At the end of any posts or comments I may write is a part of a quote, "Dream things that never were and ask "Why not"". I remember vividly learning the whole quote one day in June of 1968. It was the occasion of Robert F. Kennedy's funeral. In his moving eulogy to his brother Bobby, Teddy quoted one of Bobby's favorite quotes. "Some men see things as they are and ask why? I dream things that never were and ask why not." It wasn't until just now when looking up the quote that I learned the quote is actually from my favorite playwright - George Bernard Shaw. They have been words to live by for me and many others.
They are words that, today and the days to come, the Congress of the United States should use to guide them as they vote on Health Care Reform. There have been many issues over the course of my life that Teddy Kennedy has spoken for me even if he was not my senator. Teddy wasn't just the senior senator from Mass.; he was America's senator at large.
He spoke for me when in 1964, one hundred years after the Emancipation Proclamation, he lead the charge to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964. He spoke for me again in 1965 when again he led the senate to pass the Voting Rights Act of 1965. I would never need the protections contained in these bills. It wasn't until 25 years later that Sen. Kennedy help pass legislation that had a more personal affect on my life.
The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 insures that when I go to the grocery store I can actually get in the store. Believe it or not nearly twenty years later this is still a problem. I know one grocery store that locks the gates that allow people in wheelchairs enter the store. The reason given by the woefully uninformed owner gave for doing this, "people steal the shopping carts." This is exactly the attitude that Sen. Kennedy sought to end. You can't guard your bottom line by locking me out to keep grocery carts in.
At the end of the day, conservative, liberal, progressive and all people in between owe a debt of gratitude to Sen. Teddy. Detractors may say what they want but Teddy Kennedy's name appears on every major piece of legislation passed by the Congress of the United States for nearly fifty years. Many as author and original sponsor, many many more as sponsor backing legislation put forth by others. Even those who opposed his liberal ideas when a senator wanted a piece of legislation passed it were likely Sen. Kennedy that they turned to insure passage.
Then they were gone. The Kennedy family is still deeply involved in the family business - politics. In my life, there were three that stood for me and America at the same time, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, Robert Francis Kennedy, and Edward Moore Kennedy. But we knew them as Jack or JFK, Bobby and Teddy. Now they are gone but the good they did lives on. It lives on in everyone ever discriminated against because of their race, ethnicity, religion. It lives on in students that receive student aid. It lives on in people with disabilities that are protected from discrimination. Our rights have been protected for all the years to come thanks to Teddy Kennedy. It lives on for one reason - "the cause endures, the hope still lives and the dream will ever die." In a few days, we will take Sen. Teddy Kennedy to his final resting place. I for one will do what I can to make sure that "the cause endures; the hope still lives and the dream will ever die." Passing true universal health care should be his legacy. It can come to pass but only if we all become the stewards of "the dream."