Good Night, Camelot
Saturday was Ted Kennedy’s funeral. It took place about a mile from my house in Boston and for days before low flying surveillance helicopters made me feel like I was in the end of the Ice Cube video.
I remember on the day of the inauguration, hearing that Ted Kennedy had collapsed at the Inaugural luncheon. To me there was something almost Shakespearean about it– the trusted adviser of the young, new king collapsing at the feast–but when have the Kennedy’s lives been anything but theatrical?
I don’t usually talk much about politics, cause I don’t actually know anything about politics but on Friday night at a bar affectionately referred to by locals as “The Cougar Zone” I heard an inebriated cougar slur that “Ted Kennedy wannnt so great. HE jus…He jus…He jus fell guilty about leaving tha lady to die anneez tryna make upfer it so he can go ta heaven. Im Cath-a-lic too so I know. I know.”
So yeah, the inebriated rantings of a bleach blonde cougar aren’t particularly profound but it did make me think. Clearly this woman felt that Ted Kennedy’s tragic mistake was what defined him, even beyond all that he did later in life. I think though that a lot of people would agree that perhaps that was exactly what made him great. The Chappaquidick incident damaged Kennedy’s chances of ever running for President, but at the same time he followed up this horrific tragedy with some of the most socially responsible policymaking and constituent support that the country has ever seen. No one but Ted Kennedy knows how he truly felt in the aftermath of the accident, but it’s pretty amazing to see someone make a terrible public mistake and come back swinging and fighting and working to make change, instead of slinking into the shadows in shame.
Ted, you will be missed.
