People already are knee-deep in the politics of Ted Kennedy’s death — with important thoughts, from the future of his Senate seat to the impact on health care reform, on their minds — but I’m taking some time today to just read through and watch Kennedy material, from his speech in Alaska in the days following the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. (starting about 5:20 in) . . .
Ted Kennedy, in his first U.S. Senate run, in 1962.
. . . to Joe Klein’s piece on the very real aspects of his nearly 40-year acquaintance with Kennedy:
I spent a fair amount of time with him in the 1970s, and most of the circumstances involved pain or awkwardness. I watched him work a supermarket in New Bedford when he ran for re-election in 1976. He accompanied a woman who was shopping for her family. It was total agony. He simply had no idea what to say or do. “So, uh, your family, ah, likes … meat?” he asked. “Oh, yes, Senator,” the woman replied, and that was that. No question about the high price of chuck. He stared at her, unable to figure out what came next.
You’ll have to click on the link to read about the time “it was immediately apparent that [Kennedy] was as shiffazed as [Klein] was stoned.” Klein’s ending, though, brings to mind the power Kennedy shared with our country — and the passion we have lost today:
But the last time I saw him that I really remember was a day I stopped by his office to talk about … what? Health care, maybe the war in Iraq? His dog was roaming about, rubbing up against me, then settling at the Senator’s feet. We were surrounded by his oil paintings of Cape Cod scenes. We talked about his painting; we talked about the Cape, a place we both love, little things — this harbor, that herring run. After all the craziness, after 40 years had slipped between us, he was completely at ease. I wanted to ask him about those awkward, awful times back when. But why mess with the mood? He had exorcised the demons. He was whole.
Despite those demons, and as I earlier wrote, he did well for our nation. That is my focus today: Celebrating his spirit and remembering his legacy.
This past week I quoted Senator Kennedy’s words on the floor of the U.S. Senate in defense of the empowering purpose that animated his work on the Americans with Disabilities Act:
Under the ADA, employers may not deny a person an employment opportunity based on paternalistic concerns regarding the person’s health. For example, an employer could not use as an excuse for not hiring a person with HIV disease the claim that the employer was simply “protecting the individual” from opportunistic diseases to which the individual might be exposed.
As I’ve already discussed, Kennedy also was a masterful advocate on behalf of LGBT equality, as has Michael Jones at change.org. Earlier today, Michael Cole at HRC shared video of the Senator in 2008 at the HRC Equality Convention . . .
. . . and a detailed list of Senator Kennedy’s accomplishments in supporting and advancing LGBT equality.
There’s plenty more out there, if you just Google around a bit or explore the Twitter.
Watching these video clips and reading these speeches and accomplishments only begins to explain the scope of the loss to our nation with Edward Kennedy’s death.
If this day doesn’t make you want to seek out “the better angels of our nature” to help create “a more perfect union,” no day will. None of us are perfect — and sometimes all of our worst angels win out — but we always must work to create that more perfect union, we always must seek those better angels.
[UPDATE: In response to @ezraklein's understandable plea "beg[ging] people to watch this video,” I’m adding a third clip here:
Yes, chilling.]
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Chris Geidner is a lawyer in Washington, D.C., who writes at Law Dork, is the senior political writer at Metro Weekly and has written for The Atlantic Online, Advocate.com, Salon and other publications. An extended biography can be found