August 26, 2009 The Last of the Kennedys

I’m going to go completely off topic tonight. I was going to write about baching it for the last week, but I’ll save that for tomorrow. Earlier today, Ted Kennedy passed away. It was truly the end of an era and I just felt that I needed to say something about it.

Growing up Catholic was a unique experience but there was nothing as exciting as when John Kennedy was elected the first and only Catholic president. My parents were Democrats and I followed in their footsteps. I vaguely remember Kennedy getting elected. I completely missed the Bay of Pigs, but the Cuban Missile Crisis was very real to me. I remember being worried about a potential nuclear war. Our neighbors actually had a fallout shelter built in their basement, the threat was so real. It was during this crisis that Kennedy showed, Cuba, Russia and the rest of the world that the United States could not be bullied.

I remember thinking at one time that there could be 24 consecutive years of Kennedys being president. I, like so many others, know exactly where I was when we heard that John Kennedy was assassinated. When Robert Kennedy ran for president, I was very much in his corner. Watching him being assassinated was another of those memories that will never leave me.

I was so infatuated with the Kennedys that I wrote a fifty page paper my junior year in high school about John Kennedy’s life. We still lived in a world that didn’t pry into the lives of the famous as we do today. There was no talk of John and Bobby sleeping with every woman in sight. The Kennedys were saints.

That all changed the night that Mary Jo Kopechne died in a pond on Chappaquiddick Island. From that moment on, Ted Kennedy, the last of the Kennedy brothers, was a changed man. From that point on, he had to fight demons. His life was never the same as he fought alcohol, the Kennedy weakness for women, divorce, a failed presidential run and finally, cancer.

As I grew older, I changed my political views and often disagreed with the views of Ted Kennedy, but I never lost sight of his desire to help his fellow man. Despite his enormous wealth and fame, he was a man for the little guy. He dedicated much of his time in the Senate to fight for civil rights, better health care and the rescue of the impoverished.

In the end, he was no different that the rest of us. He had to fight for his life against a disease that is relentless. Despite his gallant efforts, he eventually lost to the demon called cancer. It plays no favorites. It strikes young and old, rich and poor. Some day it will be beaten, just not today.

The United States and the rest of the world is very different because of the Kennedys. They were driven men. They enjoyed the power, but they also made it there life work to serve others. Despite their flaws, they made a difference, something that we should all strive to do while we can. Make a difference with the gifts God has given you.