Some thoughts.

[kyburg]

Ted Kennedy no longer has to endure treatment for cancer. Thank God.

The guy also died at his desk, still thinking about what was going to happen when he was gone and was trying to find a replacement before it happened. I wanna be like him when I go - no, I never want to retire. Let me die happy and working. He did.

There are a bunch of kids - my generation - that are sorely missing both an aunt/mom and an a uncle/dad today.

We're all the better for him being so good at what he did. What I will remember is sheer, brute force tenacity - without looking like a pit bull.

The guy started working at the job when I was two years old. I know I'm one of the oldest folks out here - that's nothing to sneeze at. I remember when both his brothers were killed - and it was faint comfort to say 'there's still Teddy' - but he did not disappoint, either.

A very privileged someone, who never forgot he had it, others didn't and did his best to make other people aware of priviledge and its associated blindness. And then did something about it. You have minimum wage, HIPAA and COBRA today because he didn't allow priviledge to blind him. Meals on Wheels, OSHA...huge list. Long list. Things you don't even think about anymore.

A recovering alcoholic - and I hope he's kicking Michael Jackson's ass all over the place right now. (Though Jim did correct me in saying that Ray Charles is likely going to make him wait in line behind him.)

It's milk tea, not scotch tonight.

So help me, if anyone says he lost his battle with cancer, I'm going to punch them in the face. He endured both the cancer and the treatment for it. It was never even a fair fight.

Comments

[cakmpls.livejournal.com]

Confronted with so many examples--in politicians and in ordinary folks--of "I've got mine, the hell with the rest of you," I can only think that the Kennedy family did something right, to produce so many socioeconomically privileged people who seem to understand what life is like for others farther down the socioeconomic ladder, and to be willing to work to change things.

[dame-of-dames.livejournal.com]

Amen.

[gallo-de-pelea.livejournal.com]

So help me, if anyone says he lost his battle with cancer, I'm going to punch them in the face. He endured both the cancer and the treatment for it. It was never even a fair fight.

This, this all over, and not just for Ted Kennedy. Cancer is indiscriminate, brutal, and a lowdown bastard.

[lesliepear.livejournal.com]

I'm two years younger than you, I find it so amazing to contemplate he was senator just slightly shorter than I've been alive (I was born May 1962, he was elected in November).

Are any of the Kennedy siblings left? Or were Ted and Eunice the last two left? I feel for the family also.

[luscious-purple.livejournal.com]

I think Jean Kennedy Smith is the only one left alive.

[kyburg.livejournal.com]

I checked that as well. Correct.

[tomlemos.livejournal.com]

thanks. I don't have the time to write about this, but damn.

[redqueenofevil.livejournal.com]

Not to be the odd person out, but Kennedy did his state a real disservice by not resigning this spring. Now, short one senator, Massachusetts will not get their second senator until January, 2010. By then, health care reform will have either been passed (but with a fight), or defeated.

Kennedy may have had other things on his plate, but he hadn't been to work in months- that's not dying at your desk. I am probably one of the few that will say this, but Ted, for all the good he did, should have stepped down months ago, and let someone else step in. By not doing so, I feel that it was all about him, and that may do more damage in the long run for Obama's health plan.

[kyburg.livejournal.com]

Denial is not always just a river in Egypt. What, do I think some ego couldn't extend to this?

UH. I think even he thought he'd go on forever - to a degree. It was only the last couple of weeks where it was an OH SHIT NOW WHAT moment.

Very much so. Unfortunately -

[pagawne.livejournal.com]

I remember his brother being elected and both brothers being killed. He is a great credit to his mother who taught that with privilege comes responsibility. Would there were more like her.

[elfwench.livejournal.com]

Thank you. I now know why his death saddens me as you put it into words far better than I ever could. I'll be 50 this Nov. While I don't remember President Kennedy's death, I was alive for it. My parents loved President Kennedy so much that there was always a framed picture of JFK on the wall as long as I can remember. Seeing his face, for some reason, made me feel good as a child. I remember, vaguely, Robert Kennedy's death, and being sent home from school on account of it.

I hope that the work that Teddy Kennedy started continues on. While I'm not sure that President Obama's plan is the right way to go about it, we do need a universal health care system.