They really didn’t have to give us anything, the Kennedy brothers. They could’ve just lived the blueblood life on Daddy’s Money. All through his career, Teddy took it on the chin for having playboy ways – an alcoholic first wife, Chappaquidick, stuff like that. Yet the three brothers we knew – John, Robert, and Edward were all guilty of that sin. But they gave us so much – a pilot killed in WWII, a President assasinated, a Presidential Candidate assasinated, and an illustrious Senate career now ended. They’re all gone now [except Caroline].
To me, it wasn’t even so much what they accomplished. It was the time honored principle of noblesse oblige – with power and wealth come responsibilities. They honored those responsibilities as champions of the less fortunate – civil rights, health care, mental illness, fighting corruption. They stand in such stark contrast to the legacy of the Bushes who pandered to the rich and powerful. At one gathering, George Bush said, "Some call you elite, I call you my base." We never heard anything like that from the Kennedys. Instead, we heard Jack telling the Governor of Mississippi that he was calling out the National Guard to insure that the integration at Ole Miss would proceed, and facing down Kruschev in the Cuban Missle Crisis. We saw Bobby go after Jimmy Hoffa and organized crime. And we watched Edward Kennedy stand as the standard for right-thinking Liberal Principles throughout the long darkness of the Nixon days, the Reagan era, the Bushes’ reign. Teddy Kennedy fought the good fight in the Senate for 46 years. In the end, he may have been the greatest of them all…
I agree. It’s strange but I feel as if I’m mourning a dear friend. I recently read a book about Senator Kennedy that was written by some reporters who knew him well from the Boston Globe. I came away admiring him more than I thought possible. With all he had been through, he still held himself together and his family together with love, enthusiasm, and purpose to do good.
As gargantuan as the contributions to our society were by these three brothers, we need to add to the list sister Eunice, who spearheaded the humane treatment for people with mental disabilities. If I’m not mistaken, she is credited with starting the Special Olympics, but that was only the most visible of her contributions to that field.
It does feel like a personal loss. And I agree about Eunice. She just kept on doing the right thing without much fanfare…