When you go to a private residence for a political rally, you’re never really sure what to expect. How big will the place be? How long will it last? Can I get decent photos in this lighting?

I, however, was interested to see Ethel and Max Kennedy at the Shankman residence in Radford this evening for a variety of reasons.

One is that my cousin, Larry Lee, once won the Robert F. Kennedy Award for Journalism when he was a graduate student at the University of Missouri. I still recall well the photo of Larry receiving the award from Ethel Kennedy. That was in 1988.

And of course the Kennedys are an iconic American family. As long-time Democrats who have been on the front lines of American politics for decades, I was curious what they would say to this group of Democratic supporters a mere two weeks before the election. I knew they were in Southwest Virginia to stump for Barack Obama, but what exactly were their thoughts?

Max Kennedy was the first to speak. Max is the ninth of 11 children born to Ethel and the late Robert F. “Bobby” Kennedy, who was assassinated in his 1968 run for the presidency. An attorney by trade and an occasional author, Max doesn’t have that same Massachusetts accent that many of the Kennedys are known for, perhaps due to the fact that he went to law school at the University of Virginia. But he does have that same passionate speaking style characterized by his father and uncles John and Ted.

Max offered his ties to the state, saying he grew up in Virginia and his mother had family in Virginia. He then noted that tuition at UVA had doubled since the beginning of the Bush presidency.

“We have been polite about politics in this state my whole life … but there’s no more time for that,” Max said, adding that if someone is supporting John McCain then they are supporting the America that George Bush has tried to create.

He encouraged those in the room to get out and support Obama in these final two weeks. “If you think that the last four weeks have been tough,” Max said, “get set because the next two weeks are going to be the toughest that you have ever seen in American politics.”

Max said that this election will be studied for a hundred years and that these kinds of changes come around very rarely. “Your children and your grandchildren are going to ask you where you were and they’re going to ask you what happened,” he said. “You will never stand taller than when you look them in the eye and you say, ‘I was there. I helped change this country. And I got Barack Obama elected as the next President of the United States.’”

Ethel Kennedy then spoke briefly saying that only once or twice every hundred years are we fortunate enough to elect such an extraordinary human being as Barack Obama. “He’s so brave,” she said. “He’s so smart. And he’s so committed. He’s so intelligent. And he’s fun. So I hope you go out and do your very best for him. We need him so badly.”

Tim W. Jackson is Editor of the New River Voice.