The legacy of the Kennedys
I’m not much for dynasties and only science should be empirical. But they call the Kennedys “America’s Family” and I think that says a lot about who we, Americans, are, and who we want to be.
Ted Kennedy died and I knew of the man, of course saw his actions in the Obama Era as noble, progressive, right. I know from my interest in history and social change that Robert and John Kennedy were magnetic forces of their times and that they gave their lives for their ideals. Any dreamer can revere that, and so I figure Ted more than most would revere his brothers lost before their time. The goodness I believe he took from those tragedies was a true feeling of responsibility to pursue Rightness.
For me, and for many Americans, it is an era of sincere skepticism towards the ability of our elected officials to turn the squeaky wheels of government in the direction of progress. I want change to happen NOW and I distrust anyone who says otherwise. I am tempted to give up hope because we have waited so long for its fruition.
But I heard Ted Kennedy died today, and I happened upon this speech:
And it moved me, and it made me reevaluate myself. It is easier for me to distrust the men and women in Congress than it is to focus myself towards my own work, towards progress in my own life. It is easier for me to believe nothing will change than it is for me to be a force of change. It is easier to doubt and do nothing because when nothing happens at least my own self righteousness will be confirmed.
But the lesson I am revisiting today is simple: life, like change, is not easy. Ted Kennedy lost two brothers to the turbulence of America changing, but held fast to his own ideals for the remainder of his time on Earth.
I tend to romanticize the fire, not the light; it is JFK that racks my focus, not the story of a little brother who grew up and endured. But it only through a steady, unyielding endurance that we will make it down the road of Change. The best that I can do is be great, in the face of my own self’s limitations, and rely on you to make up for my stark weaknesses.
And that’s a lesson I learned, from a man I never knew, from a background I will never have. It is nothing to trumpet; it is something that we all should think about, should continue thinking about, as we go back to our own lives’ work, make a thousand choices that right now will only matter to us but that, in time, might matter very much, to everyone.
powerful!