The last of the 4 Kennedy brothers died late Tuesday night at his home in Hyannis, MA. Senator Edward Moore "Ted" Kennedy (D-MA) was 77. His sister Jean is the last survivor of Joseph and Rose Kennedy's nine children. He will be buried near his brothers in Arlington National Cemetery on Saturday.Senator Kennedy was the third-longest serving Senator in U.S. History. His constant cause through his political career was Universal Heath Care. He died just before the measure was again about to come to a Senate vote.
U.S. President Barack Obama, vacationing in nearby Martha's Vineyard, was awakened at 2 am and informed of Kennedy's death, and spoke to Kennedy's widow shortly thereafter.
This blogger would find it hard to enumerate even one area of political agreement with Sen. Kennedy, but he respects that the Senator never wavered in his beliefs and personal causes.
Like two of his brothers before him, Kennedy ran for president (in 1980.) He was unsuccessful in his bid to unseat fellow Democrat Jimmy Carter. In the party disunity that followed, Ronald Reagan was elected that year.
Senator Kennedy's older brother Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated in Los Angeles in 1968 during his own bid for the U.S. Presidency. His second older brother, President John F. Kennedy, was assassinated in Dallas in 1963. His oldest brother, Joseph Kennedy, an aviator in WWII, was killed in action in that war.
Thus does the final curtain ring down on Camelot.
The final curtain? Does that mean you don't rate the next generations as being in the same league at all?
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting how little I know about the Kennedy's. I wonder if I'm the only one who will wonder if the current (but less crazed) hoopla over his passing will last anywhere near as long as that for Michael Jackson.
ReplyDeleteSad reflection on our times, given I'm pretty sure of the answer.
Was Camelot a real place?
ReplyDeleteYou'll excuse me, won't you Max, if I answer the Camelot question? No? OK.
ReplyDeleteWas Mary Jo waiting for him?
ReplyDelete@A. - Yes. I meant that. :) And the times have changed.
ReplyDelete@Stephanie - Let's hope not. Michael made lots more people happy.
@Patchwork - Yes. It was just outside Cleveland. :)
But I know you are serious. So...
Camelot was mythical place where the legendary King Arthur had his court. The word has since come to mean a time and place of romance and optimism; a feeling that nothing is truly impossible.
There was a brief time in the USA when the name Kennedy symbolized that feeling. Camelot died in a hotel kitchen in Los Angeles a long time ago, not with the passing of the last brother. Bitter realism and a willingness to "settle" has largely replaced that dream in the U.S.now.
Teddy was fond of saying the dream will never die. But it did. Long before he did.
@A. - Yes, please do. Sorry. :)
ReplyDelete@Debbie - If there is a God, Mary Jo finally has justice tonight.
I am proud of you for being "nice" on your post about a killer. I do not care about his beliefs, the one belief he did not have was the sanctity of life. No matter how much "smaller" the person was to him, he still killed a person just as if he pulled the trigger of a gun. He lived too long.
ReplyDelete