Wednesday, August 26, 2009

America's Senator



I was in tears this morning when I heard about Senator Kennedy.

He became Senator in 1962—the year I was born.

Ted Kennedy is a big reason why I became a Democrat in the first place.

I feel a little sad for all the people in this world who will never get to see or know him as a larger-than-life contemporary figure in American politics & society. The kids coming up now will only know him as one of many historical figures that helped changed the world.

While I was thinking about all Senator Kennedy achieved in his life--not for himself, but for the country & world that he loved so much--and what still remains undone & what he said recently had become the passion of his life: national health care for every American, I couldn't help but think of the words that President Lincoln spoke in Gettysburg during the American Civil War. If I may be so bold as to paraphrase the President's words:

The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what he did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which the senior Senator from Commonwealth of Massachusetts has thus far so nobly advanced.

Considering his tireless work on behalf of just about every underdog under the sun, Senator Kennedy deserves the honor of having a great health care bill named after him, and we who will benefit from it & who will hopefully be a healthier, more robust nation because of it deserve it, too.

I have never stepped a foot in Massachusetts, but, in my heart, Senator Kennedy has ALWAYS been MY Senator, and I will miss him & his fearlessness & his undying dedication to making the American dream real for ALL of us.

God bless you, Senator Kennedy!

My prayers are with his wife, Victoria, and all his loving family...and with our country.

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