Time to Say Goodbye to a Champion of the People
I am setting aside my original intentions for this week’s newsletter to say goodbye to one of the great leaders in our time…
The inevitability of Senator Ted Kennedy’s death does not make it any easier.
His passion to help the less fortunate left its mark on Medicare, Medicaid, children’s health care, and education, to name a few. Senator Kennedy rose from the ashes of much turmoil in his life to give us inspiration to strive for higher goals. He will be sorely missed, not only in the halls of Congress, but throughout America as well.
Senator Kennedy was known as the “liberal lion”, and in his own words: “. . . if by a ‘liberal’ they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people — their health, housing, schools, jobs, civil rights, civil liberties — someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us — if that is what they mean by a ‘liberal’ then I’m proud to say I’m a ‘liberal’.”
Some considered Senator Kennedy a partisan, but he was one of the few in the Senate who was willing to reach across the aisle to forge compromises such as the creation of the National Cancer Institute with President Richard Nixon in 1971. At this time in history, our government has become polarized along party lines, and we will miss him sorely right now, not only for his ability to cut through petty squabbling but also to do it with warmth, intelligence and good cheer.
Good bye and God speed, Senator, and we will continue to fight on. As you have said: “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.”
