SubscribeEven a partial listing of the major bills in whose passage Kennedy has played a part is impressive. Whether you admire them or not, these are the measures that transformed—mostly liberalized—America in our time: the first Immigration Reform Act; the Voting Rights Act and its extensions; the Freedom of Information Act; the Gun Control Act; the Campaign Financing Reform law; the Comprehensive Selective Service Reform Act; the Eighteen-Year-Old Vote law; the Occupational Safety and Health Act; the War on Cancer bills; the recodification of federal criminal laws; the Bilingual Education Act; the Fair Housing Acts; the Age Discrimination Act; the Airline and Trucking Deregulation bills; the Job Training Partnership Act; the South African sanctions; and the Grove City Civil Rights Restoration Act.There aren't enough "."'s in the world.
Far more than either of his brothers, who were lackluster senators, Kennedy, over the past three decades, has been responsible for changes in the complexion of this country and in the lives of its citizens. He has been an ally of blacks, American Indians, the poor, the sick, the aged, the mentally ill, starving refugees worldwide and immigrants. He has been an outspoken liberal, unafraid to take the controversial positions—on issues such as busing, abortion, gun control, the Vietnam War (late but forcefully), the nuclear freeze and capital punishment—that other senators clearly avoided. (via)
And may it be said of us, both in dark passages and in bright days, in the words of Tennyson that my brothers quoted and loved, and that have special meaning for me now:"I am a part of all that I have metFor me, a few hours ago, this campaign came to an end.
To [Tho] much is taken, much abides
That which we are, we are --
One equal temper of heroic hearts
Strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield."
For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die.
At least a couple people have said things like this. Could someone please explain why it is "incredibly ignorant"? "Simplistic" I get, but not necessarily the implied "oversimplistic", so if someone could explain that too, I'd appreciate it. "Vengeful hatred" I get.he got drunk and killed a womanEven ignoring that being an incredibly ignorant and simplistic statement helped by 40 years of vengeful hatred
At this point, I can only see JFK and RFK as icons more than people. They’re instantly recognizable (the hair! the teeth!), weighted with symbolism (loss of innocence! political skullduggery!), and absolutely unchanging.
So, let me get this straight: Ted Kennedy makes a mistake and someone dies. He then spends the next 40 years atoning for this mistake and trying to redeem himself - working his ass off for the betterment of those worse off than him - and still people want to shit on his death and claim that that one incident defined him and his life??Hmm. I don't know exactly what whoever said "defining moment" meant by it, but it strikes me that if someone spends forty years atoning for, trying to redeem himself for, and working his ass off because of a single moment, then "defining moment of his life" doesn't seem like a bad way to describe that.
Well fuck you very much.
Faythe Collins remembered meeting Senator Edward M. Kennedy as a child and later, as a worried mother whose children had been detained in Brazil, calling his office and leaving a message.Allies and Adversairies React to Kennedy's Death - New York Times
“I expected a secretary to maybe call me back,” she said.
But the voice on the phone was that of the senator himself.
Ms. Collins, who went to the John F. Kennedy Museum in Hyannis, Mass., on Wednesday to sign one of three condolence books put out hours after the senator’s death, recalled his telling her that “he couldn’t pull any strings” to hasten her children’s return, but suggesting options that she could try on her own and calling back several times to check on how things were going.
“The information he gave me helped me get my kids back to this country,” said Ms. Collins, 45, who grew up in Hyannis and still lives not far from the Kennedy compound in Hyannis Port. “It’s so rare that politicians take the time to help ordinary people.”
...Natan Sharansky, the Israeli politician and former Soviet political prisoner, called him ''one of the towering figures in human rights.'' When Mr. Sharansky was released from a Soviet prison in 1986, he said, it was Mr. Kennedy who called his wife, in Israel, to let her know.
Mr. Sharansky recalled a time when American officials visiting Moscow had worried about upsetting the Soviet government and endangering democracy activists there by going to see them. But in the spring of 1974, Mr. Kennedy ended official talks there and headed to the home of Alexander Lerner, a well-known dissident.
''He was the first to dare to do it, and that was the precedent that allowed other American officials to visit refuseniks,'' Mr. Sharansky said. ''Before that, it was like an iron curtain. Nobody did it.''
Why Boston Backed Teddy Kennedy.
Haldeman: You've got one United States Senator [Kennedy] who is a secondary factor in the campaign. You give him coverage through the campaign.
Ehrlichman: Understand, I don't like to give him something, but at the same time --
Haldeman: And then if he gets shot, it's our fault.
Ehrlichman: Sure.
Nixon: You understand what the problem is. If the son of a bitch gets shot they'll say we didn't furnish it. So you just buy his insurance. Then after the election, he doesn't get a goddamn thing. If he gets shot, it's too damn bad. Do it under the basis, though, that we pick the Secret Service men. Not that son of a bitch [Secret Service Chief James] Rowley. Understand what I'm talking about? Do you have anybody in the Secret Service that you can get to? Do you have anybody that we can rely on?
Ehrlichman: Yeah. Yeah. We've got several.
Nixon: Plant one. Plant two guys on him. This could be very useful.
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posted by Saydur at 10:41 PM on August 25