Wednesday, August 26, 2009

 

God rest Sen. Edward Kennedy's tortured soul

The more our feelings diverge, the more deeply felt they are, the greater is our obligation to grant the sincerity and essential decency of our fellow citizens on the other side. ...

In short, I hope for an America where neither "fundamentalist" nor "humanist" will be a dirty word, but a fair description of the different ways in which people of good will look at life and into their own souls.

I hope for an America where no president, no public official, no individual will ever be deemed a greater or lesser American because of religious doubt -- or religious belief.

I hope for an America where the power of faith will always burn brightly, but where no modern inquisition of any kind will ever light the fires of fear, coercion, or angry division.

I hope for an America where we can all contend freely and vigorously, but where we will treasure and guard those standards of civility which alone make this nation safe for both democracy and diversity.


-- Speech on "Truth and Tolerance in America," Oct. 3, 1983, Lynchburg, Va., as reported by the Los Angeles Times.

Sen. Kennedy: Arrogant, privileged, rich, clearly imperfect, which makes his lifelong efforts on behalf of the poor, the sick and the despised even more remarkable.

R.I.P.


--ER

Comments:
May you live in interesting times.

They are dancing in the board rooms of Health Insurance Conglomerates. But wait, were not their ilk dancing when JFK was killed? What comes next will be very very interesting. The apex of the Fourth Turning may be right here. Now we choose.
 
Tortured?

Anyone redeemed is redeemed from something. Redemption is not forgetfulness, but it tends to relieve the tortured soul.

God rest his redeemed life, and may the angels welcome him with trumpets into paradise.
 
Arrogant? Any more so than, say, an underemployed, or perhaps over-educated wage-earner daring to speak out on issues of public import? Any more arrogant than a forty-something professional daring to tell the world that God is calling him to special work in Divine service? Any more arrogant than another son of privilege, whose family has a dubious history (at best), and whose political legacy is a bit more tarnished than Sen. Kennedy's?

The charge of arrogance is an odd one indeed. Kennedy had no need to serve as a United States Senator. After 1980, his only real chance of reaching the Oval Office gone, he certainly could have retired, perhaps served in some other capacity, or perhaps declined through a combination of boredom and booze, yet he did not do so, serving actively and well for another quarter century out of a sense of civic duty.
 
Can't deny any of that.

But he also made girl interns cry in the mid '80s when they didn't bring him his usual Donald Duck orange juice in the morning. And he was hell on the guys, too.

Hey, *I'm* arrogant sometimes. I don't think it's a terrible charge. Just a human trait, and sometimes some of us are humaner than others.
 
It's good to see you're ready for the coming silence of free speech.
 
I'm not the government. Say what you want to say. But you do not have permission to drop F-bombs, Anon.
 
U do.
 
I forgot, just while drunk.
 
Uno, I can count on one hand the times I've done so in five years of blogging. Two, I didn't SAY *I* couldn't. I said YOU don't permission to -- drunk or sober.
 
And, I didn't say my friends can't get away with it once in awhile. Ruh-roh! That leaves you out!

Too bad, so sad, buh-bye!
 
ER, on making interns cry - kind of par for the course of anyone in power. Arrogance is a failing all of us share, to one degree or another. It can be a blessing and a curse.

Anon - go Cheney yourself. Implied f-bomb.
 
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