Teddy's dead

Ted Kennedy was human, flawed like the rest of us. I know other people who have been in fatal traffic accidents. I know other people who have made bad and selfish career decisions. I know lots and lots of people who have drunk too much. I know other people who have divorced and fooled around, often not in that order. I know other people who lived as long as they could with terminal brain cancer. I know other people who have healed their fractious families even when they needed healing themselves. In fact, there are many of these people in my own family.

Without the riches and reputation of his family, Ted would never have had the chance to do what he did. But given that chance, he made a tremendous difference. Who cares that greatness was thrust upon him! He then worked his whole life to achieve greatness all over again.

I remember a Kennedy floor demonstration at a Massachusetts Democratic Party convention some years ago. We delegates were of course cheering and stamping our feet, but Ted's people flowed in from the wings with signs to make as much joyful noise as they could. They were different from the delegates. They weren't the polished public people who get voted to go to the convention. They were the halt and the lame, the laborers and the fishermen, the grandmothers and the families. They were people that Ted had helped, and they were loyal to him, as he was to them.

I met Ted Kennedy just once, at Kennedy's Pub (no relation) in Marlborough, where he was playing second fiddle to Luis Tiant. He was obese and drinking seltzer or a soft drink. He leaned firmly against a high stool backed up to the wall in order to ease the pain in his back. He seemed to love what he was doing. How else could he have done it so long and so well?

Ted achieved the distinction of living out his natural life making America a more perfect union. I'll miss him.