JMR——My hometown did not get a visit from
Jack Kennedy but we did get a visit from Teddy.
Senator Byrd has done some things for the state
of West Virginia over the last few years but to
be perfectly honest I don’t know what he has
done for America.  Senator Byrd is getting old
and closer to death.  I believe he is feeling
guilty about how he treated people in West
Virginia years ago.  For years he sold out to
the Oil and Coal companies.  I went to Washington
around 1974 and spoke with him about how I thought
the media manipulated coal miners to pass a bad
contract that was not in the best interest of widows.
He arose from his chair, escorted me out the door,
and said, “You can’t please everybody.”  It was
obvious who he was interested in pleasing.

Christian, the senator drinking beer with the miners
in 1960 was John F. Kennedy.  It was the primary
campaign, and the Catholic Kennedy’s winning
Protestant West Virginia was crucial to proving his
broad base of support before the convention in Los
Angeles.  Ted Kennedy, not yet a senator, may have
campaigned with his brother in West Virginia and
visited your town.  He was 28 and, like his brother,
very handsome and personable and doubtless would have
charmed the socks off the locals.

As for the Byrd machine, it was no worse than any
other state organization.  At least the whiskey was
delivered after then vote instead of before.  And
maybe this time it was Irish whiskey.

Outraged—-You are welcome.  We didn’t see people
of the stature of Ted Kennedy coming into the coal
mining communities.  In fact, I don’t remember ever
seeing Senator Byrd come to our town.  He had the
couty wide puppets who took care of his dirty work.
I worked for the Democrats while attending college.
Two of us would drive coal miners who were barely
able to read to the voting polls.  We would give them
a ballot which had already been filled out and tell
them to mark their ballot like this one.  After
voting we would give them a small bottle of whiskey
and drive them home.  What a democracy?

Re: christian96

A very moving post.  Thank you.

In the annals of history the Kennedy’s will be the dynasty that could have….  But the finger of fate sure is fickle.

It would nice if the haters could take a day off, but that isn’t going to happen. Flies don’t generally take days off either…
Mr. Kennedy, your work has been appreciated and you are going to be missed. The Senate is a lesser body without your presence. You will not be soon replaced, but you will be long remembered.

The right wing have always shown themselves the most contemptible when using Chappaquiddick as their epithet for Ted Kennedy.  They seize upon his human lapse as great crime, because they can’t find any other way of maligning this pillar of strength for the underprivileged and the working poor.  Likewise, the (presumably) left-wing fleas on this thread, whose irrelevant rants about the Kennedy family betrey their affinity with the wingnuts on the other end of the spectrum.

So Kennedy is dead at last.  finally.  He is as responsible as any man of the descent of the US into barbaric lawless violence.  His silence on the murders of his brothers led directly to other assassinations and the mass murders of 9/11-antrax orchestrated by the Bushite administration to kickstart the War on Terrroism.  Which he supported.

The Warren Commission was perhaps the greatest public relations fraud ever perpetrated on a people, and his silence legitimated it.  His silence was largely responsible for most people not knowing that the coroner’s report stated that Bobbie Kennedy was shot in the head from behind within a few inches of his skull. 

When a power structure gets away with these lawless and obvious murders, there is no reason to stop perpetrating them, as the Bushites did from the White House.  Led by the same McCristal that Obama appointed to exercise his skills in the Afpak war.

It is true that he would have risked his life by making noises.  Indeed, he was almost killed when his personal plane crashed a month after the John Kennedy assassination.  But he lived, to no good purpose, as US homicidal violnece increased to encompass the world.

Have bad dreams, you stalwart liberal, you lion of the Senate.  You embodienment of American duplicity.

disgusting

Ted Kennedy along with his brothers never demonstrated
any capacity for anything other than exploiting his
father’s ill-gotten-gains from drug dealing and insider
trading, and all Kennedys entered politics not as a
sacrifice for public benefit but rather as a duty for
the family’s corruption. Ted Kennedy along with all
other politicians accepted bribes from corporate
lobbyists, injured the public for personal and
corporate benefit, and appointed or assisted family
members to public offices.

The man is dead but he’s not forgotten. Rest in peace, gentle warrior; others will
now pick up his fallen sword and continue to fight the good fight. My deepest
respects to the Kennedy family.

Now MrMcCain will you sign a Healthcare bill with a Public Option to honor the man you can to have ahd such affection for?
The passing of our Greatest Champion for Healthcare for All, should not only inspire Democrats, but Republicans too.
Do something memeorable during your Tenure.do something that wil imporve the lives of millions and secure the lives of hundreds of millions.
In the immortal Words of His brother,Senators
“ASK NOT WHAT YOUR COUNTRY CAN DO FOR YOU,BUT WHAT YOU CAN DO FOR YOUR COUNTRY”
A Profile in Courage is calling you, will you answer the call?
“The Sky is Crying” and so is America,Good Bye Teddy and thank you. You were a fallible hero, but a hero nonetheless.

Very sad news.  Senator Kennedy is loved by many, he will be missed.

“All things must die, but love alone eludes mortality. It overleaps the tombs and bridges the chasm of death with generation. How brief it seems in the bitterness of disillusion; and yet how perennial it is in the perspective of mankind—how in the end it saves a bit of us from decay and enshrines our life anew in the youth and vigor of the child! Our wealth is a weariness, and our wisdom is a little light that chills; but love warms the heart with unspeakable solace, even more when it is given than when it is received….. Will Durant”

My condolences to Sen. Kennedy’s family and friends.

I spent my formative years in a small coal mining
community in West Virginia where my father worked
40 years in the coal mines.  I returned home on
leave in late November 1960 after spending 18 months
in Fairbanks, Alaska as a radio operator for the
U. S. Air Force.  My father said, “You missed the
excitement in town!”  Dad then explained that Sen.
Ted Kennedy had been in town drinking beer with the
local coal miners.  The last big shot to come to
our town had been Edward R. Murrow shooting a
documentary of our town in the early 1950’s.  I wish
I could have personally said “Thank you” to Sen.
Kennedy for taking time to socialize with the coal
miners.  It meant a lot to them.  God bless him and
his family.

We will mourn. We will mourn Teddy because he has been there during the times of his family’s deepest need as he has been there at the times of his country’s deepest need. He has gone at a time when he probably wanted to fight more than he ever had in his entire career for those among the least of us afforded neither the means nor the oppotunity for the most basic health care. Up until his last breath, it is clear that Senator Kennedy was fighting for justice and a dream of a truly human community-  how our government and our society shall go on without this powerful voice will be judged by the very tremolo of the voice.

Gone but not forgotten.
peace….

I am sad for the Kennedy family again, just as I was when John and Bobby were killed.  I know that they loved Edward and will miss him terribly.  I hope that his passing will re-energize the Democrats and will embolden them to continue the “good” fight for little guy.

Fight on! Kennedy family

Lion of the Left, Rest in Peace.

I really am very sorry, despite my wish that he be more liberal…,my daddy lasted 18 mos with the same tumor..I knew , when he wasnt at the funeral of his sister…just, very sad to hear it at 2:00 AM