America has gone through dark times before. Fifty years ago this evening, Robert F. Kennedy stood in front of a largely black crowd in Indianapolis to break the news to them that Martin Luther King had been shot and killed.

Over the next five minutes, RFK made what is perhaps the most eloquent extemporaneous political speech ever delivered. It is certainly the most powerful such address delivered under enormous pressure and with such high stakes attached. Kennedy was calm, somber, and straightforward. He spoke simply. He quoted the poetry of Aeschylus from memory in a way that was absolutely appropriate and over no one's head. He shared his own family tragedy without losing his focus on the fresh horror of King's murder. He was brief, and he connected. There were no riots in Indianapolis that night.

I still believe--even in the middle of this grotesque, hate-filled Pandora's box of brutishness that we unlocked last November--that RFK was right: that most of us embrace the path of love and peaceful coexistence. And Bobby Kennedy, who spent a decade as his brother's designated mean bastard, certainly knew the dark side and where that road leads. But what politician on the scene today could rise to such an occasion with such a perfect response? The landscape seems so devoid of wisdom and compassion these days.

Sixty-eight days after his Indianapolis speech, Robert Kennedy was himself gunned down after what seemed like an historical victory in the California presidential primary.