I readily admit to having had my share of teary-eyed moments over the past weekend, as I watched the many tributes that were bestowed on the late Ted Kennedy. He was, over the course of his long career in the Senate, all the things those who spoke of him said he was: a champion of liberal causes, a tireless fighter for the disadvantaged, a lion in the legislative body that was his professional home for nearly half a century, a loving family man, a warm friend to his colleagues on both sides of the aisle, the last icon from a storied family in American history, a true patriot in the deepest sense of the word.
He was all of those things, which is part of the reason I joined with most other Americans in mourning his death, expected though it was, from the terminal brain cancer that he had fought for 15 months.
But Ted Kennedy’s life story, for me at least, goes deeper and is, therefore, more poignant and more meaningful. For his story is not of a saint who died all too young, but rather of a real human being who had sinned greatly in his youth and had redeemed his life (and, if you will, his soul) in his later years.
Chappaquiddick was not Kennedy’s finest hour – far from it. For those who may not know the details, here’s a brief summary of the known facts and the reasonable inferences therefrom.
On the night of July 18, 1969, Kennedy was a 37-year old, twice-elected Senator from Massachusetts who only a little over a year earlier had seen his second older brother, Bobby, assassinated. He was at that point the patriarch of the family, the sole surviving brother of the original four (Joe, Jr., killed in WW II, John assassinated while president in 1963, and Bobby, then a candidate for president, in June of ‘68).
He was also married to his first wife and was already the father of the three children she gave birth to by him. The youngest of those three, Patrick, was just two years old at the time. The marriage had been rocky, largely, according to reliable press reports at the time, due to Ted’s womanizing and excessive drinking.
On that night, Kennedy had attended a party for former female workers on Bobby’s campaign. The party was held in honor of the “Boiler Room Girls,” as the press reported, on a small island, Chappaquiddick, off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard, a long-time Kennedy family hangout. One of those “girls” was a 28-year old single woman named Mary Jo Kopechne, whose photos showed her to be not at all unattractive, for what that fact is worth.
For some reason, here reasonable assumptions can be made, she left the party with the young Senator. He was driving. At a point known as Dike Bridge, their car plunged into the Poucha Pond Inlet, where it quickly submerged. Kennedy managed to extricate himself from the car and to swim to shore. Kopechne remained in the car. Her drowned body was later recovered by the authorities.
How much later is the other sad and sordid part of the story, because the Senator did not report the “accident” until some nine hours had elapsed. A week later he pled guilty to “leaving the scene of an accident” and was given a two-month suspended sentence. A subsequent grand jury refused to indict him on more serious charges (including a manslaughter charge that the evidence most likely would have supported).
The incident must have haunted Kennedy for the rest of his life. How could it not? To be even remotely responsible for the death of another human being is a burden no one can ignore, and to be a proximate cause of such a death, especially under the tawdry circumstances that most probably existed on that July night, would be the kind of weighty and discomforting memory that would be life-changing for almost any member of our species.
For Kennedy, it may have been a defining incident, but how it defined him is another matter. He certainly did not appear to change his philandering ways in the succeeding years, even as he matured and developed a keen sense of his responsibilities as a Senator and leader of his political party.
In fact, fully twenty-two years after Chappaquiddick, now long divorced, Kennedy was at least remotely involved in an incident in which his nephew, William Kennedy Smith, was charged with rape.
Smith was ultimately acquitted of the charges, but the background story did not put the then 59-year old Senator in a favorable light. One report had him walking in on his son Patrick and Smith while they were “engaged” with their female companions for the night. He was reported to have been wearing nothing more than a “bedshirt” at the time. (You take it from there.)
By all accounts, Kennedy’s personal life did turn around when he met and married Victoria Anne Reggie, now his widow. With her, he apparently reformed himself, becoming the saintly, silver-haired patriarch whose death last week served to inaugurate a celebration of his life.
I have absolutely no quarrel with the celebration. History will record that Kennedy was a great American, and it will be right to do so. In devoting his professional career to the underprivileged and in fighting incessantly for equal rights for all Americans, he was a hero to many who share those views.
But there is more to a man than those things that can be noted in the public record. There is, in fact, a real life behind that record. Ted Kennedy’s real life was seriously flawed and desperately in need of redemption.
His great fortune was to live long enough to form a deeper kind of relationship with his second wife that matched his commitment to the causes he had always espoused. And by joining the two, he may well have found the redemption that allowed him to move from this earthly existence in a state of peace.
I hope, for him, it was so.
Very tastefully written. I’ve received many emails of his unsavory past, to the exclusion of what he had achieved in life.
I think the timing of the well known incident could be psychologically attributed to some more than tragic family deaths. The Kennedy’s have had more than their share of them. Not many men can say they lost not one, but two brothers to tragic assisinations.
Personally I chose to view the good he’s done, which has far outweighed the bad. I would love to read his memoirs, and see how he felt about his life. Perhaps the inner demons chewed him up far more than any of us could even guess.
Perhaps Victoria Reggie steered him towards the right path at a time when he was ready to complete his life purpose. Perhaps she did not judge.
Your examinination of his life was fair and balanced, and I hope the man has found some real peace.
Sniff, sniff! Now I’m a little teary-eyed! What a beautiful piece. What a journey, indeed.
Professor Telfeyan, you do a wonderful job of reminding us all that he was a real human being, flaws and all. You honor his memory without ignoring the difficult or controversial aspects of his life. His personal demons tended to overshadow his work. At least in the media. Even I made jokes about the man.
I don’t have all the details about Chappaquiddick, but it seems to me that the real issue was his handling of the accident. He burned a lot of calories trying to come up with an alibi. That makes you appear shady. And always makes the incident appear so much worse. And that sort of thing tends to follow you around.
But that is some serious trauma right there. Who knows how any one of us would have reacted in response to such a tragedy.
I know that I wouldn’t want a bunch of strangers judging me based on the worst night of my life and ignoring my good qualities and accomplishments because of where I was at during my lowest point.
You just don’t know what it’s like for someone. And this entire family has a long history of trauma, tragedy, and scandal.
That’s the thing though, here we have a perfectly flawed individual. Looking at his life, all of his life, he should be a source of hope and inspiration to us all.
Rest in peace, Mr. Kennedy.
As a Catholic, I watched the funeral proceedings with very mixed emotions. Here was a man, ostensibly one of prayer, but maybe like me in one aspect – he sought the Lord’s wisdom, was granted it, and did exactly the opposite of his inner moral imperatives.
He was like King David, “a man after God’s own heart,” according to Scripture. David did a lot of evil things, including murder to satisfy his lust. He wrote or assembled the Psalms, the greatest collection of laudatory songs and exhortations ever inspired.
Teddy knew how to rejoice to the delight of many as was clear in the testimony of his family, colleagues and friends. He also knew how to destroy his enemies and come out looking like a great conciliator; Robert Bork and Clarence Thomas come to mind. For him it was largely the political game – if not the art of ruling.
My perspective on the Kennedy’s was formed by my friend and colleague, the late Morton Downey, Jr., “The Mouth” – “The Father of Trash Talk TV.” Sean Morton Downey grew up in Hyannis Port with the Kennedy’s and was part of Jack’s Camelot transition team. He told me in 1980 that Teddy was the odd one of the Kennedy boys. All had their faults, all were courageous and dedicated, but Teddy leaned so far left, he ultimately was instrumental in electing possibly the most totalitarian President in history, czar’s and all.
In the days of “Bells of St. Mary’s,” “The Song of Bernadette,” and “Knute Rockne,” the Catholic voice was the joyous and solid and moral one. These were the peak years of building hospitals and charitable institutions that should be setting the tone for any approach to solve the uninsured problem.
Today, no moral voice with an understanding of Natural Law has the ear of the President. I’m reminded of Catholic Frank Fitzsimmons, head of the AFL-CIO when Reagan was President. Between them, Lech Walesa and Pope John Paul II, they engineered the collapse of the Soviet Union without firing a shot. I fear the AFL-CIO today if for no other reason than their seat at the New York Federal Reserve and dumping their pension programs on the taxpayer.
My own joys and struggles as a Catholic include being scandalized by Catholic elected officials who flaunt their ungodly views in the face of the Church while approaching the Eucharist. This would include Kennedy, Pelosi, Daschle, Sibelius; Dodd and the dozens of anti-life Catholic Governors, Senators and Congressmen, especially from the coastal states.
Have the poor he fought so hard for ended up poorer in spirit and fact because they lost much of their innate ability for self reliance due to the largely Catholic-led ill-defined social justice that made them dependent on the government? The breakdown of the family is alone sufficient evidence of misguided zeal.
Kennedy made a great contribution to bringing about racial equality, even if it has often gone to the extremes of “getting even” rather than joining hands and enhancing our true diversity – that of our God-given gifts and talents coupled with an environment where vision and hard work can allow upward mobility and the right to fail and start over. We are instead plunging down the road of defining our diversity as racial and ethnic, tearing asunder the long held American theme of “e pluribus unum.” We have been engulfed with political correctness with all its vilification, lawsuits, fines and lifestyle policing. I see PC as wrong and even evil.
I was holding my breath as the funeral Mass approached, wondering how the Church would remember one of her most famous and prodigal sons. She responded in spades – not only in what was said, but what was not. The Bible readings reflected Teddy’s passion for social justice. The homilist and pastor masterfully exhorted the congregation to faith and assured us that Teddy’s last days were spent in reconciliation with our Lord in preparation for his eternal destiny. For that I rejoice. I should be so fortunate at the end of my own dysfunctional life.
The feathers from the burst pillow of his enthusiasm for misguided help for the poor are blown throughout the world. It is left for future leaders to try to collect them and restore the American dream of self reliance and generosity for the poor and needy unmatched anywhere in the world.
We are far from that path today as Teddy endorsed what CNN Chris Matthews has called “the last Kennedy brother.” This new President has overwhelmed the system of checks and balances with his Alinskyite tactics and avowed radical “Czars,” some professed Communists, Eugenists and Weather Underground founders entrusted to oversee the nation’s finances, manufacturing, diversity, freedom of speech and health care.
From my view, in spite of Teddy’s solid dedication, having thrown off his faith for most of his life, he like most Catholics had little understanding of how to apply the principle of subsidiarity. The Pope tried to explain it to the UN General Assembly last April. Social justice without subsidiarity and the Corporal Works of Mercy is far less than ideal and even destructive.
Like Ed, I pray that Teddy will be remembered for the good he did. We all share in the human comedy.
that wasn’t an official ofcfie but he certainly didn’t have anything bad to say about the flag or Guevara did he? Kind of like saying hey I’m a good guy and I don’t even mind if my supporters like murderous thugs. But I digress-Guess who else was a Cuban sympathizer? That’s right class, Lee Harvey Oswald, a marksmen that never met a communist he didn’t like.Now, let us put it all together–Che Guevara was Castro’s chief persecutor-er I mean prosecutor, he was personally responsible for the killings of thousands of Cubans. If you need to check that for truth ride on down to Miami and start waving a Guevara flag.-JFK was killed by a Cuban sympathizer (Oswald) or maybe that should be plural depending on who you believe and how tight your tin foil is wrapped.-Teddy (speed racer) and Maria Schriver endorse Obama.-Obama could care less about a Cuban Guevara flag flown in his supporter’s ofcfie.Does the irony escape Teddy and Maria? I’ll have what he’s drinking…The point here is that the Democrats are very quick to forget history and when someone reminds them they are even quicker to dismiss it. Here’s another fact for you-One of the former members of the terrorist group Weather Underground, William Ayers, proclaimed in an interview with the New York Times published on 9/11/01 that he didn’t regret setting bombs (A series of bombings that occurred in the 70s and included the U.S. Capitol and the Pentagon).Guess who Mr. Ayers supports? That’s right, Obama. In fact Mr. Ayers served on The Woods Fund (an anti poverty group) with Obama from 1999 to 2002. Swapping ideas I’d venture.And before any of you say I’m just a white guy railing on a black guy running for President, well I say there is no black guy running for President, Obama is white, at least his mother is but he hasn’t said much about that either has he?Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain folks. It’s all about change anyway, the change in your pockets that is.