Why We Will Miss Ye, Teddy

Senator Robert Byrd (D-West Virginia) broke into tears when he told the Senate that he will miss his dear, dear friend Ted Kennedy, who is dying of brain cancer. So will I. And so will millions and millions of other Americans who will simply have to acknowledge that this great, decent, liberal man in his liberalism, is one of the greatest Senators that this great deliberating body has witnessed in 46 years, forgetting whether anyone there, or in the body politic, is a Democrat or Republican, or a liberal or conservative or black, brown, yellow or white, or a man or woman, or gay or straight, or young or old.

For Ted has fought tooth and nail for all of us. And he will until he takes his last breath. Because he is Irish, and Catholic, and loves the Lord, and his family, and is simply a good man. He has always known what was truly right for America, and has always acted on it and worked to get the job done.

And while he may have opponents, this good man has no enemies. But that was not what Senator Bobby Byrd, that lovely, vulnerable old and decent man, whom too many now disregard as somehow irrelevant and dottering, was really saying. What Bobby Byrd was saying, and what I said yesterday to my beloved wife, Veronika, is that Ted Kennedy's Liberalism, that awful, awful word to a lot of awful, reactionary Republicans, now tragically for this country numbering far too many of Ted's colleagues in the Senate, is the best American political philosophy that this country has.

For Ted Kennedy's liberalism is, at long last, very simple. It is formed in a question he asks every day: What can I do for the average American, the truck driver, the waitress, the destitute of Harlem or East Los Angeles, the homeless, the two million in jail, the ever back-broken Latino farm worker, the privileged Princeton graduate, the brilliant woman doctor, the not-so-brilliant custodian, the cigar store owner, the newspaper delivery boy, the gutsy Cuban American success story who fled Castro all those years ago -- what can I do for them, each and every one of them, so that they at least have a chance at the American dream, and a damn good chance to achieve it, for themselves, for their precious children, for their blessed infirm or aging parents.

I worked for all three Kennedys, and I was with Bobby when he died in the kitchen of the Ambassador Hotel, producing ABC News' coverage of that horrible June 5, 1968 day, when my dear friend, Frank Mankiewicz, announced Bobby's death. And I cried like millions of other Americans, for we instinctively knew one thing, if Bobby had won the presidency, and he had every good chance to do so, we would not have the extent of the Vietnam disaster in which 58,000 brave Americans, of all colors and creeds died, nor would we have the coming disaster of Richard Nixon. That is what was taken away from us when a Palestinian misfit, Sirhan Sirhan, took Bobby's life, on Sirhan's looney notion that Bobby favored Israel more than spat-upon Arabs. What a great, great waste, what a horrible tragedy for us all.

And so it is now with Ted, for he will not be with us much longer, and he represents the best that is in Americans, and the best that America stands for, and the world knows it.

Ted interviewed me once for being his press secretary, because his brilliant foreign policy advisor, Bob Hunter, told him he should, and we both enjoyed the interview. How could you not enjoy being with a Kennedy? But he eventually selected someone else, and that was fine by me, because Ted should have anything he wants, because he serves the entire human race.

I cried when Jack died as did millions of others throughout the world, once again a victim, like all of Teddy's three brothers, to senseless violence. Although in Joe's case, he died as a pilot during World War Two on a super secret bombing mission when someone forgot not to turn the radar on in his flight path. And that horrible mistake blew him to smithereens. He was Papa Joe Kennedy's favorite son, handsome, brilliant, dashing, and Papa wanted Joe to be President. So when he died, a somewhat hapless but obliging Jack was elected by Joe to be President, and Jack's unwillingness turned to willingness at his sometimes tyrannical father's tireless urging and support, and great wealth, or as Jack once said, "Don't buy me a landslide, Dad!"

Joe used his seemingly endless fortune to elect one of his sons to be President so they could serve the world, and serve it well. And so the whole world cried and knew what they had lost in Jack, for this splendid, handsome, courageous leader of Camelot gave vision and hope and the American spirit and daring and the best of America back to the world, and the world knew it.

I barked a bit once at Secretary of State Larry Eagleburger, a good and decent and gutsy man, when he once told me, "Michael, these days you don't necessarily want to tell the world you are a Kennedy Democrat," apparently because of Larry's perception about some of the excesses of the Kennedys in their exploits with women and some other shenanigans. And so I resolutely replied, "Larry, I will always be a Kennedy Democrat." That's the only thing to be, for the Kennedy men wore their PT-109 tie clasps proudly, and I cried when I lost mine.

Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan had it right. When the great writer Mary McGrory told him upon Jack Kennedy's murder, "Dan, we will never be happy again," he replied, "Mary, we will be happy again, but we will never be young again."

Here's to you, Ted, for you have kept me young in body and mind and spirit and will until the end, and while I am 72 now, I will live with the Camelot spirit, your beloved brother Jack's spirit, and your beloved brother Bobby's spirit, until the end.

The writer, a Visiting Scholar at the Institute of Governmental Studies, University of California, Berkeley, served all three Kennedy brothers.

Comments

[JBS]

Y'all keep talking like Kennedy's already dead. Don't look like he's given up, why are all y'all?

[rroy]

First of all,I agree with other comments about the iminent demise of Ted Kennedy.I,as a rational and functioning octagenarian do not waste a lot of time worrying about my demise which I sometimes feel is about as close as the commentater depicts Sen. Kennedy's is.There is still enough fire in my furnace to encourage the attitude of "CARPE DIEM".I hope the same is true of the senator.

Having said that,all though I am pretty much in agreement with Sen.Kennedy's politics,I still have memories of his often less than honorable past behaviors.I guess a psychologist would attribute these behaviors to things like feelings of guilt for surviviing his brothers and/or feelings of inadequacey for failing to achieve the prestige they did.Whatever,they are still there in history and cannot be totaly ignored.

In any case I aplaud him for the reconsruction of his character and his enthusiastic pursuit of Liberal Causes!

[Uselessboy]

This may be realistic but isn't it out ahead of what's being released for the public?

[McFlipFlop]

Thank you Mr. Sommer for a beautiful piece.

[Rosanneofpgh]

Oh, please. Dont bury Ted Kennedy just yet. Im sure he still has a lot of fight left in him so dont count him out so soon.

Malignant brain tumors do not presage an early death. Many people have lived with them for years and there is no reason to assume that Mr. Kennedy is in imminent danger of dying just yet. He can still do a lot of good in the senate for quite a while. arlen spector is still around after being diagnosed with a brain tumor severa years ago. (Too bad arlen didnt do half the good that Mr. Kennedy has done. Investigating football games is just a waste of time. arlen should put his time on earth to good use by impeaching the evil one and prez fucksupalot.)

Elizabeth Edwards (my hero) and Ted Kennedy will live long enough to make a difference in the lives of the poor and middle class.

So, Mr. Sommer, save your tears until the actual funeral.

[ScandalousCandice]

Thank you. I mean come on he isn't dead yet people!!!

[JimR]

Jesus, he's not dead yet. Check out boston.com. They talked to several people who have survived the same type of cancer he is now faced with.

[rbtr8or]

For all your good intentions, Mr. Sommer, this is perhaps the most insensitive piece I have ever read. Clearly, you have never yourself faced a cancer diagnosis. Still, as a human being, you should be able to figure out that a diagnosis such as Senator Kennedy's is devastating enough without reading about your impending death. Whatever hope there is, it is human nature to hope. And there are always exceptions notwithstanding disease statistics. I only hope that Senator Kennedy doesn't read your pre-eulogy, and that people are more sensitive towards you when your dark hour comes.

[McFlipFlop]

It is a very sensitive piece, and what you write shows you don't get it.

(Sorry for typos in previous comment.)

[Thorn]

I may be unrealistic, and I respectfully disagree with Sen. Kennedy on so many things, but, as his friend, could you refrain from saying that he's "dying of cancer"? Where there's life, there's hope. My cousin had an aggressively malignant brain tumor and (against all medical history) lived for another 30 years. So, you know. Cut it out.

[McFlipFlop]

Was your cousin 76? It's a milestone event, and it shows that your probability for living a long life has decreased.

You should have more understanding of where the author is coming from

I am glad to hear about your cousin.

[WaveFunction]

Is there something we're all missing that you're not that says Ted Kennedy absolutely must die now that he has brain cancer?

I haven't read anything yet specifying the grade or the type of the giioma. And even if that is known, statistics are just statistics. They are just numbers based on previous experience. They do not guarantee anything about the future. Ted Kennedy might be 76 and he might have a 1 in 10,000,000 shot of living past 78, but he might just be that 1 in 10,000,000. There are always outliars, OK? So all of this eulogizing before the man has had a decent shot to fight back at the cancer is a bit premature, don't you think?

[WaveFunction]

Oh, and actually, if you get to 76, your probability of living to 86 increases. The longer you live, the more robust your body has been demonstrated to be, the longer your life expectancy is.

[Thorn]

My mistake. I should have thought more about "where the author is coming from" when I reacted poorly to his statement that Ted Kennedy is dying. How thoughtless of me.

[zakwouldhave]

Count me out as those who love Ted Kennedy for his being a "Catholic" and because he "loves the lord". He maybe should have checked up on his Boston catholics while the priests were running amok. So if you aren't a Catholic and don't profess to "love the lord" you can't be as admired? The man has many faults and as a catholic he must have kept the confessional in business. I will always admire his fight for the working man and woman and his ability to seem to work with those on the other side of the aisle.

[RedWhiteandBlueState]

Great post, Mr. Sommer. You have my respect for never denying your politics and your beliefs even as 'liberal' has somehow become a dirty word. I saw an interview with Senator Webb in regard to Appalachian White Voters and there aversion to the "liberal" democrats. What amazed me is that by voting fear, they vote against their interests, time after time after time... How is it the negative stigma of the Kennedy - or as you so aptly put it - the only legitimate politics - is so feared by so many. I know why Wall St. doesn't like liberal policies but how have we lost the Catholics, the white lower classes? Wasn't Jack catholic, isn't Ted? I will never understand how someone chooses to side with a Vitter or a Graham, or a Helms, or a McCain, or a Craig, a Luger or a Brownback over a Kennedy. Or why they fear two male strangers kissing five states away more than they want a good job at a good wage.

[Bladernr1001]

LIberal is a dirty word because the initiatives that have been foisted on the American people were a complete disaster. I do not wish any ill will to Mr. Kennedy but his policies that so many of you idolize have done more harm than good. Mr. Kennedy has been one of the stewards of the largest growth in the size and scope of government history has ever seen.

Minimum Wage: Economists have shown in study after study that minimum wage increases reduce the number of jobs available to non-skilled workers or low end workers. Also, raising the minimum wage does not make it any easier to make ends meet. That just causes an increase in the cost of the goods. I'll bet no one really noticed out here in CA what happened to fast food prices after the minimum wage was increased. They went up. Does that not cancel out any benefit derived from raising the minimum wage?

This was a huge issue for Kennedy all through his political career. He is always harping about the minimum wage. Kennedy was simply taking advantage of the general public's ignorance of the most basic principals of economics. This is only one of many liberal issues that do not make sense from a logical or economic standpoint but is romanced on the public by polititians that have one goal in mind....get re-elected.

This is but one example of why "liberal" has become a dirty word.

[gulopartisan]

The haters will want to remind us of Mary Jo, and I have my answer ready. Whatever Ted did that night, the rest of his life has been as much as anyone could do to atone. Jack, Bobby, Ted: Each had his greatness. The brothers were eloquent and inspiring, and it's ironic that Teddy, always dismissed as the least of them, probably will have had the most material effect on our lives and our country.

It's not our own coming deaths that make old age so dreadful; it's counting the fallen we loved.

[marignymitch]

I think reports of Sen Kennedy's death are premature.

[ebbtide]

This piece is realistic. Thanks. Ted Kennedy will not fail to recognize his inability to stop his mortality. I am sure. He will take control once he adjustsl, but actually his condition and diagnosis is poor and that is the reality. It is time to stop this miracle, postive thoughts and praying he will recover and face the scientific facts of his disease. Ted Kennedy, as well as Elizabeth Edwards will die in short time from irreversible cancer.

She is young, he is old, but disease has overtaken them. I love them both and their loss will indeed be felt.

Goodbye dear people. We all must at one point, realize we cannot live forever and plan for it.

[Desiderata]

"We all must at one point, realize we cannot live forever and plan for it."

Speak for yourself. Deep down I just know an exception will be made for me.

[leftcoastindy]

Very funny.

[radlib1]

Michael Sommer said it brilliantly...and with feeling.

None of us, Senator Ted Kennedy among us, know when we will die. But at least Ted Kennedy will die a hero, like his brothers Joe and Jack and Bobby. One of them (Joe) died before he could be President as a casualty of World War II, one of them died while he was President and on the precipice of doing great things (Jack), and one of them died before he could save America from itself (Bobby).

Teddy also had the heart and the brain to save America, but he was derailed by tragedy (and the fatal Kennedy weakness -- women). They may have been flawed, like all of us, but , by God, the Kennedys were special. Why? Because all of them, whatever their personal flaws, truly and deeply cared about the ordinary American.

None of the Republicans, George Bush Sr. or Jr., or even John "the rich Maverick" McCain gives a righteous sh*t about the ordinary, average, working-class American. They're all about sucking up to the rich and the corporations and to sending poor people off to fight their wars. Face it, Republicans are either rich, greedy, or stupid. They are human detritus and should be swept from office and the streets of America by this November.

[WaveFunction]

If by realistic you mean defeatist, then yes. Unless we're all missing something that the author of this piece knows, we do not yet know the grade or the type of glioma. Even if we did, and it turned out to be the worst kind of brain cancer, Glioblastoma Multiforme, Ted Kennedy at the minimum would have a couple months to live and would still have treatment options open to him and could extend his life or even be the one in a million who lives beyond a few years with the disease. No, it's not probable. But no matter what we think we know, all we have are statistics; we can't actually predict the future. He may die tomorrow of another cause altogether; he may die when he's 90. Before we start pronouncing him dead or dying, let's at least wait till 1) all the information is in and 2) he has a decent shot to fight back at the disease.