Sirhan’s Parole

I am not happy with the idea that Sirhan Sirhan might get parole. The man who shot Robert Kennedy, in the summer of ’68, has been approved by the parole board, but the final decision will rest with the governor, who’s get quite a few other things on his mind right now, what with maybe getting sacked and all.
There’s no reason for it. It’s not as if the killing was an accident, or self-defense. He gunned him down, in a hotel lobby. There were hundreds of witnesses. He was originally sentenced to death but then California dropped the death penalty (which is a decision I applaud), and now he might get parole.
Why? He is 77 years old, and whether he dies at home or dies in prison is of no consequence to society or, in fact, to him. Either way, he is going to die, and his legacy is pretty much written in stone. No one is going to remember him as a loving husband and father. He’s too old to work. Freedom, at this point, is not going to resurrect his life.

I’m not a big fan of RFK, or the whole Kennedy dynasty. I feel that John was a mediocre president at best, the Democrats should have dropped Ted like a hot potato after that whole dead girl at the bottom of the river thing, and RFK, while an inspiring speaker, did not really come out as anti-war, or get into the presidential race, until Gene McCarthy had paved the way.
Still, you have to wonder about the alternate time-line in which Robert Kennedy was not assassinated. He had just won the California primary and it looked like he had a clear shot at the nomination. Would the riots at the convention have happened? If Kennedy had got the nomination, there’s a good chance he would have beaten Nixon. Nobody would have ever heard about Watergate, but would we have gotten out of Viet Nam any earlier? About the same, I’d guess. Some things might have gone better, some things might have gone worse.
But, that wasn’t Sirhan Sirhan’s choice to make. Let him stay in prison until he dies.