As I just posted to Facebook...

[palsgraf_polka]

RIP Ted Kennedy. Your legacy in the Senate in many ways outshines that of your two more famous brothers. Thank you for being a liberal champion these last few decades. I appreciate your service to this country.

Comments

[iron-chef-gein.livejournal.com]

Fuck.

[kittylitter1.livejournal.com]

I still see him as an unrepentant killer, and certainly not a legitimate voice of morality. I guess so much time has passed that people forget. :-(

[palsgraf-polka.livejournal.com]

There was no intent to to kill. Negligence? Most certainly. He was drunk! They were both drunk! He did not act in the most perfect manner, I'll admit it.

And very few politicians are pictures of morality. But that doesn't negate the good that he has done in the cause for liberalism for over 40 years.

And I'll excuse a lot of self-destructive behavior on his part; he saw two of his brothers gunned down on television, and had to shoulder the burden placed upon him by Big Joe Kennedy yet still managed to make a distinguished career and really fight for the people of his state and all of us.

I'm sure that if it was a hardcore conservative that was in the opposite situation I would feel just as you do, so I know that what I say won't change your mind.

Hell, I just got up after only 4 hours sleep so I don't know if I'm even making any sense.

[kittylitter1.livejournal.com]

You're making sense, and I do appreciate your point of view. It could be that he tried to make up for being a killer by doing his version of good in the senate.
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However, I strongly disagree that his behavior at Chappaquiddick was excusable because he was drunk. Drinking is no big deal, but drinking and driving is a completely avoidable choice. He never should have driven drunk, and when he did anyway and drove off that bridge he never should have left his passenger to die. Drinking does NOT excuse his behavior before or after the crash.

[palsgraf-polka.livejournal.com]

No, I agree with you on that point that being drunk is not an excuse. Drunk driving is awful and should be punished.

I guess more what I'm saying is that he was drunk, and he was from a rich family, and he did instinctively what rich people do, which is turn to their group for help to try to fix bad situations. I think he panicked, went and got his friends, who "handled" him and told him to go back to the hotel. He did.

It's not an excuse, per se, but his whole life was politics and appearances and he was bullied and browbeaten by Big Joe from childhood onward and I think it warped his view on the world when it comes to scandal and matters of public scrutiny. I see his drunkenness and his upbringing as being sort of a mitigating circumstance to his actions that night.

I believe, however, that he atoned for that lack of good judgment in Chappaquiddick with all of the good he has done in the Senate since that tragic night.

[wobblerlorri.livejournal.com]

I'm more in agreement with your point of view on Ted and his accomplishments than I am with the folks who are saying Chappaquiddick negates anything he did after.

I feel, like you, he used his power in the Senate as a way of atonement for his Great Sin. Changing lives, bettering lives, dare I say even saving lives through his major role in passing:

• the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965
• the National Cancer Act of 1971
• the Federal Election Campaign Act Amendments of 1974
• the COBRA Act of 1985
• the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act of 1986
• the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990
• the Ryan White AIDS Care Act in 1990
• the Civil Rights Act of 1991
• the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996
• the Mental Health Parity Act in 1996 and 2008
• the State Children's Health Insurance Program in 1997
• the No Child Left Behind Act in 2002
• the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act in 2009.

I think he spiritually repaid his debt. And I mourn his passing, and the passing of a genuine source of good in this world. True, a flawed, human source, maybe not someone I'd want to know in real life and call a friend, but still a source of good.

And who among us isn't a flawed human? Seems I remember something about sin and casting stones....

[palsgraf-polka.livejournal.com]

And that is why I worded my little sentiment the way I did. I don't think any of the Kennedys were the nicest of people, but what Ted Kennedy did for this country is what counts as his true legacy, IMO. That was why I thanked him for his service.

[jblaque.livejournal.com]

Right on, HJ.