Senator Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA) died today after a year-long battle with brain cancer. I found the following blog post in the archives that I think stands up as well today as the day it was written, May 20, 2008.
Jarrett Rush, in The Dallas Morning News Opinion blog, breaks the news that Ted Kennedy has a malignant brain tumor. Rush's short blog post focuses on his and his generation's impression of Kennedy, not as the effective senior senator from Massachusetts, but as a punchline of late-night comedians.
Others of a slightly older generation remember Ted Kennedy challenging President Jimmy Carter to fight for universal health insurance. Kennedy inspired the Democratic mid-term convention in Memphis in 1978 with a passionate speech:
"There are some who say we cannot afford national health insurance. ... Sometimes a party must sail against the wind. We cannot afford to drift or lie at anchor. We cannot heed the call of those who say it is time to furl the sail."Today, thirty years later, Kennedy's goal is still unfulfilled, the country still adrift. Voters have the best chance in generation to elect a President and a Congress who can do something about that. The wind is shifting.
2 comments:
I hope that folks will recognize that whether they were for or against Edward Kennedy's political philosophies, that he was a legendary legislator and a statesman. He will be missed.
[H. Wright]
H. Wright, thanks for the feedback. In another era, Henry Clay and John C. Calhoun found themselves on opposite sides of the most divisive issue in American history, slavery. Each was vilified by one faction or the other. Yet history recognizes both as lions of the Senate. Now, no matter how much partisans of today may disagree over his legacy, history will make room for Ted Kennedy to join the ranks of Clay and Calhoun.
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