Goodbye Senator Kennedy

I wasn’t too young to understand the horror of President Kennedy being killed, but I was too young to understand the impact. A few years later when King was slain, I had become all too aware of the racial inequality. When Robert Kennedy was assassinated, I was too shocked to do anything but look toward McCarthy to carry on from where RFK had left off. Too young to vote, but an awareness was growing inside.

But, at this point in my life, knowing and understanding all that I now do, when I read the news that Ted Kennedy had passed away, tears sprang to my eyes and flowed off and on all day. What a brave fighter. Women will not have a stronger voice than they had in him. The poor will not be spoken for as he did for them. The blue collar worker will not have another champion for them as he did. It’s all gone now.

There is no bipartisanship. Someone said to me today, “Why is it always the Democrats who listen and try to find real compromise?” It’s because Kennedy could get it done. There were those from the other side with whom he could convince to help. There won’t be that anymore. And, as the Republican party marches sternly into extreme conservatism, I’m afraid the Democratic party will slide into jello-ed nothingness, it’s spine having died today.

God bless you, Senator Kennedy. You were a roaring lion for those with little or no voice. Is there anyone capable, or worthy,  of carrying the torch?