the liberal lion
Senator Edward Moore “Ted” Kennedy, 1932 – 2009
:::nytimes retrospective:::
where the art work comes from :
doug mills, nytimes
senator kennedy’s political works :
a nytimes video
senator kennedy’s cause :
universal health care speech
senator kennedy’s nytimes obituary :
edward kennedy, senate stalwart, dies
0 Responses to the liberal lion
I am saddened tonight by the loss of the voice of Ted Kennedy, a man who fought tirelessly for health care coverage to the north, to the south, to the east, and to the west, for every man, woman and child in this nation, who believed it was an inalienable right and fought to make it so — and has died before he saw it a reality.
And let us not forget his tireless efforts to bring about the end of Apartheid in South Africa.
I guess we could list hundreds of things for which he fought. A liberal in the truest sense of the word was he.
I couldn’t be prouder to call myself liberal too.
Or the murder/drunken manslaughter he used his family connections to get away scot free with.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chappaquiddick_incident
How this is just glossed over like a minor bump in the road is beyond me.
It was not drunken murder. Drunken murder is a drunk pulling a gun or knife out of his pocket and shooting or stabbing a human being dead.
That is not what happened.
It was a car accident.
And he did not “get away” with anything “scott free.” His entire political career has been ghosted by Chappaquiddick. It still is. Your post is only one of many that prove that.
I have never pulled or dragged myself out of a car submerged underwater after a head impact. I have pulled myself out of a car in flames after a head impact. I walked, until I found a house, and knocked on the door and asked for help. At the hospital, I could not tell anyone my name. I didn’t know it. And at the time it really did not seem important. When you cannot remember your name or identity, you do not care. It is only when you do remember, that you know people are depending on you and worrying about you that the cloak of responsibility or importance hits you.
Five hours later in a hospital bed I broke out in a cold sweat. That is when I remembered my name, remembered I had been in a car accident, remembered where I lived, remembered I should call someone and tell them where I was — and when I fought with hospital personnel until someone stopped trying to force me back into bed and hunted up someone who could tell me whether or not anyone else had been injured or killed in an accident I knew I had been in, but could not piece details together for. I could only remember events in flashes. Can still only remember events in flashes. That is what happens when you get thrown around in a car like a mouse in a beer can and throw your head into hard objects hard enough to erase memory for five hours or, in some cases, forever.
People assume Edward Kennedy’s actions were calculated after going off a bridge in a car into water. I look at the windshield of that car and I think, Been there, done that, I wonder if he remembers any of it. Getting out. Walking for help. What happened after. I wonder if he even knew his name. I didn’t.
From his own televised statement (the one he gave after the trial proved his initial one was false)
..this is five hours after the accident, when he was at home, not the hospital. Instead of notifying the authorities immediately, Kennedy
“requested the help of two friends, Joe Gargan and Paul Markham, and directed them to return immediately to the scene with [him] (it then being sometime after midnight) in order to undertake a new effort to dive down and locate Miss Kopechne”.
Yeah…lots innocent people return to the scene of a car accident five hours later with their buddies to try and retrieve the body (swearing said buddies to secrecy) without calling the cops. It’s a natural reaction to concussion.
And Only getting to be a Senator instead of the president is not just punishment for taking a woman’s life. I realize you admire his politics, but you a way too bright to not see the grimy underside of the Kennedy family.
There is a grimy underside. But few people have worked as hard or as long to benefit the American people. And I do not think one tragic accident invalidates Senator Kennedy’s political legacy.
My boyfriend, being from MA, gave me the real insider scoop – MA had made it a felony to drink/drive/kill someone. Kennedy left the scene to sober up so he wouldn’t be charged with manslaughter.