Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Ted Kennedy
Last evening, a man who worked tirelessly for a better America, died. Whether you liked or hated his politics, it is hard to envision one man who better defined the idea of having a compassionate heart. I admired this man's genuine Christian charity and his willingness to face problems head on. I will miss his unique voice, and feel we will not see his like again for a long time.
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Ted Kennedy had many friends and admirers on both sides of the 'political aisle'. It is a credit to him that even those who frequently opposed him could also like, respect, and speak well of him.
ReplyDeleteAs I listened to the news coverage of his passing this morning, there are things about Ted Kennedy that I had either not known, or had forgotten.
Clearly, the sum of his deeds is a mixed one, with the balance on the negative side including the Chappaquidick death of Mary Jo Koepechne, his failed marriage to Joan Kennedy, with the instances of infidelity and alcohol abuse. On the positive side of that balance is his distinguished senate career of 47 years, his second marriage to Vicky Kennedy later in life that proved a much more successful partnership personally and politically.
I heard a quotation from Ernest Hemingway's book, "Farewell to Arms" this morning that eloquently expressed the sentiment I was feeling. "The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong in the broken places."
Kennedy's early life suggested the weaknesses in character that are so often asociated with wealth and privilege, even as he sought a career in politics and public service as a means to power and influence.
If one looks only at his early years, the picture of his life is far less noble than the way he was regarded at the end. But if you look at the totality of that life, if you look at the efforts, especially the efforts of his later years, it became a life that demonstrates very different qualities.
Looking at Kennedy's later life he clearly matured, he grew up and moved onward from those darker periods. In the changes he made to his life, and to his character, he not only accomplished an impressive legacy of hard work on behalf of others who were not born to his position of privilege, he found his own voice and his own purpose.
No one can unring the bell of their mistakes. Kennedy however proved that same bell can continue to ring differently, that life does not stop at failures. Kennedy in his life proved that with effort and determination, a person can reshape their life and accomplish much, and that is as impressive a legacy as his diplomatic and legislative efforts.
DG - I appreciate your comments.
ReplyDeleteI personally, am somewhat at a loss for words to explain my feelings.
Kennedy was a man of personal flaws, but immense professional accomplishment. He also, despite his flaws had an unwavering commitment to helping the less fortunate - which in contrast to Kennedy, was much of the populace - he never waivered in commitment to decent and ethical treatment of people, fighting against attitudes of condescension about how 'stupid' people did things and so deserved to suffer.
I worked on his Presidential campaign in 1980 - I don't konw if he could have beaten Reagan, I suspect he could have, he certainly was a far more capable debater than Carter - but he clearly dedicated himself to bettering the world from the ground up - and I am deeply saddened to no longer have his voice representing often what was very best of what we could be and achieve.
So passes another great American. Ted Kennedy did what he genuinely thought was best for the United States.
ReplyDeleteGod will now judge him, and in His infinite mercy, I think that God will find that Ted Kennedy, for all his faults, was still full of Christian ideals and who was a man of faith and courage.
Today we all should mourn the passing of this man, as with his passing, we as Americans are all a bit poorer. I pray God's blessing upon his soul and upon his family as they gather to remember the life of this great man.
Thanks ToE, DG.
ReplyDeleteOne irony I see in the treatment of Kennedy is that the man essentially 'changed his stripes' in 1991. He was a womanizer and drinker, and he effectively ceased both courses of bad activity once he met Vicki - who would remain the love of his life until his last breath.
ReplyDeleteHe certainly did many things in his life personally which any of us would shake our heads at, and in some cases proclaim his conduct (if not he) to be repugnant.
The irony is that it was about this same time George W Bush turned his life around - Bush was a drinker, perhaps a drug user to hear some of his friends, recieved a DUI in the 70's and, frankly, ran three business bought for him by his family, into the ground in part due to his drinking.
Both camps, the right and the left, would suggest you forgive the men for the past, especially since each was very contrite - but, it seems to me, the right is fully unwilling to do so.
I would also suggest that Kennedy managed to accomplish more in his public life much earlier - SCHIP, Medicare, Medicaid all were in part or in whole due to his efforts - while Bush effectively didn't do anything prior to being gifted into the Texas Rangers job.
In advance of any comments about moving what someone writes:
ReplyDeleteI am trying to balance the conflicting demands of respecting what someone writes as the original post, and respecting the comments made about that post. KR has been asked to address this topic under an earlier heading.
I will move subsequent comments there because I believe it is the best solution to the above. That is the thoughtful, considerate, and respectful answer.
The glib, smart-alecky answer (I don't do those very often, humor me) is because I CAN.
The older I get, the more ambivalent I become regarding Senator Kennedy and his family. This is probably the case because I remain unimpressed with just about anyone who becomes famous due in large part (let's face it) to her or his last name/power-connections. George W. Bush is another example of this scenario.
ReplyDelete(The "regal" feel of certain American families has rarely impressed me as much as it does a lot of voters in this supposedly anti-monarchy country...where we nonetheless place crowns on the heads of teenagers and call them the homecoming "king" and "queen"; carve a "princess's" likeness into butter at state fairs; line the streets to catch a glimpse of the Queen of England when she comes to call; call our fast food joints by names such as "Burger King"; etc. Mrs. Hasslington, a Briton, and many of our British friends often comment on the monarchy-obsessed nature of the United States, which in many ways far exceeds that of actual monarchies....)
Certainly, too, Senator Kennedy's involvement in (and subsequent handling of) the Ms. Koepechne incident was atrocious, and would not have been tolerated (in a number of senses) were he not a Kennedy.
Yet, to be fair, I do very much appreciate the legislator he became in his later years, as well as the fact that he cleaned-up his act rather well. It's lucky for him, and in a broad sense for all of us, that the "no second acts" notion did not prove applicable in his case. (Again, though, his privilege allowed him to circumvent that rule of thumb, so....)
Also, as someone who has lost two grandparents in the space of the last two months, I most certainly do not feel ambivalent to the internal suffering Senator Kennedy's family must be going through right now. He is at peace, but a light has gone out of their world.
And, tainted though it was, an important and in many ways impressive light has gone out of our collective world, as well.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteFor anyone who is looking for a missing comment that they expected to find here, I have exercised my editorial license in moving those comments to the more appropriate topic of Ted Kennedy, Health Care and Replacements.
ReplyDeleteIt was a toss up whether the comments would be a better 'fit' under that heading, or an earlier one. I went with this choice.
If there is any question about correct order (and I make no guarantees that they are in proper order - but I'll do better next time, if I ever have occasion to do this again) I have tried to be conscientious about including the date and time of the original posting.
Thank you for your patience and understanding.
Hass, welcome back! You have been missed.
ReplyDeleteDog Gone,
ReplyDeleteI thought I would check this out. I like what I see.
Leslie, welcome!
ReplyDeleteOn behalf of Pen and myself, we would be delighted to have you share your comments. I'm pleased we meet with your approval.
We can be contacted at penigma2@yahoo.com, if you would like to contribute here at any time as a writer, whatever your choice of topic. I know that Charter Schools are close to your heart.
Both Pen and I are here in Minnesota, but our subjects range from local, and state to regional, national and international in scope.
Another contributing author, whose contributions here actually precede my own is ToE, short for Thoughts of Eternity, who is down in the Kansas City area. We are fortunate to have commenters who are geographically widely dispersed,and who represent a broad spectrum of political viewpoints as well.
Doggone,
ReplyDeleteThanks, and it's great to be back!
I was following this blog from the U.K., by the way. I just wasn't commenting.
Now that I'm back in Minnesota--and now that the funerals, etc., are over with--I'll be commenting more frequently once again.
Keep it up, folks. This is a very good blog-site.
By the way, some praise from two Republican Senators - pointing out that Kennedy did what we elect people to do, he found solutions which worked for both sides..
ReplyDeleteSen. John McCain (R-AZ) on This Week: “No person in that institution is indispensable, but Ted Kennedy comes as close to being indispensable as any individual I’ve ever known in the Senate, because he had a unique way of sitting down with the parties at a table and making the right concessions, which really are the essence of successful negotiations. So it’s huge that he’s absent, not only because of my personal affection for him, but because I think that health care reform might be in a very different place today.”
Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) on Meet the Press: “Well, Sen. Kennedy would, first thing he would have done, would have been call me and say, ‘Let’s work this out.’ And we would have worked it out so that the best of both worlds would work.”
He will be sorely missed.