The Examined Life Of Davidito

“Maybe an unexamined life is not worth living. But a man’s examined life can make him wish he was dead.”.

Quote from Ravelstein by Saul Bellow


Throughout the site he is often referred to as Pete, as this is the name he chose to use from the time he was 14 until he left the Family when he was 25. Those who remember him on this site never knew him as Ricky….

Quote from the Family site: In Memory of Ricky Rodriquez


Iron fists, Irony and Knives

I recently saw a documentary on TV about Libya. In it one of Godaffi's sons is acting as his full representative working fulltime with international authorities and in England to make reparations to all the victims and their families of the Libyan terrorist bombing of the 747 over Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988. The former revolutionary pariah, Godaffi, is even now disavowing terrorism, nuclear weapons and trying to fit in with the world community. It was fascinating how Godaffi’s son seemed to affect and influence the Colonel and was helping to bring him up to speed with the global community’s values and mores, as a sociologist might phrase it.

I wonder how much of an influence Godaffi's other famous soccer-playing-worldly-son has been, as well as all of his children, in factoring into his new conciliatory stance on the world stage.

That's amazing, when the children take up the torch to rectify the parent's and their follower’s mistakes. Especially if the parent in question is a dictator and fanatic.

The irony of Rick Rodriquez, as the child prophet named Davidito, visiting Godaffi with David Berg and other top members of the Family in the 70’s to show him God’s love, is heartbreaking. Godaffi even gave him a toy car or something if memory serves me correctly. I may have seen a photo in the Davidito book.

Too late for Ricky though, he sadly, has perpetuated the violence of the Family's ironclad top-down power structure in one final gesture of despair.

Forgiveness is where love<b/> and justice<b/> may finally meet.

Now, can we define justice for the Family cult leaders?