Ted Kennedy

I learned some time ago not to engage in significant political debates with my family. My views can sometimes surprise, if not enrage others, I have found. Today, though, I have to express my feelings of loss after following the memorials of Ted Kennedy over the past few days. Not because I am or ever was a huge political supporter of him. But because I admire what he stood for as a man.

It seems to me that it would have been so easy for Ted to check out after some of the tragedies of his life. He certainly had the financial means to seclude himself from society after the tragic loss of his two brothers. Who would have blamed him? At that time the name Kennedy was something of a bullseye on the back of anyone in the political arena.

The bad press that surrounded him after the death of Mary Jo Kopechne must have been something he wanted to run away from. The loss of the presidential bid to Jimmy Carter could have left him terribly bitter about politics. Instead, it appeared to free him to devote his energies to matters in the senate.

No, this man was not a runner. He used his losses as challenges to better himself and his environment. He became a well respected colleague among his business associates, and a trusted family member in more than just the immediate Kennedy family. One of Bobby Kennedy's sons was quoted as saying "John Kennedy inspired America, and my father challenged America, but Uncle Teddy changed America". Regardless of your political views, I'm not sure you could argue with that.

I have never been to Washington DC, but the one thing I have always intended to see in my lifetime is Arlington National Cemetery. Perhaps I will make a point of doing that soon.