After a mostly presbyterian upbringing I intentionally rediscovered my Irish Catholic heritage-motivated in large part by my admiration for people like Edward Kennedy. I told my Dad and he said- well, if you want to be Catholic just make sure you are the best damn Catholic you can be.I was a government major at Cornell when Ted Kennedy ran for President and was glued to the TV. Title IX, something he authored was all abuzz around Campus because it meant that we women crew team members were supposed to get the same sports budget as the men's crew team (travel, jerseys, and that erg machine). Of course we were. Who would ever think otherwise. My half Irish Dad said anything boys can do we can do too. I had and have the unmitigated gall to believe him.
Ted Kennedy understood government was the social contract with a people that was supposed to interject Christ's humanity in a world tending toward the entropy of disinterest and catastrophe. Being Irish he knew a government could be not on the side of the people but on the side of the powerful few unless there was an intentionality to make it on the side of the people at large in the common "good.". Every legislative initiative of his that transformed the way we live here was infused with the catholic social teaching that seeks to invest every human with greater dignity. The rich can take care of themselves- the government needs to be there for all of us.
The values this family stands for, whether they work in disability rights, environmental issues, civil rights, women's equality (the ERA)immigration, education and health care stems from the greatest impulses of altruistic compassion-
the notion that Justice for All really means "ALL" and the responsibility of public office is to take care of everyone, even and especially the Least of These His Brethren. Because when you do it unto them- you do it unto Him. And he is Damn Serious about it.
My father stood next to Edward Kennedy when he dedicated a facility in Billerica, Mass. for a computer company my father was an Executive at. I got to meet him a few times, shook his hand after a Mass once, waived at him at the 1992 Democratic Convention and last heard him speak in person at the Center for American Progress in DC- where his words then were trickily juxtaposed as his speech started to be affected by his then undetected tumor. I said a prayer.
So I don't want to hear about how this man who devoted his entire life to serving the America he loved needed some death bed conversion or was less a catholic than anti-abortion bloggers who were not even born yet while Ted Kennedy was saying the eulogy for his brother. Don't even start with me.
The best and most fitting tribute that we can make to Edward Kennedy is to pass a universal health care bill, yes, with a "public option" in the name of Edward Moore Kennedy- because this is what he put at the pinnacle of his life's work - and it was the "sign" of the Age when Christ healed everyone everywhere he went- without any pre-existing condition denials.
Healing- its His mission. Everyone. Everywhere.
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