Posted on 08/29/2009 2:01:07 PM PDT by kristinn
Two kinds of people reacted to news of Ted Kennedy’s death last week. The first — not all liberals, either — spoke of Kennedy’s hard work in the United States Senate, his dream of universal healthcare, his commitment to working people, civil rights and equality.
This “most imperfect man,” wrote analyst William Bradley, was also a powerful advocate for progressive principles. Barack Obama predictably (though accurately) observed that “for America, he was a defender of a dream.” In another variation on the visionary theme, Joe Biden said of his old friend, “He was never small.”
The other kind of reaction to Kennedy’s death could be summed up in one word: “Chappaquiddick.”
Not “vision” or “health-care reform,” not “peacemaking” or even “Camelot.” Just the controversial 40-year-old event, the ugliest single moment from the late senator’s 77 years on Earth, nearly 47 of them in public service. The small souls who spend their days hanging out in discussion forums at Free Republic, one of the U.S ultra-right’s more popular online homes, greeted news of Kennedy’s death characteristically, flinging around words like “traitor,” “coward,” “disgrace”— and, yes, references to the 1969 event. Chappaquiddick minds in a narrow, ungenerous world.
But the Chappaquiddick faction is not limited to either the United States or the senior senator from Massachusetts. It’s a state of mind, a summation of everything that is small and cribbed and contemptible — not unlike the sour (and embarrassing) one-line statement of perfunctory condolence on Wednesday from our own prime minister.
Chappaquiddick-type people possess a meanness of spirit that goes beyond simple politics. They’re responsible for a creeping diminution of vision and values. In Canada, which used to appreciate largeness of soul, they even have a government platform, thanks to Stephen Harper and company.
Consider the dramatic case of Guantanamo detainee Omar Khadr, picked up by the U.S. military in Afghanistan at 15, or child-soldier age. When Harper’s government announced last week it would appeal — again — a ruling that it demand the Canadian-born Khadr’s repatriation, lawyer Dennis Edney said he wasn’t surprised. “We are used to this mean-spirited approach.”
But this government’s disgraceful stand on Khadr — the only Western detainee still in Guantanamo — is just part of it. The limited worldview, the impulse toward whatever is most ungenerous, is how it operates.
SNIP
” Largeness of Soul “. ???
Holy Crap.!! I’m staying out of Eastern Canada.
Oh Janice, you have a misdemeanor mind in a felony world.
The term, "Public service" has taken on a whole new meaning in the past decade or so. Hard to believe they're still using this term, that is about as accurate as the term, "Public servant".
Our culture has a frightening capacity to overlook character altogether when idolizing role models. Elvis was a weak, self-indulgent bum, and Michael Jackson was a drug addicted child molester, but these failings present no impediment to their being worshipped like living gods. When did we quit caring about character?
I’m sure Mao, Lenin, Stalin, Hitler, Castro, Chavez, Hussein and all other marxists, who are not as well known, are all sincere in their true belief in marxism just like Kennedy, but don’t wait for me to feel sorry when a marxist leaves this life to stand in front of Jesus to be judged for all eternity and has to explain himself.
One might almost call it jackbooted.
They're not the ones who drove the car into the water and then waited hours before reporting it.
Servicing the public like a bull services a cow.
Janice Kennedy - just a bitter nagging shrew
doubtful that even today Ted would face charges
Ted has gone to meet his maker... Be interesting to know if he gets a pass for Mary Jo's death, Joan's despair, alchoholism, womanizing, abortion facilitator, changing Catholic church rules to suit his own purposes, etc.
I actually had a moderator remove one of my own posts last night.
There was no profanity in it. There was nothing untrue in it. I was simply angry at having lived my adult life with this man as my Senator the entire time, and the heat of it came out in my post.
I guess living up here, seeing and hearing the hagiographic platitudes about him has been a trial.
;-)
Ideology is all that counts, and apparently it forgives all sins.
Hollywood, a group which today complains bitterly about being pirated while itself being a product of pirating, has brought us the culture of celebrity. The image that flashes by on the screen or stage is all that matters. Pay No Attention To The Monsters Behind The Curtain!
These people do not grasp the reality to what demented, wicked souls they are. There is not an untruthful word in the assessments made of Ted Kennedy. He was a very troubled man of extreme privelege and partisanship who did everything to hold onto power and there are countless examples of the hateful words spoken by Teddy that tossed around malicious slanders at Reagan, Bush and anyone who dared have differing political views. There are those on the Republican side who do not want to focus on the true character of the man and what he meant and their way of doing things is to build someone up and say the most overly gracious, even to the point of lying, things about him. To each their own, but if anything it is damning that they find these things said about him so troubling when he was a supposedly ‘great’ man and these things are the literal truth about this ‘great’ man. The man was troubled and does not deserve to be called a hero or great statesman.
Why can't I meet a Kennedy??
A President covers up a small break-in to the DNC. BIG DEAL. A Senator is responsible for the death of a woman. NO BIG DEAL.
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