As He Was, I Wish We Were

On Wednesday, Senator Edward Kennedy passed away. Kennedy was an iconic triumpherant’s conclusive act. He was a democratic icon. He was an unabashed liberal. Yet, his advocacy was not adversarial. His compassion was not political. Paraphrasing his words, “Senator Kennedy 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 stop it…”

Senator Kennedy and I disagreed. However, I respected his manner. Kennedy would argue and share subsequent cocktails. He would compromise and sacrifice ideology. In his nation, politics remained public service. In his nation, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die.