennedy. And I pray I am wrong because hope is a terrible thing to waste.