Teddy

Sen. Ted Kennedy rallying support for the Democrats' Patients Bill of Rights. (Photo: Ray Lustig / The Washington Post)

Teddy
By William Rivers Pitt
t r u t h o u t | Columnist

Wednesday 26 August 2009

For me, a few hours ago, this campaign came to an end. For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die.

- Sen. Edward M. Kennedy

The nation awoke on Wednesday morning to the news that Sen. Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts had passed away in the night, in his bed, with his family by his side. The television news networks overflowed with metaphors for the moment - the Liberal Lion, the Last Brother, the End of an Era, the Last Chapter - but it was a man who was dead. Just a man, one we had come to know intimately during his half-century of service, triumph, heartbreak, disgrace and diligence.

Just a man whose brother Joe volunteered to fly an experimental weapons platform in 1944 and was killed when the plane abruptly exploded; just a man whose brother John was cut down by an assassin's bullet in Dallas; just a man whose brother Robert died on a dirty kitchen floor in California, victim of another assassin. Just a man who narrowly escaped death when his own plane crashed, breaking his back and maiming him forever. Just a man whose family was visited with more tragedy than any one man should have to bear.

And, yes, just a man who made tremendous mistakes, who drank too much, who partied too hard, whose irresponsibility took the life of a young woman named Mary Jo Kopechne and spawned a generation of insults, judgments and bumper stickers that read, "My gun has killed less people than Ted Kennedy's car." The Chappaquiddick incident, as it came to be known, nearly annihilated Kennedy's political career, and was surely the central reason why his attempts to win the presidency all ended in failure.

Would we as a nation have been better off if Kennedy's political career had been derailed by his own shortcomings and tremendous mistakes? There are some who will surely say this is so, and they have every right to that opinion. Without Ted Kennedy in the Senate, however, the nation may well have never seen the passage of bills like the Immigration and Nationality Act, the National Cancer Act, the COBRA Act, the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Ryan White AIDS Care Act, the Civil Rights Act (1991), the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, the Mental Health Parity Act, the State Children's Health Insurance Program, and the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act, all of which and more he championed during his long service in the Senate. Kennedy sponsored more than 2,000 pieces of legislation in his time, and it can honestly and truly be said that his efforts have served more people than any five presidents who came and went under his watchful Irish eyes.

"The fact that his tangible accomplishments transcended his mythic role in the Kennedy drama," wrote The Boston Globe on Wednesday, "attests to the vast extent of his legislative impact. In each of four areas, he dominated legislative politics for more than four decades, spanning ten presidencies, and played a large role in transforming the government's relationship to the people. Bill by bill, provision by provision, he expanded government health support to millions of children and the elderly, helped millions more go to college, opened the immigration doors to millions of new Americans from continents other than Europe, and protected the civil rights bulwark of the '60s through a long period of conservative domination. And by the time his life ended yesterday, surrounded by loved ones in a gentle scene that contrasted sharply with the violent deaths of his brothers, Ted Kennedy had built a nuts-and-bolts legacy to stand beside that of his presidential brother as a figure of hope and his senatorial brother as a figure of compassion."

Teddy was just a man, but ended his life as something far more than that. Teddy, now gone from us, has become an idea, a bulwark, a standard and a clarion call to service and national duty. He will no longer be in the Senate working for us, and it is impossible to believe someone will step forward to stand in his place. He was just a man, and he has finally paid that death we all owe in the end, so the rest is up to us all. The dream he spoke of can indeed end, and surely will, if we let it. He guarded it, tended it and enriched it for so long, but that is over. It is up to us now, just as he would want it to be.

Link: http://www.truthout.org/082609R

Thanks.

he spoke the truth with guts.

:thumbsup:

Though I know that for awhile, he wanted to be President, I am glad he served in the Senate as long as he did. He gave so much, and he was a voice for so many.

That was a great tribute. He left some big shoes to fill.

This is definitely one of the best. If I were able, I would recommend it a thousand times.

Thanks for this, Mr. Pitt. It was a pleasure to read, especially at this time.

Recommended.

Thanks

Looking at that list of accomplishments, one is struck by how much compassion for his fellow man drove the agenda. We should all do well to be so singleminded in our politics.

This was a fine tribute, Mr. Pitt. Thank you.

and his short comings. I believe worked every moment of his life to redeem himself.

Wonderful, heartfelt piece.

Not that I expected anything less from you Will.

I wonder...did you ever get to meet Ted?

Senator Kennedy..."was just a man"...but what a man. " It is up to us now, just as would want it to be." So get busy everyone the phone numbers and e-mails of the Speaker of the House and the Senate Leader in MA are already posted here on DU...

On Edit:

Here is her contact info:

Senate President Therese Murray

Her web page: http://www.mass.gov/legis/member/t_m0.htm

Her email Therese.Murray@state.ma.us

Her telephone and fax numbers:

Tel: (617) 722-1500 Tel: (508) 746-9332
FAX: (617) 248-3840 Tel: (508) 746-4910


While you're at it, contact the Speaker of the House of the General Court, Robert A. DeLeo, too.


State House District Office
Room 356 220 Beach Street
State House Revere, MA 02151
Boston, MA 02133
Telephone: 617-722-2500 781-289-8965
Facsimile: 617-722-2008 781-289-0582
E-Mail: Robert.DeLeo@state.ma.us

I was waiting for what you would write. Thank you Will it was wonderful!
Robyn

k/r

Yesterday as I spoke with my father about how it is as if Ted is now joining to make a trio, he reminded me that there was Joe. Joseph wanted Joe to be president. He was the promising one, or so my father said. It's hard to talk about this, and be positive. And I will say that throughout the tragedy, and curse, that the Kennedy family has endured, they have had more impact on America than any other. I feel that I can say that with a sense of certainty. But what could have been? There is more at play than meets the eye.

at his concert when he played "Son of A Son of a Sailor" and featured video clips of the Senator sailing his yacht Mya.
During the song, he announced: "This one's for Teddy"
At the end was the inscription:
"Sail On, Ted Kennedy 1932-2009"

:patriot::patriot::patriot:

Obama
Bush
Clinton
Bush
Reagan
Carter
Ford
Nixon
Johnson
Kennedy

Thanks.

:)

"For all those whose cares have been our concern"

You have really captured the essence of this public servant, a servant in the truest sense of the word.

PS
Last paragraph of the DU piece, "He was just a man, and he has finally paid that death we all owe in the end," -- I think you meant to put "debt" rather than "death", though death works as well in this case.

We all owe a death, and we'll all pay it in the end.

Today as I watched Teddy make his final ride to Boston, I thought about you and your mother and wondered if you were at the Library. You know we'll be expecting many pics. :)

RIP Ted Kennedy. Watching RW idiots dancing on his grave has been disgusting to me. The man did more for this country than a dozen conservatives. He deserves far more recognition and respect than Ronnie Rayguns got. He certainly did more for America than that stuffed shirt ever did. But of course, he wanted to do something good for the country, unlike his conservative detractors. His lifetime and career have answered his brother's call to "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country." RWers babble platitudes that they think approach the eloquence of that simple question. Teddy Kennedy made answering that question his life's work.

And now it's up to us.