Jon Richards is an author, journalist, actor, and cartoonist. His political cartoons are seen regularly in the Albuquerque Journal/Santa Fe, and at www.jonrichardsplace.com.
May the memory of Kennedy's passionate and reasoned voice for health care as a right and not a privilege be the basis for extending and improving our health care system.
"Something died in America," said civil rights leader Rep. John Lewis of Robert F. Kennedy's untimely death. Watching the snippets of Ted Kennedy's speeches playing again and again on cable reminds us of something else that has died in America: the national conversation about what the Bible calls "the least among us." It's been missing for a while. Kennedy's passing reminds us how much we need to revive it -- and make it central to the political debate. READ MOREWatch: Arianna Discusses Ted Kennedy's Legacy And His Impact On Health Care Reform On The Ed Show
Bipartisan health care reform is an absurdity. Demand that your elected officials pass a strong public option that rivals Ted Kennedy's vision of a single-payer system.
As a tribute to his commitment to his ideals, let us stop the shouting and name-calling and have a civilized debate on health care reform which I hope, when legislation has been signed into law, will bear his name for his commitment to insuring the health of every American.
As it seemed for both my late husband, as well as the late Senator Kennedy, life with a terminal diagnosis can be infused with love, caring and gratitude for the opportunity to celebrate a full life.
Teddy never did endorse Senator Dodd for president, and I can't imagine how that may have hurt him. If it did, he never showed it to his staff -- and so people like me who worked for Dodd briefly bore a grudge that our boss would not.
Kennedy was hard-wired to care for the ordinary man. His ability to make people think about why core democratic principles matter is now gone, and it is up to others to carry it on.
I arranged for Placido Domingo, the great tenor, to sing to Ted Kennedy on his 72nd B-day. Of course, Teddy loved to sing and joined in two-part harmony. He had a great baritone.
Conservatives have an interesting concept of "politicization." The implication is that it's somehow inappropriate, illegitimate, and cheap emotionally to take inspiration from a fallen leader.
The day I met Teddy, I will never forget. The 2004 campaign pitted Kennedy's fellow Massachusetts senator John Kerry against an incumbent George Bush, and the battle had gotten bloody.
Kennedy's career was marked by a decades-long commitment to help those with the least political power - the poor, children, immigrants, and the uninsured.
There are giants who walk among ordinary men. Ted Kennedy was one such giant and would be the first to remind us of something his brother Jack once said: "A man may die, nations may rise and fall, but an idea lives on."
Tonight Kennedy will be quietly remembered and honored in thousands of tents, huts and homes of refugees around the world who owe their lives and the lives of their children to his generous devotion to their safety and security.
No one in all of America's great history got more tangible things that mattered accomplished for the American people. On issue after issue, Ted Kennedy was at the center of the debate.
We should be inspired to honor and fight for the cause of Senator Kennedy's life. The Senate's fighting liberal would not place the fate of affordable health insurance back in the hands of the private sector.
Typically, you could tell that Kennedy was coming down the hall because he was grumbling at someone or talking to his large dog, a Portuguese Water Dog named Splash.
Since news organizations tend to be short-staffed overnight, it is particularly interesting to compare the prominent points that different sites highlighted in their initial depictions of Sen. Kennedy's life and career.
You knew what to expect from Teddy. Personally, his life was often a mess, but politically, he was rock solid. He stood for something. As MSNBC put it, he was the last unreconstructed liberal in the Senate.
When I left Kennedy's service, I had a theory of why he kept those photographs of his family so prominently displayed in his office. So many people came and went in his life, and Ted was the constant.
He was a terrific campaigner, as I witnessed first hand in several campaigns, including my own father's campaign for Congress in Connecticut in 1972, when Ted made a special point of speaking on my father's behalf to an enthusiastic audience of shipworkers in Norwich.
Many politicians will claim today to have respected Kennedy, but if they want to really pay tribute to the man, they should bring affordable health care to Americans right now.
From the outside, he appeared to be one of the most liberal and partisan Democrats in the Senate. From the inside, he was one of the most bipartisan and constructive members.
As Ted Kennedy disappeared from the public eye this summer, I liked to think of him as thirty-two years old, strapped to an orthopedic bed in Boston, waiting for his back to heal.
After the 2004 election when Democrats were accused of losing the "moral values voters", the first Democrat to call me to talk about that accusation and how to change the moral debate in America was Ted Kennedy.
For all of us who have survived Kennedy, we must take up the gauntlet. We must ensure that the "never say never" attitude that was his signature on health care reform, does not wither on the vine.
Senator Ted Kennedy loved to sing. And so it seems only fitting to make a playlist in memory of this singular American icon who did so much for so long to help so many.
If they're going to name the final healthcare reform bill after Senator Kennedy, we ought to be making legislative demands with voices as powerful and booming as the late senator's.
What I saw on a little cruise with Ted Kennedy in 1992 cannot be bought by advertising. It's the enthusiasm regular, working people feel for someone they know has their interests at heart.
Like millions of Americans across the country mourning the death of Senator Ted Kennedy with his family and friends, I feel the loss of an icon and can't imagine American public life without him.
As the nation honors Sen. Kennedy, I trust his former advisers will drop this effort to revise Massachusetts law in pursuit of short-term partisan advantage.
What was clear to me in my meeting with Ted Kennedy was how much he genuinely cared about fighting -- and winning -- our battle against the AIDS epidemic.
Someone who had been receiving Social Security in 1996 would be getting about 13 percent less in their monthly check today. Senator Kennedy protected the financial security of millions.
These three shared an outspoken passion for the cause of aiding refugees and other victims of oppression, war and poverty, but they also shared something rarer: the ability to translate concern into action.
Most Americans will never know how many things Ted Kennedy did to make their lives better, how many things he prevented that would have hurt them, and how tenaciously he fought on their behalf.
I will remember Ted Kennedy, not only for what he has given to our nation, but what, in the most trying of times, he gave to me -- a restored sense of belonging.
Senator Kennedy's political franchise had no rival in the legislative branch of government, and the younger brother of the Kennedy political trio may very well have been the very best "Executive Legislator" this country has ever seen.
In 2004, I had the honor of introducing Senator Kennedy as a keynote speaker at the Carnegie International Non-Proliferation Conference. He was warm, gracious and generous.
Senator Kennedy's personal connection was his boundless humanity, and his recognition of ours. Already he is becoming history. Now the job of making history is in our hands.
The real colorful dream of this country is not about a mythical Camelot but a real land of second-chances, a land of reinvention and fresh opportunity.
Ironically, it was President Kennedy's assassination less than a year into Ted's first term that really allowed the younger Kennedy to find his place on the national stage.
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