Quotes From "Bobby"

Watched the movie "Bobby" some time ago. Have been attracted to some of the scripts. Let's learn from it ;)

First : Conversation between an old married couple

Samantha (Wife) : I bought this dress to go with the black shoes I forgot to pack. I did pack 6 other pairs, none of them black and I have 2 pairs of tennis shoes, just in case you are up to a little game later. See, women have to pack for every occasion making it virtually impossible to travel light. Like tonight is a formal event, so I brought formal wears. But, God has a sense of humour. I bring back up. However, I am doubly screwed. Two dresses, both black and no black shoes. I know, you are probably thinking, “Who the hell cares what colour of shoes she is wearing.” Believe me, Jack, women notice.

Jack (Husband) : So, basically you are saying you need to go shopping, for shoes. Black shoes.

Second : Jack told Samantha

You are more than the shoes on your feet, or the designer’s dress on your back. You are more than the purse that you carry or the money inside. You and I are more than the stuffs, the things in our lives. Somewhere, in between our things, our stuffs, is us.

Third : John F. Kennedy's speech (partially quoted)
It’s not a day of politics. I’ve saved this one opportunity, an only event of today to speak briefly to you about the mindless manners of violence in America. But again stains our land and every one of our lives. It’s not the concern of any one race. Victims of the violence are black and white, rich and poor, young and old, famous and unknown. They are most important of all, human beings, whom other human beings, loved and needed.

No one, no matter where he lives or what he does, can be certain who next will suffer, from some senseless act of bloodshed, and yet, it goes on, and on, and on, in this country of ours. Why? What has violence ever accomplished? What has it ever created? Whenever any American’s life is taken by another American unnecessarily, whether it is done in the name of the law or in device of the law, by one man or by a gang, in cold blood or in passion, in an attack of violence or in response to violence, whenever we care of the fabrics of our lives, which another man has painfully and clumsily woven from self and his children, whenever we do this, the whole nation is degraded. Yet we seemingly tolerate a rising level of violence and ignore our common humanity and our claims to civilization alike.

Too often, we are on a swagger and bluster and the wilder of force. Too often, we excuse those who are willing to build their lives on shattered dreams of other human beings. But this much is clear. Violence breeds violence, repression breeds retaliation and only in cleansing of our whole society, can we move this sickness from our souls. But when you teach a man to hate and to fear his brother, when you teach he is a latter man because of his colour, or his beliefs or the policy that he pursues, when you teach those who differed from you, threaten your freedom or your job or your home or your family and you also learn to confront others not as fellow citizens, but as enemies, to be met not with cooperation, but with conquest to be subjugated and to be mastered. We learn at the last to look at our brothers as aliens, alien men with whom we share a city, but not a community.

Men bound to us in common dwelling, but not in a common effort. He learn to share only a common fear, only a common desire to retreat from each other, only a common impulse to meet disagreement with force. Our lives on this planet are too short, the work to be done is too great, to let this spirit to flourish, any longer, in this land of ours.

Of course, we cannot banish with a programme, nor with a resolution. But, we can perhaps remember, if only for a time, that those who live with us are our brothers, that they share with us the same short moment of life, that they seek as do we, nothing, but the chance to live up their lives, in purpose and in happiness, winning what satisfaction and fulfillment that they can.

Surely this bond of common faith, surely this bond of common goals, can begin to teach us something. Surely we can learn at the least to look around at those of us of our fellow country men, and surely we can begin to work a little harder to bind up the wounds among us and to become in our hearts brothers and countrymen once again.