Edward M Kennedy, February 22, 1932 — August 25, 2009.
He was a lion, he was a prince, he worked for all of us all his life. He worked for the old and the poor for working men and women, for children and single mothers. He worked for justice and tolerance and freedom and fairness and peace. He worked for equal rights for all races, and freedom for all religions. He was a good man.
We needed him to get health care for everyone in the United States of America. It won’t be easy to carry on without him.
Goodbye, Ted
He will be sorely missed. Is it possible to love someone you never met? I loved Ten Kennedy.
Huge loss. His brother Robert said it was the end of an era when he spoke at John’s funeral. The truth is that this death signals the end of an era.
Just a couple days ago Orrin Hatch was saying how difficult it was to get things hammered out without Ted there. He was above all the man who knew how to get things done, the man who knew how to work with people. I don’t view him or his legacy with unmixed feelings, but God knows he was a bulwark in some very dark days. Requiescat in pacem.
There has been a large void in the political process and in the Senate ever since his diagnoses. His dedication and compassion will indeed be missed, especially by those of our generation.
He was a good senator and will be very much missed. I am glad to read that there is a motion to name the “Ted Kennedy Memorial Health Reform”.
Amen.
I had the pleasure of seeing Ted Kennedy on numerous occasions when I interned in the Senate. He would stop by Hatch’s office frequently. When Hatch introduced me to him; he was funny and made a joke about my big belly, full of my second child at the time. After that, he always had a smile for me and asked me how I was doing whenever we ran into each other. He was kind and personable, from all I was able to personally witness.
As far as his work is concerned, his impact was far greater than his brothers, who had great ideas but were unable to carry them out because of tragedy. In my opinion, he is the greatest Kennedy. There will never be another like him. All Senators could learn from his example of humor and bipartisanship. It is not necessary for one to give up their core beliefs as there is almost always some common ground, and doing something is always better than digging your heels in and doing nothing at all.
Without him the Northern Ireland peace process would not have been resolved.
Safe journey Ted.
Yes, fairwell you who have killed and never had to count the cost. What a shining example of what power & money abused can do.
Thanks for this tribute to Ted Kennedy. I came across your blog from Darlene’s Hodgepodge.
Brighid, that is an awful mean spirited post. Mary Jo Kopechne’s family forgave Ted, why can’t you?
As Senator Kennedy believed, and the Christian faith believes, I believe in redemption. He could very well have done nothing more with his life and holed himself up with his “power and money” for the rest of his life but he decided to work for the disenfranchised. He was the hardest working Senator. He certainly wasn’t perfect, he was human like all of us. Yet, he was larger than life. Even with debilitating chronic back pain he always had a smile and handshake for any one crossing his path.
He will be greatly missed.