Edward "Ted" Kennedy passed away from an aggressive form of brain cancer on Tuesday evening. He was 77 years old, and had served in the U.S. Senate for 46 years. I had the pleasure of working for the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law Voting Rights Project during my tenure in law school in the early 1990s, and Senator Kennedy was always a strong and stalwart supporter of the incredibly important Voting Rights Act. We always relied on him to support measures to promote social justice and he was always there to sign a letter, lend support to a measure, or for any reason. As time passed, when there were threats to the Voting Rights Act, or other civil rights measures, Senator Kennedy was one of - well, likely the MOST - important voice to be heard to save, and if possible, promote, further social progress. This article from the New York Times is a touching portrait of the compassionate, powerful, and very human Ted Kennedy.
Here is a particularly moving portion of the article (the concluding section, in fact) - how interesting that the "black sheep" or the son who would have been last chosen to make a mark on the US likely made the biggest mark of them all. He will be greatly missed. Rest in Peace.
“He was a quintessential Kennedy, in the sense that he had all the warts as well as all the charisma and a lot of the strengths,” said Norman J. Ornstein, a political scientist at the American Enterprise Institute. “If his father, Joe, had surveyed, from an early age up to the time of his death, all of his children, his sons in particular, and asked to rank them on talents, effectiveness, likelihood to have an impact on the world, Ted would have been a very poor fourth. Joe, John, Bobby ... Ted.
“He was the survivor,” Mr. Ornstein continued. “He was not a
shining star that burned brightly and faded away. He had a long, steady
glow. When you survey the impact of the Kennedys on American life and
politics and policy, he will end up by far being the most significant.”
