THEY'RE ALL GONE NOW...
Senator Edward Kennedy joins his brothers...
-
The wheel of destiny keeps turning; the Last Kennedy Brother died last night. Inasmuch as we could see Senator Edward Kennedy's death approaching since he was diagnosed with brain cancer last year, we could also see that he would never have a chance to be President; he campaigned so hard for the office in 1980, but I think everyone knew that he wouldn't be Chief Executive, ever. That's how I felt. In the back of my mind, I kept wondering, "yeah, but what about Chappaquiddick?" And I'm positive a lot of other folks wondered that, too. A news piece I saw said something to the effect of "after Senator Kennedy's unsuccessful bid for the Presidency, he re-dedicated himself to serve the downtrodden", etc. etc. What else could he do? He Had to re-dedicate himself. He had no choice. And maybe through the years, he was chasing some sort of mass approval he knew he'd never really acquire, no matter how many times he was re-elected to the Senate.
-
He certainly was one of the most televised members of Congress ever; it seemed as if he was always in the news, legislating this, promoting that, talking about whatever he was talking about. And every time I saw him on-screen, I wondered..."what about that night...?" I got the impression over the years that he had to keep pushing the envelope, fighting, legislating, speaking, debating and otherwise gesticulating as if he were trying to outrun Mary Jo Kopechne's ghost. That's the way it always felt to me. I respect the Kennedys; they're all brilliant, and John, Robert, and Teddy did many good things for our country. But, I had always figured that no assassination attempts were ever made on Teddy because there was no chance he'd ever be President. Yeah, that sounds pretty ignorant, I know. But that's how I felt. One Night Long Ago tarnished his legacy. How tragic.
-
Bill Clinton politically disfigured himself in similar fashion, although we all know Monica is still alive. But Bill Clinton basically Threw It Away. I Believed in Change; I voted for Clinton the same way people a generation earlier had voted for JFK. And Bill let me down, severely, and I lost all respect for him. And now, he's a joke, a buffoon, and that's tragic. And no matter what Bill Clinton does with himself in the future, it'll always be in the back of people's minds: "Monica, Monica, Monica." I've fallen out-of-step with the current political scene; maybe I'm just blindly assuming that our system of checks and balances will maintain itself during the Obama Presidency; I hope so, anyway. But...there's been NO SCANDAL. How refreshing. It's reassuring to know (or be able to hope) that Barack Obama is a Good Person. He Seems to be...
-
In the scope of things, while I may not feel a lot of personal loss because of Senator Kennedy's passing, it's just now hitting me that All Three Are Gone. John, Robert, Edward. They've been such important figures in this country's history, at least during the time I've been alive. I don't know if Edward Kennedy sustained his political momentum because of 'that night on Chappaquiddick' in 1969; nobody will never really ever know what happened, although I tend to believe his account; it's always surprising when the car you're driving plows into a huge pool of water. Maybe he underwent genuine shock, maybe he did dive down and try to look for her, but yet there's that big gap of time that it took him to Actually Report the accident to the authorities. Maybe he felt tons of guilt over it, and that's what kept him going, not being able to stop, lest the ghosts of the past catch up with him. Motivation comes in some strange packages, after all.
-
Remember that old song that goes..."Anybody here seen my old friend John...Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby...it's difficult for me to think of Teddy in the same way. I think in the end, he proved he was a fighter. And I grudgingly respect him for that.
-
Finally...yes, I'm aware that John F. Kennedy reportedly had his, shall we say, 'dalliances' as well. And were he President Today, he'd never hear the last of it. That proves, more than anything, how Times Have Changed in the last half-a-century.