Rest in Peace, Senator

With the passing of Senator Ted Kennedy, we have officially ended the legacy of the Kennedy brothers. Although other Kennedy clan members remain in public service, it is unlikely they will have the profound effect upon America that the brothers John, Robert and Ted had during more than the last half century.

Love him or hate him, Ted Kennedy has been a Senator for most of my life, and the influence he had upon this nation could be described as nothing less than profound. Though his views were often to the left of what I believed, we have a need for differing views in American, and in the institutions that govern us all.

What a hard life he must have had after both of his beloved brothers were killed by crazies for trying to lead this country. What a huge threat to have hanging over your head and that of every child and cousin and member of your family, that if you run for president, some nut is likely to kill you, or at least try. Many of the Senator’s mistakes and missteps in his later life are undoubtedly explained, at least somewhat, by this horrific cloud of tragedy that has hung over the Kennedy family since the death of President Kennedy.

His death comes ten years after the death of the Kennedy family member that was the king of my generation’s Camelot, John Kennedy Jr. It’s hard to believe it’s been ten years since the wife and I spent the better part of a weekend watching the televised coverage of the search for his plane.

As a child, the first time death was ever really explained to me was with the assassination of President John Kennedy. I was just old enough to know what a president was, and what they do, and had already been told countless times that one day I too could be president if I worked and studied hard. My mother dressed me like John Jr., both before and after the death of his father. Pictures of me in a short sleeved dress shirt and shorts with suspenders and a “John-John” haircut still adorn my parents home.

John Jr. was the great hope for me and others in my generation. When he died, so died with it the notion that President Kennedy’s son could one day continue the great works his father had begun. I always had respect for John Jr. He became a prosecutor when many law firms in the country would have paid millions for him to join their firm, inexperience be damned.

I was reading the articles today about the Senator’s death and came across one story that quoted part of the eulogy he delivered when his brother Robert was murdered. Back in 1970 or so, my mom bought me an album of great speeches by great leaders of that time, most of whom had been killed for their beliefs. “Here, listen to this for a while instead of The Rolling Stones”, my mom said.

And listen I did. The speeches on that album still ring loud inside my head nearly 40 years later. The album had iconic speeches from the 1960’s. Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” speech. President Kennedy’s inaugural speech. Neil Armstrong’s first words on the moon. One of Robert Kennedy’s speeches.

True to my mother’s wishes, my sister and I were captivated by the speeches of the icons of our youth, most of whom had been killed for doing what they believed in. Maybe that’s why I’m always so ready to jump on a soapbox, inspired at an early age by those speeches my mother wanted us to listen to.

But the most moving speech of all on that record was by Ted Kennedy, in his eulogy of his brother Robert. As CNN reminded me today in their coverage of the Senator, he said that his brother Robert was “a good and decent man who saw wrong and tried to right it; who saw suffering and tried to heal it; who saw war and tried to stop it.”

Those words were on that record too. I remembered them instantly as I read them today on CNN, over 40 years after they were spoken. I could hear them, and the emotional delivery that spoke them, just as if I was listening to that album today.

They were perhaps the most profound words on that record, which is a heady statement considering who else made those speeches. Although I well remembered the words, until today I had forgotten who spoke them.

Those words apply to Ted Kennedy as well. Again, he made mistakes. He admitted those mistakes and lived with their burden until the day he died.

I’ll have to go find that album at my parent’s house this weekend and record it on to CD for my kids to listen to.

Rest in Peace, Senator. You and your brothers and sisters are now all together, and I pray your family has some peace in this their time of grieving for you and your sister, and the last of Joseph’s children.