Ted possessed the knowing gift that his job as the Senator was bigger than himself, and certainly bigger than his transgressions.
Edward Moore Kennedy led a life marred by tragedy and scandal. As the brother of two political giants plucked from this earth well before their time by assassins, and another a victim to the horrors of war, the man they affectionately called “Teddy” could have opted for a life out of the public spotlight.
After the infamous 1969 incident at Chappaquiddick in which his passenger Mary Jo Kopechne was killed after the Senator drove his car off of a bridge, not many people would argue for the cause of Ted Kennedy’s American Sainthood. Yet, in the face of his own personal horrors and wrongdoing, Ted possessed the knowing gift that his job as the Senator from the great state of Massachusetts was bigger than himself, even bigger than the size of his home state and the people in it, and certainly bigger than his transgressions. Ted Kennedy accepted the tired, poor, and huddled masses of the United States of America and did his very best to make their experience every bit as charmed as his own upbringing. In more than four decades of service to the United States Senate, Kennedy fought tooth and nail to bring about important improvements in areas such as civil rights, immigration, health care, education and much, much more. In large part due to the effort of the liberal senator from Massachusetts, the United States is a better place today. Although the Lion of the Senate roars no more, he’s left an indelible echo in the halls. He will be missed.
