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Senator TedAugust 26, 2009 The senior senator from my state died last night. This comes as no big surprise: Senator Kennedy has been fighting brain cancer for a year and a half, and when he didn't attend his sister's funeral a couple of weeks ago, I had a hunch the end was closing in. He was diagnosed with brain cancer not long before my father was. My father chose not to go the biopsy and treatment route; he said he was learning all he needed to know from the news reports about Senator Kennedy. My father was a lifelong and active Democrat from a Republican family. He definitely relished having something in common with the senior senator from our home state, even if that something was a terminal illness. My father died a little more than three months after his diagnosis, aware of the world and getting about almost up to the end. State-of-the-art treatment gave Senator Kennedy a year and a half. My father was 10 years older than Kennedy. He felt he'd pretty well wrapped things up. Kennedy still had work to do. I hope he managed to get it done. Edward M. Kennedy was first elected to the Senate in 1962, when I was 11 years old. He was 30, the minimum age required to serve in the U.S. Senate. Of course, as his Democratic primary opponent, Edward McCormack, pointed out, if his name had been just Edward Moore, instead of Edward Moore Kennedy, he wouldn't have been elected. JFK was in the White House, RFK was attorney general; Teddy needed a job. He defeated McCormack in the primary and George Cabot Lodge in the general election (I ransacked my memory for the name of his Republican opponent and finally came up with Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr.). He got the job. He's been a phenomenally good senator all these years. The historical record will remember that when it's mostly forgotten Chappaquiddick and his multitudinous personal weaknesses. I like to think that if he could write his own obituary, it would say something like this: "In lieu of flowers, please devote some time, money, and/or energy to making sure that comprehensive health-care reform succeeds in this country." And you know, that's what I most admire about the guy. He never had to worry about money, but he never forgot that millions upon millions of us, in Massachusetts and across the country, have to worry about money all of the time, and that it saps our strength and limits our imaginations every day of our lives. Adieu, Senator Ted. Your journey's done, and you've left us a well-blazed trail to follow. Here's hoping we have the courage to keep moving forward.
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