TED KENNEDY SAILS ON

One of my favorite personal Ted Kennedy stories: Sen. Kennedy showed up unaccompanied at a reception my organization was hosting on Capitol Hill. As previous guests before him, Sen. Kennedy stepped to the registration table where our vigilant (and stunned) student interns wrote out his name tag. He made some polite chit chat with them before sticking the label on his suit and wading into the affair … as if anyone in Washington would mistake the man.

He carried out the Kennedy agenda his brothers were denied. He championed the rights of the poor, minorities and women; opposed any form of discrimination based on race, ethnicity, gender, disability, age or sexual orientation. This extremely wealthy man sided with workers, immigrants and refugees. He expanded access to education and health care and fairness in the courts, administrative agencies, and the Justice Department. He opposed the death penalty and fought to end war. He supported every major gun-safety initiative since the Gun Control Act of 1968. He was hard-working and always gracious to me. As Washington Cardinal Theodore McCarrick acknowledged at his interment service, “[W]e always were touched by his passion for the underdog, for the rights of working people, for better education and for adequate health care for every American. His legacy will surely place him among the dozen or so greats in the history of the Senate of the United States."

May the wind be at your back….