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Edward Kennedy

ProsecuteThemNow.com — 26 August 2009 — by Stuart Hutchison — Senator Edward Kennedy died at age of 77 late Tuesday night, August 25th. His death comes following a 15 month battle with a cancer in his brain; the cancer was diagnosed in May 2008. We published an editorial concerning Sen. Kennedy on 20 May 2008. THERE’S A PROFOUND COINCIDENCE in Mr. Kennedy’s death coming precisely at a moment in U.S. history when the senator’s most cherished issue of universal health care for all, at once today enjoys its best chance for absolute legislative success, and suffers incompetence in the failure of President Obama to assert the leadership to achieve fundamental reform of the health care system in the United States. It’s clear that were Mr. Kennedy still at his full strength, the battle for a just, workable health care program — such as those prospering today in France, Great Britain and Canada — the prospects for success for all Americans would be greater than they are now. For all the wealth and privilege Ted Kennedy enjoyed, he suffered uncommonly himself. Three of his brothers were killed, a sister suffered a lobotomy, and he has on his conscience the death of a woman who died from an accident in a car he was driving. (Cue the right wing and their relentless chorus of “Chappaquiddick, Chappaquiddick!”) Well, I’m not queasy in saying I think Ted Kennedy atoned for Mary Jo Kopechne’s death as much as it’s possible for any man to atone for the death of a passenger in his car. When I say Ted Kennedy accomplished more good for more people than either of his brothers John and Robert, one can answer rightly, “Well yeah, but they didn’t live as long as Ted.” That’s sure true. It’s also true that practically no one else stood up more effectively to the cruelties of Ronald Reagan, Bush 1 and Bush 2. His voice and his political stands on behalf of all the people on the losing side of the American ledger — and I count myself one of them — are consistent and strong, specially on the primary levels of poverty and health care and education. Without Ted Kennedy in the U.S. Senate, the lot of all Americans would be much poorer than it is. His dedication to our commonwealth is commendable and exemplary. And had Ted Kennedy been elected president, we may not have achieved paradise, but we would sure be a better and more prosperous people, and I don’t believe he would have allowed the theocratic corporate oligarchs to push us into all the insane bloody wars that have wasted so many millions of people on our poor, precious planet. The best way we honor Edward Kennedy is to help President Obama to ram through Congress a full-tilt real health care reform plan, and to convey to the reactionary Republicans and all the Democratic congress members-in-name-only, that they will get on board for the sake of our country, or the president will proceed to victory without them. We extend our sympathies and condolences to all the Kennedy kin; our United States needs more people like the Senator from Massachusetts. Senator Edward Kennedy Dies — Our Nation Mourns by Stuart Hutchison is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Based on a work at www.prosecutethemnow.com. Permissions beyond the scope of this license are available at ProsecuteThemNow.

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