I have not been a huge fan of the Kennedy clan over the years. But I have to say that he was a good guy. He went not just the extra mile, he went several extra. Two brothers shot down in the prime of life, in political life, just because they wanted to bring equality to all Americans. He was wealthy and did not need to spend his entire life trying to make people's lives better. He could have spent his life getting richer, thinking only about himself. He did not. If we had a few more politicians like him this country, this world would be a better place. It was a better place for him being here, even with all his human failings. He joined and served as an enlisted man in the Army, something I did not know till today. But even without military service he should always be remembered as a patriot, a person who loved his country. He may have been born into a family of privilege, and even enjoyed that privilege, but he did not act like a privileged person.
I am old enough to remember JFK being elected and assassinated. I watched and listened to Bobby Kennedy and was amazed at the depth and direction of the man. Ted lived up to that, his brothers would have been proud.
His great quote at his brother Robert's funeral:
"My brother need not be idealized, or enlarged in death beyond what he was in life; to be remembered simply as a good and decent man, who saw wrong and tried to right it, saw suffering and tried to heal it, saw war and tried to stop it.
Those of us who loved him and who take him to his rest today, pray that what he was to us and what he wished for others will some day come to pass for all the world. As he said many times, in many parts of this nation, to those he touched and who sought to touch him: 'Some men see things as they are and say why. I dream things that never were and say why not'."
The words stand today and ring true about Ted, just like they did for Bobby.
2 months ago
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