Senator Kennedy

It's been a busy few weeks for me. Working one job, getting new cases, having out-of-town guests visiting, and a beach trip have kept me running around like a chicken with its head cut off. (I'll get to our visitors next post). But despite being so busy, I would be remiss if I didn't take a moment to recognize the passing of Senator Kennedy this week. I have read a lot on Kennedy history (and I am currently working my way through a book on the assassinations of JFK, RFK and MLK Jr.), and so seeing the last of the Kennedy brothers pass is very sad to me...definitely the end of an era so to speak. For someone too young to have experienced Camelot, he was the last thread to connect my generation to that time. I really don't have much more to say, but I did find a video on YouTube from Robert Kennedy's funeral service that was given by Edward Kennedy that at once beautifully describes Robert Kennedy's push for action and also showcases the oratory skills of Edward Kennedy. If you listen around 1:00 to the end, my favorite segment is:

My brother need not be idealized, or enlarged in death beyond what he was in life; to be remembered simply as a good and decent man, who saw wrong and tried to right it, saw suffering and tried to heal it, saw war and tried to stop it.
Those of us who loved him and who take him to his rest today, pray that what he was to us and what he wished for others will some day come to pass for all the world.
As he said many times, in many parts of this nation, to those he touched and who sought to touch him:
"Some men see things as they are and say why. I dream things that never were and say why not."

Listening to him speak of Robert Kennedy that way makes me less cynical about politics. It makes me think that you can truly do good if you set out to do it. You can be an imperfect person capable of things that ease the suffering of others...you don't have to be great, you just have to show up and try. Powerful words... take a listen...