Edward Moore Kennedy

I've been toiling away in ole Dixie, helping my brother move into his new place in South Carolina. Computer time has been nonexistent for the past few days, but with the funeral service for the late Senator this weekend I had to offer a few words on the subject. I think many people my age, especially if they don't follow politics, don't realize just how influential and important Senator Kennedy has been over the past five decades that he served the nation in office. In his age, I think he became something of a character. Known only for his impressive name and as fodder for late night talk show comedians.

It would have been easy for Kennedy to get into public office based on only his name, and then proceed to coast by on that reputation and live forever in mediocrity (see Bush, George W.). However, that isn't the route this man chose. At a young age, as the junior senator from Mass., he was quick to make a name for himself. He was instrumental in pushing through the immigration act of 1965 that finally eliminated ethnic quotas for people immigrating into the United States. His eulogy of his brother Robert, after his assassination in 1968, was one of the more memorable speeches of the past 50 years of American politics.

"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."

In 1971, he passed the National Cancer Act which was meant to increase government funding and research aimed at combating the disease. In that same year, he began to call for peace in Northern Ireland, a place afflicted by sectarian violence for decades. Ending the violence here became one of his many career spanning goals, and one which was achieved in the late 1990's. He also began to campaign for health care and insurance reform, which was another battle he fought until his passing recently. He was a strong supporter of Obama's current plan which is before Congress today. After Watergate, he championed the Federal Election Campaign Act Amendment of 1974 which limited the amount of money that could be contributed to candidates and set up a means for public financing. He made only one unsuccessful run for the presidency in 1980, losing the Democratic primary to Jimmy Carter, who would later lose to Ronald Reagan. His speech at the '80 Democratic Convention is considered the best of his career and a rallying cry for all liberals, even now nearly 30 years later. He expanded the powers of the Voting Rights Act to enable all persons aged 18 years or older to vote, gave equal funding to women's college sports under Title IX, fought for AIDS research funding, and fought for equal right for homosexuals, all under the overwhelmingly Republican government of Reagan's first term. He also fought tireless against the Apartheid government in South Africa, and was one of the leading American officials speaking out against the injustices there. Even leading the override of Reagan's veto of the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act of 1986 which enacted harsh sanctions on the government of South Africa as long as conditions there remained the same. In 1990, he fought with the George H.W. Bush's administration and Republican Senate to pass the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Ryan White Care Act (to provide funding for low income or uninsured victims of the AIDS virus to get treatment).

It was after this that the troubled Senator's personal life started to overshadow the good he did for the nation, and he was in the news more for his alcoholism than for his politics, and this is where the political consciousness of much of my generation begins. Above I listed only some of the major contributions the man had made, not only to America, but to the world as well. He remained an effective symbolic and, for lack of a better word, spiritual leader to the Democratic party until his passing a short week ago. His is an inspiring presence, a larger than life figure. His chair will be a tough one to fill. One can only hope that his successor will try to live up to his legacy as best he can.