Jackie Kennedy planted that seed, sadly, after the fact, when talking with writer Theodore H. White -- in a quest to characterize her late husband's White House years - casting them in some larger, grander, more transcendent image that would influence our thinking of the all-too-brief Kennedy Administration. Soon enough, the ink dried and the concrete hardened on that tribute and we'd all come to think of that era as Camelot. It was a magnificent state of affairs that existed in this country for that "one brief shining moment." Thankfully we still have a link to it.
Unfortunately, we're now reminded that this link is a fragile one. The news of Senator Ted Kennedy's illness is troubling and unsettling. He's everybody's "Uncle Ted" by now, whether you agree with him or not. And you don't have to be a member of the extended Kennedy clan to think that of him.
We're lucky, as Democrats, that we've had him as a leading light of our party for so long. We're lucky as Americans. He's our link to a past when everything seemed renewed, refreshed, and all things seemed possible. Granted, those memories are now tinted by time's passage, and some of us who are old enough to recall that era personally may also be old enough to be frayed a little around the edges. Yes, we're remembering just the good things. Yes, we choose to accentuate the positive. I'd note with gratitude that some of the stuff conservatives like to honk about, regarding the bumps on the road Kennedy has traveled, has courteously been downplayed.
Frankly, I hope they still have Ted Kennedy to kick around for a long time. It troubled me to hear of the seizure, the brain tumor, the continued hospitalization. We just got over something similar with Tim Johnson of South Dakota. We need our "Last Liberal Lion." We need what he says, what he does, what he stands for, what he represents. We're not through with you yet, either, Mr. Senator. Not by a long shot.
Ted Kennedy has kept the torch burning for decades now, and sometimes it has seemed as though he was the only one standing by it and refusing to abandon it. That's why we need him. Because the liberal ideals that he works so hard to strengthen and enlarge are more urgently needed now than ever before. Amidst all the media attention on his career, his health, and his many friends and well-wishers, we're seeing a flashback of what a Ted Kennedy means to America. We view him in file footage from mere days ago, in a Senate hearing room, advocating for improvement and expansion of health care coverage to those who have none. We've seen him constantly pushing on behalf of those whose lives have been lived far outside the luxury and privilege into which he was born. We've watched him give his legendary familial blessing to Barack Obama, in effect, designating the Illinois presidential hopeful as a direct heir.
These are good and valuable reminders, especially coming at this moment in presidential election year politics. Remember this guy? Remember what and who we were and what we hoped to become, back then during his family's heyday? It was a time when we as Americans were encouraged to step up, when the intellect was king and dumbing-down was unthinkable. We were instilled with a mission of collective achievement, shared work and shared sacrifice -- in which everyone played a part, made a contribution, and enjoyed an investment. And we ALL stood to benefit -- not just a select few with obscenely-blessed stock portfolios, oil or military contracting connections or CEO benefit packages. Ted Kennedy reminds me of that -- the greatness of working for the good of all, not just of cronies. It was a time of "WE" more than a time of "ME." It was about what WE could do for OUR country, not what it might do for us.
We've drifted woefully far from that time and that philosophy. Perhaps the focus on Ted Kennedy at the moment might remind us of that era, and how it symbolized what our better selves were capable of. We looked outward without menacing anyone. We didn't have hate and divisiveness showering down upon us from every radio station and an entire cable network around the clock, week after week. We had political partisans who thought nothing of running out together for drinks or dinner after a day's worth of contentious argument, rather than huddling in separate camps plotting to swiftboat each other to scorched-earth destruction. We had one big looming enemy -- with whom we risked discussions even in the face of the gravest mutual nuclear weapon-infused threats.
But with the coverage of Kennedy's illness, the most remarkable thing is happening. I'm seeing the people of the pundit world, and among the opposition, not wallowing in mud, or mud-slinging for a change. Everyone seems to be behaving in a more civil fashion. The name "Kennedy" -- the "brand," if you will (since that's the language of the present), means something better, more elevated, bigger than all of us. Better FOR all of us. And it's a MOST welcome reminder now. It's about OUR better selves, our inner Camelot.
Perhaps with Kennedy's health crisis as the backdrop, we can adjust our perspective and refine our focus. We have something greater to remember, and to try to resurrect. Ted Kennedy helped unite our country once before, after we'd lost his brother Bobby, some five years after their brother John was taken from us. He was The Last Kennedy Brother, and he was still here. And at least we had him. We still do have him, hopefully for some time to come. He embodies what it means to be a Democrat, and a proud and unapologetic liberal -- at a time when we need reminding about the virtue and value of the liberal viewpoint. He's uniting people again through the news cycles -- some of them the most adversarial imaginable. Even they wish him well. That speaks well for them -- and for all of us.
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I hope it was not something in a Chinese pill, that gave him this tumor. Fare thee well, Ted.
Thank you for your reflections. Here are the beginning of mine.
Today, as the severity of Senator Kennedy"s condition became more apparent, I found myself, once again, back in seventh grade. I am in a large hall, waiting in line. I am not sure what the line is for, and for some reason the line can"t seem to form properly. We seem to be waiting to go into an auditorium. Words are migrating from student to student. It is November 22nd, 1963. The President has been shot. Next to me stands a sweet looking young girl. Shoulder length dirty blond hair. Delicate features. And she says, "I hope that he dies." This was the President who had taken us through the Cuban Missile Crisis, who spoke of civil rights, and who had two young children. And she wanted him dead. Her hatred was palpable and irrational. In retrospect, given the times, I have always wondered whether her enmity was due to the fact that he was a Catholic, and one who supported civil rights.
The rest is too long for a comment. Please see, "The President, the Senator, and the Candidate" http://msa4.wordpress.com/
We want our heroes to come in perfect packages, and more often than not they can't live up to that standard. Certainly Ted Kennedy struggled with a drinking problem. Certainly at best he exhibited horrible judgement on that night when he tanked a car and a young woman died. But, and I think it is a big but, he is a man who served his country with courage and integrity long past the point when he had anything to gain. By the mid-eighties, it was clear that his personal history would always stand between him and the presidency. Instead of packing up and heading off to enjoy his personal wealth and the following that attaches to the Kennedy name, he settled in to hold the line for those with a liberal vision for what our country could be. He fought the Reagan conservatives and the Clinton middle of the roaders and kept hanging in there during the Bush years. I believe that we are ready to turn a corner and that the seed of liberalism that Kennedy carried so heroicly for so many years is about to flourish once again. My prayers go out to Teddy and his family today because I know that it is only the seed bearers who make it possible to recover and replant the fields after an endless winter. I pray that Teddy will live to see this harvest.
Yes, Ted has most certainly kept the torch burning. Thank god!!
I am SO proud that he has passed it on to Barack Obama.
And I also hope Ted has many more years. We NEED our elderly to help guide us through the enormous challenges we are facing.
Yeah, Kennedy is from my era, too. Now, to me, nothing seems possible, everything seems false and second-rate. Of course, some creepy people will bring up the Kopechne thing...I guess they don't believe a lifetime of service balances anything. Hope they can figure out a way to atone for the things they did.
This "leading light" got rolled by Bush with the No Child Left Behind legislation. It was the equivalent of a federal Proposition 13, permanently screwing our public schools.
I'm sure Mary Jo Kopechne would agree.
As would those environmentalists who had Teddy bear vote against windmill power, despite his constantly currying favor with the Greens, when it appeared that the mills would obstruct the seamless view from the Kennedy compound of the blue horizon.
In other words, yes, I think it's fair to compare Obama to him. Birds of a feather and all that.
As for JFK: have the Dems forgotten the Bay of Pigs?
And the unbearably true fact that it was JFK who committed America to Viet Nam?
And that for all his shining rhetoric, it was LBJ--a REAL Democrat--responsible for ALL the Civil Rights legislation, beginning in 1964, which deluded pretty boy groupies would like to credit JFK?
That "Ich bin ein Berliner," a) for anyone who has ever studied German, translates into "I am a donut" (the inclusion of "ein" does that) and b) did nothing but worsen relations with the Soviets whereas "Tear down this wall" at least accomplished something?
How unfortunate Obama clones don't study history...or read...or even think.
I'm sure Mary Jo Kopechne would agree.
Goofy republican enters mind of a dead woman!
Americans, lacking a truly long arc of history unlike Europeans, Asians and Africans, tend to romanticize any event that seems old and musty.
Ted kennedy is the current head of an all too human and often diabolical family whose renown has survived Chappaquiddick, Marilyn Monroe, ties to the mob, and defenceless babysitters.
Does your spelling of "defenceless" mean you are British?
You benefit from having separate heads of state and government. Our own conflation of the two means that we get embarrassing, idolatrous dynasty worshippers who seem always to be craving a royal family.
The liberals here gushing over the Kennedy family should recognize that this is the same kind of impulse that gave us the Bush family, albeit in a different political stripe.
America was founded on the rejection of birthright. Please stop the political family worship, whatever family it might be.
And the unbearably true fact that it was JFK who committed America to Viet Nam?
The unbearably true fact is that the United Stets had been committed to Vietnam as far back as Harry Truman and Eisenhower.
And that for all his shining rhetoric, it was LBJ--a REAL Democrat--responsible for ALL the Civil Rights legislation, beginning in 1964, which deluded pretty boy groupies would like to credit JFK?
Have you ever read a book on this. The Kennedy's were as much responsible for protecting the Civil Rights movement as LBJ was in getting the Civil Rights Act passed. The passage allowed Nixon to achieve his Southern Strategy - the one currently bringing down the Republican Party.
Kennedy's "I am a donut speech" is irrelevant to Americans who interpreted it quite differently than perhaps the Germans - but Germans don't vote in American elections.
You state that Kennedy did nothing but worsen relations with the Soviet Union - what total nonsense. The Russians were putting missiles in Cuba. How could this have happened except that we were fighting a Cold War one which had become increasingly hot. You're small brain doesn't remember the Korean War or the U-2 incident.
From your profile you state you're a Hillary supporter. Why are you so freaking bitter? If you think all Obama supporters are mindless clones then you perhaps it's you who ought to crack a book or two before you start spewing your nonsense here.
Why don't I "crack a book or two"? How about you first getting a high school equivalency diploma?
When was the Bay of Pigs invasion? April 1961.
When was the Cuban Missile Crisis? One year later, idiot.
Even you, Nimrod, admit it was LBJ who passed the legislation and STILL you claim JFK was "as much responsible..." BULLSHIT!
As for spewing nonsense--since you like so much to first quote me then eagerly twist yourself in a knot trying to sound clever, why didn't you bring up Mary Jo Kopechne?
Perhaps you should "crack open a book or two" and find out who this poor murder victim was.
I guess you can be as stupid as you are and still breathe on your own. I didn't have to twist myself in a knot to be cleverer than you think you are.
In a nationally televised address on June 6, 1963, President John F. Kennedy urged the nation to take action toward guaranteeing equal treatment of every American regardless of race. Soon after, Kennedy proposed that Congress consider civil rights legislation that would address voting rights, public accommodations, school desegregation, nondiscrimination in federally assisted programs, and more.
Despite Kennedys assassination in November of 1963, his proposal culminated in the Civil Rights Act of 1964, signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson just a few hours after Senate approval on July 2, 1964.
It seems pretty obvious that the reason Kennedy didn't get the Civil Rights Act passed was he was dead. Something even a moron like yourself has to recognize.
Kennedy and LBJ were the ones who commited large amounts of troops to Vietnam, Eisenhower only had a few advisors there.
Fact Check:
"In 1950, the U.S. Military Assistance and Advisory Group (MAAG) arrived to screen French requests for aid, advise on strategy, and train Vietnamese soldiers.By 1954, the U.S. had supplied 300,000 small arms and spent one billion dollars in support of the French military effort. The Eisenhower administration was shouldering 80 percent of the cost of the war.The Viet Minh received crucial support from the Soviet Union and the PRC. Chinese support in the Border Campaign of 1950 allowed supplies to come from China into Vietnam. Throughout the conflict, U.S. intelligence estimates remained skeptical of French chances of success."
1950 would have put the initiation of America's involvement in Vietnam in the Truman Administration ... and Ike shouldering 80% of the war is a bit different than "only having a few advisors there"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnam_War
Kennedy had committed 15,000 troops known at the time as "advisors". It wasn't until 1965 that troop levels rose well into the hundred thousand range. This you may notice is well over a year after the end of the Kennedy Administration. But with regard to the history of the war the US was committed since the 1940's and the Truman Administration. It was a disasterous call because we were committed to helping France keep their colonial rights to Indochina. This entailed sending "advisors" and military assistance in addition to subversive activities that the US used in order to achieve the "third way" (the US way). You don't recall that in 1954 Eisenhower Administration callied off elections which would have united the country under Ho Chi Minh. So much for the US love of "democracy". This country was in a war of containment against the USSR. All presidents were involved. You can fault the whole policy if you want - I do - but Kennedy was no more responsible than Eisenhower or Truman and less so than Johnson and Nixon(more US soldiers were killed in Nixon's administration fighting in Vietnam than Johnson's by the way).
I sympathize with his condition and send prayers to his family. How do you sing the praises of a man who let a young girl die.
You weren't there. You don't know what went through Kennedy's mind that evening or even how he has paid for it over the years. The hate spewed by the self righteous is always the most hypocritical. Somewhere a wise man stated "Hate the sin not the sinner". This wisdom unfortunately never seemed to be digested by an America whose religious right does not allow for forgiveness only hatred.
Blind, self-righteous hatred of Ted Kennedy is obnoxious. At the same time, can you see how nauseating Camelot worshipers can be? Where is the balance?
Believe me I'm no big fan of the Kennedy family or of the Camelot mystique. I have heard more hatred out the right with regard to something that happened almost 50 years ago than is warranted. I don't know what happened that night. He claimed to have made attempts to save her; no charges were brought against him; Nixon (the one person who would gain from seeing Kennedy go down found nothing); no one found anything but "everyone knows he killed her". Not only do they know it they proclaim it with no proof to back it up other than a couple of retarded right wing blog idiots.
There is no hate, I asked how could you sing the praises, As to what went through his mind, I dont care. He let her die and was only worried about himself.
How do you know he "let a young girl die"? And how can I sing his praises - I don't think I did that although with almost 50 years as a Senator I believe I could find more than a few things for which to praise him.
I think the Kopechne family would disagree with your opinion of "Uncle Ted." To them(and to anybody with a moral compass) he's just an alcoholic coward who swam to safety one night 30 something years ago and left a young girl to die in a car that he wrecked.
The Kennedy family are a treasure in this country. They have all been involved in public service, trying to do their part to better the country. Like every family they have had their problems. Theirs were all put on the front page, unlike SOME other political families. People lost their jobs for speaking out about "problems" in the Bush family (Dan Rather) Name ONE thing anyone in the Bush family has done to advance the American public. Everything they do is to enrich their own. The Kennedys have something the Bush family will never achieve - CLASS. RESPECT. I sent a message to Sen. Kennedy, hoping that he will be healthy enough to see a Democratic landslide in the coming elections. What a gift that will be to Ted. My hopes and prayers are with you, Senator.
It's obscene for Obamaniacs to try to compare Obama with American Icons like FDR, JFK and Ronald Reagan. Obama is a far left candidate who would ruin America if he were ever elected. Luckily he can't pretend to be what he is not.
First I doubt that anyone could ruin this country more than the corrupt, arrogant and lying administration that is there now. Your understanding of Roosevelt and Kennedy are way off base. They were proudly liberal something you really have a hard time with apparently. If Obama could do half as much as Roosevelt and Kennedy did the country would be a thousand times better than it is under the Decider. Do you guys ever read books?
You're forgetting all the damage that Nixon and Carter did. Nixon's "gifts" gave us the EPA and the EEOC and then his paranoia led us to Carter - where for the first time in our history we had a Preesident that encouraged us all to be ashamed of ourselves...even to the point of begging forgiveness and mercy for our embassy staff from Khomenei and his cabal of terrorists.
The "damage" Nixon did did not come in the form of EPA or EEOC or OSHA (forgot that one). Nixon simply undermined the democratic principles unpon which this country was founded. He surrounded himself with his gestapo, spied on innocent Americans, set up COINTELPRO, had Daniel Ellsberg's doctor's office broken into to search for incriminating evidence, collected huge amounts of money to be used for illicit purposes under the guise of the Committee to Reelect the President (CREEP), fired two attorneys general and one special prosecutor to keep his own ass out of jail. There's more but it ain't EEO or EPA. With regard to Carter you might remember why the hostages were taken. It had something to do with the US having allowed admission to this country (at the request of Henry Kissinger and David Rockefeller) of the Shah of Iran who subjugated his people to the benefit of US interests. There were no terrorists involved with the Iran hostage takeover and if the Ayatollah Khomeni came into power you might want to look a years of American subversion of Iranian democratic efforts as the reason. Americans seem to have a history that goes back 5 minutes.
Reagan is not an American icon, at least not in the minds of historians. He is what ultimately lead to George W., another genial fool.
You are so clearly far right that you call Obama far left. Your conclusion could only be shared by those who are so far right as to be fascist. Obama is a centrist. You must be too young to remember people from the far left - or even the left.
Again, I wonder why you are here? You will persuade no one unless you begin to mention facts.
Why would you say such a thing? Absurd.
"Ruin America if he were ever elected"? Hey ResidentChimp--your beloved Fuehrer G.W. Bush has already pretty much ruined this nation via this utter disaster in Iraqnam--a disaster that is becoming a GIGANTIC MORTGAGE on our children and grandchildren's future! Mark my words: it will be FULL SCALE RUIN if he attacks Iran!
it's true, we have been lucky and I hope that we will be lucky for just a little bit longer.
Godspeed, Sen Kennedy.
"It's about OUR better selves, our inner Camelot."
Perfectly expressed. Thank you so much.
Beautiful post, no one could have put it better. Bless you, Mary Lyon, you brought tears to my eyes!
The only bridge that comes to my mind is the "bridge over the river quiet."
RIver ...
That reminds me ...
M a r y J o K o p e c h n e
"It was a time of "WE" more than a time of "ME." "
Not that dreadful night, huh, Teddy?
As with anyone involved in a horrible accident Kennedy must have lived through this in his mind every day of his life. Thank god that there are people like you around to remind us of just how much our sitting president gives a shit about anyone but himself. Thanks for the reminder.
Posted May 20, 2008 | 07:43 PM (EST)