December 2018 Bar Bulletin
“May you live in interesting times.” So goes the curse, often mistaken for a blessing.
Credited with first popularizing the phrase, Robert F. Kennedy cited it in a 1966 Cape Town, South Africa, speech before a group of students. In his remarks, known as the “Ripple of Hope” speech, he spoke of the need for justice in the United States during the American struggle for civil rights. He observed:
“There is a Chinese curse which says, ‘May he live in interesting times.’ Like it or not, we live in interesting times. They are times of danger and uncertainty; but they are...