Alcoholism & Solipsism. How degrading that we should be asked to participate in such dimwitted behaviour.

Ted Kennedy did not make one, single comment about the oppressed Palestinians in his life time as far as I know.  I realize that his older brother Robert was shot by a lunatic Palestinian; perhaps the bum was paid by an Israeli agent or Nixon’s henchmen afraid of losing the 1968 election.  Good that Kennedy voted against the Iraq war.  His life is a mixed record and his legislative record in my opinion needs further analysis.

When the Pope can not acknowledge the achievements of
Kennedy in a public statement you know the Church has
problems. Kennedy had faults like all humans and his
family suffered more than most. There is a related post
at http://iamsoannoyed.com/?page_id=588

A enlightening Kennedy family article is on Wikipedia as “Rosemary Kennedy”. Gives insight to the compassion, humility, values, etc.

There were parts of the funeral that were very moving and other parts that were pure politics. I am not sure I would want a private, sealed letter that has been delivered to me to be read in public.  Voting for national health care and hinting at someone’s funeral “let’s do this for the gipper” seems a bit out of place when most of the nation do not want this.

I was just a kid in 1969, when Teddy drove into Chappaquiddick, but I remember images of him and how grief stricken he looked.

I felt as bad for him as I did for Mary Jo Kopechne and her family and friends, for being a kid, I knew how easy it was to do something stupid and selfish.

But what Senator Ted Kennedy’s passing did for me, was first to remind me of what his brother said about HOPE:

“Each time a person stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, these ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance. ” — Robert F. Kennedy

My hope is that Senator Kennedy’s passing will reignite a spirit of HOPE that comprehends that “HOPE has two children. The first is ANGER at the way things are. The second is COURAGE to DO SOMETHING about it.”-St. Augustine

And then I recalled a song Jimi Hendrix did at Woodstock that very same year:

“Well, I stand up next to a mountain, and I chop it down with the edge of my hand. Well, I pick up all the pieces and make an island; might even raise a little sand… If I don’t meet you no more in this world then I’ll meet you on the next one.”

And then I recalled something stupid I did in the water that also illuminated to me that no matter how hard I try to be nonviolent in all ways-I am far from saint hood and death is always closer than we think:

http://www.wearewideawake.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1375&Itemid=223

Time after time over the last few days the msm has been
making the point that liberal politics has not
“evolved” since Kennedy came to the senate in the early
60’s.  Why is it that liberals are supposed to evolve
but conservatives are expected to stay right where they
are with the same old class war policies in favor of
the rich and the corporate elite and with the same old
axes to grind?  Liberals are expected to evolve into
conservatives I take it.

The msm has been praising Kennedy as the great
compromiser and the champion of bipartisanship with a
view of getting the progressive democrats to drop the
public option from the health care bill as a tribute to
him.  Everything is upside down.  They should drop the
public option in honor of the man who fought his whole
career to get it?