Photo Credits: (c) Harold Michael Harvey
CASCADE PRESS, ATLANTA, GEORGIA The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan and Attorney Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. are unlikely allies, but a confluence of history finds them on the same side of a raging war against the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta.
Farrakhan, representative of the Nation of Islam emerged as a leader in his Muslim sect following the assassination of Kennedy’s uncle, President John F. Kennedy nearly 52 years ago. He became a vocal opponent against Malcolm X after Malcolm made disparaging comments about the death of President Kennedy.
Five years later Attorney Kennedy’s father, Bobby Kennedy, was killed by an assassin. The entire nation grieved the deaths of both men.
Kennedy recently published a book detailing the emotional trauma his entire family has suffered because of the stoic manner his uncle Teddy Kennedy dealt with the family’s grief.
On Saturday, Kennedy was sitting on a grassy knoll in Grant Park on the east side of Atlanta, Georgia. He was guarded by the Fruit of Islam (the security force of the Nation of Islam) as he awaited his time to speak to a rally demanding truth, transparency and freedom from the CDC. He pulled out his phone, checked his messages and took a couple of pictures of the crowd. He was seated comfortably, looking handsome like his famous dad back in the day when personal freedom was within the grasp of the common citizen. It seems more illusive now in the closing months of the first African American president’s term than it did in the days of Camelot.
Kennedy decided to leave the perch atop the protruding grass mound. He strolled up the hill to a Filipino Taco stand, placed his order and was suddenly surrounded by two Atlanta Police Officers. The FOI quickly asserted their responsibility for the safety of Kennedy, discreetly moving between the officers and Kennedy.
As he walked back to the grassy knoll, we shook hands, looked each other in the eye and chatted.
“What do you hope to achieve,” I asked?
“I hope to get the Attorney General to investigate the CDC. I want the government to prosecute the people who destroyed evidence that proves there is an increased risk of Autism in children who are given the MMR vaccine,” he averred.
“Have you seen the entire report,” I quickly got to the point.
“Yes,” he retorted.
“Do these reports show that the vaccines are harmful to children,” I queried.
“Yes. These are very dangerous vaccines.”
In a previous speech, Kennedy described the effects of these vaccines in this manner: “They get the shot, that night they have a fever of a hundred and three, they go to sleep, and three months later their brain is gone. This is a holocaust, what this is doing to our country.”
“Why did you reach out to the Nation of Islam,” I asked?
“We reached out to a number of people and they were willing to talk with us,” he replied.
“Locally,” Kennedy advised, “I reached out to Durley [Rev. Gerald Durley].”
Kennedy sauntered back to the grassy knoll, sat legs open, while surrounded by the FOI, he unwrapped his lunch and enjoyed his Filipino Tacos.
Harold Michael Harvey is an American novelist and essayist, the author of Paper puzzle and Justice in the Round. He can be contacted at haroldmichaelharvey.com.