The end of Ted Kennedy’s era marks the end of the Kennedy’s epoch.
With very few people of his stature in these times and few who can get anywhere near reaching his potential, one must wonder: with Ted Kennedy gone, who is going to speak for the common people, the underdogs, those without health-care, and the working poor?
A man who held the United States Senate seat from Massachusetts since 1962 had to have many, many things to offer, and indeed Ted Kennedy did. Throughout history, Kennedy prided himself on tirelessly working on deals for minimum wage increases, health care reform, education, immigration reform, and help for those unable to help themselves. Today, finding ourselves in the midst of a heated, round-about, health-care reform debate, those involved already begin to really feel Kennedy’s absence. Democrats and Republicans as well were feeling the loss, as Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina had this to say: “Of all the times to lose Ted Kennedy, this is the toughest time, because we’re just in too many camps; it’s hard to reach across the aisle, and Sen. Kennedy made it easy to reach across the aisle.” With the nationalization of health-care hanging in the balance, meaning free health-care for millions of Americans who need it, this reporter is feeling his absence now, too.
If the Senate were to have a senatorial hall of fame, and Ted Kennedy was not inducted for his incredible contribution to the masses, I would be appalled. Working tirelessly through 160 amendments, that were nevertheless the opposition’s amendments, to format and outfit a bill meant basically, as Senator Whitehouse stated: “Its emphasis on quality improvement, disease prevention, and a public insurance option will mean high-quality, efficient health care that invests not only in treating you when you’re sick, but in keeping you well. And never again will an insurance company be able to deny you coverage because of a pre-existing condition.” By putting us on level ground with the insurance companies, never again will we have to worry about limits, annual or lifetime, on our coverage or our insurance being terminated to avoid paying claims. This resolution was unheard of until Kennedy proved everyone wrong. It is good to know that someone up top was fighting for my future, fighting for our future.
The youngest of nine siblings born to Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. and Rose Fitzgerald, Ted was raised with strong values, and very big shoes to fill. Older brother John F. Kennedy (U.S. President from 1961-1963), requested to be his godfather at Ted’s birth. His request was respected, but his tongue-in-cheek suggestion to name the newborn George Washington Kennedy was not.
Constantly moving, Kennedy had attended ten different schools by the age of eleven. Being the youngest child, to which I am sure some of us can relate, Joseph Sr. and Rose were both very kind to him, while also holding him to unreasonably high expectations set by his elder brothers. Then on November 22, 1963, as he was presiding over the senate, an aide interrupted to inform him that his brother, John, had been shot. Not long afterward, his brother Robert would share with him the news of his brother’s death. With no end to his problems, on June 19, 1964 en route to Massachusetts via plane, Ted fell victim to a crash on the final approach into an apple orchard due to bad weather. This triggered his successful senatorial career, and his initial interest in the health care reform debate, after his stay of several months in the hospital. From one disaster to another Kennedy was soon to be the last of the living, important political figures in his family. On June 4, 1968, after winning the California Primary that would secure his victory, his brother Robert was shot not long after midnight. Having been closest with Robert out of all of his siblings, Ted took this with much grief. A quote from the eulogy he delivered at Robert’s funeral was: “My brother need not be idealized, or enlarged in death beyond what he was in life; to be remembered simply as a good and decent man, who saw wrong and tried to right it, saw suffering and tried to heal it, saw war and tried to stop it. Those of us who loved him and who take him to his rest today, pray that what he was to us and what he wished for others will some day come to pass for all the world. As he said many times, in many parts of this nation, to those he touched and who sought to touch him: ‘Some men see things as they are and say why. I dream things that never were and say why not.’”
Tireless in his fight for the general masses, Kennedy spoke out publicly against the government of the day, shown by a speech in 1973. “Do we operate under a system of equal justice under law? Or is there one system for the average citizen and another for the high and mighty?” However, only a year after Robert’s passing, Ted Kennedy’s life would be filled with scandal, while on Chappaquiddick Island for a party hosted by the Boiler Room Girls (a group of younger women that had worked on Robert’s presidential campaign). Kennedy left the party with Mary Jo Kopechne, and was said to have accidentally driven off of the Dike Bridge into the Poucha Pond. Kennedy managed to escape the accident seemingly unscathed, while Kopechne died, and did not report the accident to any authorities, therefore illegally leaving the scene of an accident. Sentenced to two months in jail, Kennedy ultimately denied driving under the influence or engaging in any inappropriate behavior with Ms. Kopechne. After a review with the Massachusetts electorate on whether it would be unfavorable for him to remain in office after the incident, and receiving a positive decision, he decided to stay, regardless.
Through it all, Kennedy did as we all do: he sinned and he redeemed. He even went the extra mile for the rest of our benefit by working hard to pass his bill on health care reform, amongst others. Ted Kennedy is an example for future generations of what a truly smart, benevolent, persevering, and stalwart politician should look like. He will be sorely missed, whether because of his signature affable personality in the senate, or his presence in all of our lives. This is a man that I will personally always remember, not as JFK’s godson, not as the man who drove off of a bridge, and not as the man that gave me better options for health-care. I will remember him as the man who left us a legacy. Whether it is written or not, it is all of our duties to remember, so that we will never forget all that he did.
