Remembering Ted Kennedy

Today Janet and I sat for over two hours and watched the funeral service for Edward Moore (Ted) Kennedy. Some of the commentators discussed the matter of what generations of people in our country would even be interested in Kennedy’s death, much less watching the whole funeral process.

I hope that some of our young folk would come to know some of the historic moments that have taken place in our national life and, in particular, what a role the Kennedy family has played in our life together. Yes, they were a wealthy family. Yes, they had quirks and foibles - even JFK. The word "dynasty" has been used to describe them - even the thought of a kind of "royal" family.

It is remarkable that Ted’s sister, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, died just about two weeks before he did. She was a royal person in her own right as one who started the Special Olympics and championed the rights of mentally disabled people throughout her life. Of course, part of this passion arose from the fact that Rosemary Kennedy, another sister, was mentally retarded and became totally incapacitated as the result of a lobotomy (brain surgery) which failed.

I remember exactly where I sat on Friday, November 22, 1963 when the news of John Fitzgerald Kennedy’s assassination was broadcast on television. I was sitting at my desk in the bookstore I managed at the seminary I attended, Augustana Seminary, Rock Island, Illinois. His death dashed many hopes, especially of those of us who were young and perhaps naive.

1968 was a horrendous year.

April 4, 1968 was the assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. I was in Chicago, serving a parish in the area, and at the time was in the main building of The Ecumenical Institute on the west side of Chicago. From the fourth floor I could see fires across the city as a response to Dr. King’s murder.

Just two months later June 6, 1968 in a Los Angeles hotel was another Kennedy assassination, Robert Francis Kennedy, then Attorney General, campaigning for President.

Late August, 1968 was the Democratic National Convention in Chicago and there were protests from the youth – Yippies, the Students for a Democratic Society and others. I was among a group of pastors that were called in to help keep the peace between Mayor Richard Daley’s police and the idealistic youth. We were on duty much of the night - tear-gassed, but unharmed.

This brings me back to Ted Kennedy. Much has been said about him. He was an absolutely amazing and venerable legislative leader. I heard today that 177 citizens of Massachusetts died in 9/11/2001. Ted Kennedy wrote personal notes and made personal phone calls to every person’s family! His work on race relations, poverty, gay and lesbian rights, immigration reform, and, yes, health care reform was legendary.

As I listened to the funeral today, captivated by his pastor’s sermon, by the stellar remarks of his sons, Ted Jr. and Joseph, and the wonderful eulogy by President Barack Obama, another time came to my mind.

It was July 1969. I was still serving a church in the Chicago area. The occasion was an incident that occurred on Chapaquiddick Island in Massachusetts where Ted Kennedy was in his car, accompanied by a young woman named Mary Jo Kopechne. The car went off a bridge into the water. Mary Jo died. Ted Kennedy survived. There were mistakes made, among them that he did not report what happened for several hours.

Ted Kennedy began serving in the U.S. Senate in 1962. At the time of the Chapaquiddick incident in 1969, as a pastor I was caught up in the social issues of the day, especially the issues of racism. I liked what Ted Kennedy stood for. I was 31 years old. Maybe one could say I was young then. But I wrote a letter to Ted Kennedy after Chapaquiddick. I still have a copy of that letter. I urged him to stay the course in spite of what may have been errors in judgment. I knew that there were rumors out there about what may have happened in that July period, of what may have caused the accident. But I felt that his life and legacy were important and that the nation needed him.

What is remarkable to me is that Ted Kennedy also knew his failures. I am captivated with how he cared for his children and other family members and how he reached across the aisle to Republicans countless times in order to try to forge legislation for the common good. I am also captivated by the fact that Ted Kennedy attended mass often, sometimes daily, in prayer for his family, his friends, for himself and for his nation.

So, I give thanks to God for his life and believe with all my heart that our nation is a better place because of this complex man who gave so much for people, especially people who lived at the other end of the socioeconomic spectrum from him.

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