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Who Will Give Teddy's Eulogy?
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Obama, Biden, Kerry, and McCain will give speeches at Ted Kennedy's funeral services, but for decades, it has been a family tradition for the Kennedy brothers to eulogize their fallen siblings—John did it for Joe Jr., Bobby did it for John, and Teddy did it for Bobby. Now that the last brother has passed away, Kennedy biographer Thurston Clarke picks the perfect relative to bid farewell to the Lion of the Senate.
Until now, it has been the custom for the oldest surviving Kennedy brother to eulogize his fallen sibling. But who should deliver the eulogy for the last of the four Kennedy brothers?
After eulogizing his fallen brother, tears streamed down Bobby’s face as he left the stage, and for the next 15 minutes he sat alone on a fire escape, weeping.
After Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. died while undertaking a hazardous mission to bomb German V-bomb bases in France, Jack Kennedy collected reminiscences from relatives, classmates, and teachers, publishing them in the privately printed As We Remember Joe. The introduction served as Jack’s eulogy to Joe. "I sometimes wonder whether I ever really knew him," he wrote. "He had always a slight detachment from things around him–a wall of reserve which few people ever succeeded in penetrating [lines that could just as easily have been written about their author after his assassination]. . . . His worldly success was so assured and inevitable that his death seems to have cut into the natural order of things."
• The Daily Beast's Complete Kennedy Coverage: Tributes, Photos, and VideosRobert Kennedy delivered a tribute to JFK at the 1964 Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City. After telling delegates, "When there were periods of crisis, you stood beside him. When there were periods of happiness, you laughed with him. And when there were periods of sorrow, you comforted him," he inserted a passage from Shakespeare into the prepared text and, in a voice choked with emotion, said, "When I think of President Kennedy, I think of what Shakespeare said in Romeo and Juliet: ‘When he shall die, take him and cut him out into stars, and he shall make the face of heaven so fine that all the world will be love with the night, and pay no worship to the garish sun.’" Tears streamed down his face as he left the stage, and for the next fifteen minutes he sat alone on a fire escape, weeping.
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Four years later, it was Ted Kennedy, the youngest and last brother, who eulogized Bobby at his funeral in St Patrick’s Cathedral. His voice quivered and his eyes filled with tears as he said, "My brother need not be idealized, or enlarged in death beyond what he was in life, to be remembered simply as a good and decent man, who saw wrong and tried to right it, saw suffering and tried to heal it, saw war and tried to stop it. Those of us who loved him and who take him to his rest today, pray that what he was to us and what he wished for others will some day come to pass for all the world. 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.’"
Who in Ted’s family could deliver a speech comparable to his heartbreaking tribute to Bobby?
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Who Will Give Teddy's Eulogy?
Thurston Clarke has written ten books, including The Last Campaign: Robert F. Kennedy and 82 Days That Inspired America (a New York Times bestseller), California Fault (a New York Times Notable Book) and Ask Not: The Inauguration of John F. Kennedy and the Speech That Changed America. His articles have been published in Vanity Fair, The New York Times, and The Washington Post.
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Richard Wolffe is Daily Beast columnist and an award-winning journalist, political analyst for MSNBC, and senior strategist at Public Strategies. He covered the entire length of Barack Obama's presidential campaign for Newsweek magazine. His book, Renegade: The Making of a President, will be published by Crown in June.
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Thurston Clarke has written ten books, including The Last Campaign: Robert F. Kennedy and 82 Days That Inspired America (a New York Times bestseller), California Fault (a New York Times Notable Book) and Ask Not: The Inauguration of John F. Kennedy and the Speech That Changed America. His articles have been published in Vanity Fair, The New York Times, and The Washington Post.
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Thurston Clarke has written ten books, including The Last Campaign: Robert F. Kennedy and 82 Days That Inspired America (a New York Times bestseller), California Fault (a New York Times Notable Book) and Ask Not: The Inauguration of John F. Kennedy and the Speech That Changed America. His articles have been published in Vanity Fair, The New York Times, and The Washington Post.
I see TDB already had their stockpile of Ted Kennedy articles in the queue, waiting for the death announcement.
Yes as did every other news organization large and small. And your point?
Won't be Mary Jo Kopechne giving Teddy's eulogy.
Nah, she's part of the welcoming committee.
gees, we've got some mean spirited folks posting here
jackee: Are you going to do this to Laura Bush when she dies?
jackee, the man is dead.
Think maybe you could be polite and respectful and just sit this one out.
Jackee... are you going to post that on every single article?
Have some class, you soulless shrew.
Joe Biden said today that Ted Kennedy was never petty, never small. Perhaps you could learn something from him, jackee.
Nice article. This is very well thought out. Kudos to Mr. Clarke for a job well done.
I was in High School when President Kennedy was killed. I was in the military when Robert Kennedy was killed, and now I'm retired and Ted Kennedy has died. I believed in Camelot, and I was going to vote for Robert Kennedy. Bless them all, and my they all have found peace.
Old Hippy
Me too...much sadness in my heart today.
I was in college in Tennessee when President Kennedy was assassinated.
When his death was announced, most of the other students started celebrating and whooping with joy.
Our nation was divided then, and it seems to remain divided now.
Amen. Teddy, I always admired how your turned personal tragedy and your own immature mistakes into your career as one of our truly great Senators. Your concern for the welfare of the little guy was constant. If only we had 100 of you in the Senate.
RIP, Friend.
Crying, crying, since 2 a.m.; sad day for Americans lost of an American Hero from our American Royal Family.
Caroline if she's not to upset would be the perfect one to do Teddy's Eulogy.
God Bless his entire family.
I haven't been able to sleep. I am surprised how hard it hit me.
I suppose you think she should inherit his Senate seat too.
Why don't you stop being so cynical, jackee. If you did'nt like the guy, stop posting on this site. Obviously, no one else shares your thoughts
Ted's eulogy for Bobby was beautiful and heartfelt and one of the best I've ever heard.
What about Ambassador Jean Kennedy Smith??
Lucifer lock up your liquor cabinet and keep an eye on your daughter.
Did I miss something?? Did Rush , Bill O, or Bush die too??
No Mary Jo's killer did....
dalelama: Then I'm sure you will celebrate when Laura Bush (W.'s wife) dies.
As a teenager, Laura Welch ran a stop sign, killing the sole occupant of the other vehicle that she hit.
Another cold-blooded killer for you...
dalelama: Are you going to do this to Laura Bush when she dies?
Laura was #1 a teenager not a US Senator, #2 she wasn't driving drunk, #3 she wasn't married and dragging off a member of the opposite sex for a quicky, and #4 she didn't avoid the police while she conferred with her handler's attempting to figure out how to avoid responsibility. You Liberals just can't deal with reality.
dalelama, are you really so hateful that you need to attack a dead man?
AlanD2 - Was she drunk and did she leave the scene of the accident?
dalelama & jbuzz1: If you kill somebody by accident, do the circumstances matter that much? Laura wasn't drunk, but she did make a mistake that caused another person to die.
You can rationalize all you want, but in this respect, she is very much like Ted Kennedy.
As are we all, to a greater or lesser degree.
Such angry republicans. The man got in a car accident 40 years ago and plead guilty to leaving the scene--those are the facts. Everything else is speculation. Oh, he was driving with a woman in the car and he was married--a Sin! right?
Guys, there is enough good stuff that is current. L Craig, D Vitter, M Sanford, R. Limbaugh, B O'reilly...you don't need to go back 40 years and speculate. We have enough admitted Sinners right now!
You have a problem
Robert Kennedy Jr. The only choice, and the one Kennedy that is ready to pick up the mantle of his fallen father and uncles. What other choice would there be?
Noooo, RFK Jr should not speak publicly any more - that throat/vocal chord condition of his makes him into a Katherine Hepburn impersonator, okay?
No, no, no. Think just a little bit more outside the box.
Cousin Arnold.
What could be more American?
jackee, give it a rest. You've been adding MaryJo comments for months. The Senator made an enormous, acknowledged mistake, but has spent his life doing good for the most down-trodden. Without Teddy and his staff, many immigrants would not have safe haven in the States, they saved the fishing industry in Massachusetts, started Head Start and spearheaded Title 9 - programs many children have benefitted from. Ted got 18 year olds the right to vote. And if not for his enormous influence, we would not be on the verge of getting healthcare for those in needs (the crazies on the far right notwithstanding). That, jackee, is just the tip of the Teddy iceberg, which includes over 15,000 Senate votes. He has never taken a salary on top of all this. You can make snide remarks about his wealth. of course, but he wasn't getting richer on my tax dollars. You add this in to the fact that he served as surrogate father to so many children who lost their fathers to tragedy (despite how you may feel about his family). You are throwing tiny pebbles of snark at this giant, a man whose generosity and dedication to making life better for the less fortunate probably did more for the country before breakfast every morning than people like you will do in a lifetime.
To summarize: the mental midgets resent Ted Kennedy's grand stature, and they think they can aggrandize themselves by cutting him down to size. But their grubby little nails don't even make a dent. In death, his life has more value than theirs ever will, because they are just dwarfs, both mentally and in terms of their historical significance.
I'm not a dwarf. I prefer to be called a little person.
amen, tehixe
Thank you .. I was going to figure out what to say, but I couldn't have said it better than you just did. They say we have two lives, the one with which we learn and then the one that comes next. Ted Kennedy made a glorious thing out of the one that came next.
My heart goes out to those who worship someone who has done more to rot the fabric of this nation than any other, His persistent efforts to keep the downtrodden in place by addicting them to the needle of the government dole are unsurpassed. If he hadn't been born a Kennedy he would have just been another in the gutter alcoholic with a manslaughter charge on his rap sheet.
@dalelama: I guess it hurts to be so small of mind, doesn't it? Especially when you measure yourself against a man who actually mattered. You spread hatred and fear, and he protected the weak. I can see why you're so afraid of his legacy.
Recognizing the efforts of a person's lifetime is far from 'worship'. Don't be so quick to jump to an unreasonable and untrue extreme.
Al-nafs, dalelama is an extremist. Telling him not to jump to an extreme is like telling a fish not to swim; a waste of time. All we can do with people like that is point out their obvious problems accepting reality or following a clear line of logical thought, so that others do not take him at face value.
Very well said, Baubles 04. The Kennedys were our version of royalty. Jack had greater potential than any president in my lifetime. Bobby was very loving and compassionate; his potential as president unknown; now Teddy, already referred to as the greatest senator in recent history. All made terrible mistakes (usually sexual) with Teddy's being the worst which involved Miss Kopeckne. Drunken parties frequently result in tragedy. Sad, no less.
This post is about Edward m. Kennedy
The Book ov Lev It A Kiss was inspired in 1969, when the author was on a ship, 40 days and 40 nights. It was not the author's idea that he would be given "words for all man kind," a Television Scripture to recite - use as a base - to create a twelve "our" video 'trans crypt,' in a live performance from dusk until dawn, on whirled wide television, with every line a delicate sensible rhyme, for all the world's peoples to participate in all at once.
That was and is the michael stephen levinson plan. Here is a column from The Book ov Lev. It begins with reference to "Sirhan Bishra Sirhan / The ass ass in be gan / As a gjenteel man" (but those three lines are at the bottom of the column leading into what I have copied here.)
In this lan duv
Male or dur guns
Wor ship no idols
They shall be smote down.
Frum a soft asst sel
The smirk in for in er
Smirks at us all
Liv in bed er then moes
He God a cough e pot
Ina pre vert id guard
Call it a filmd e vent
Dis poze uv him ina
Pair a shoot on the Nile.
Ov the girl Kopechne
Who died at Mar thuz
Vin yurd
Let the ded lie buried
Lie down on er grave
Those who wud or
Dur her grave dug
Wud dig ov thoze
Who ar God's own
Her soul is in ter red
Adman will clean air
In free her she was good
Ov the rest uv the Ken
E de die nasty
Joe syph the hate er
Made a rose draw blood
The luv er uv Hit ler
Died ina bed spoon fed
Lee Oswald was
A co in se dense
Wut a man dont no
Duz in hurt im
"Adman will clean air in free her she was good." What happened in the car when Kennedy lost control on the bridge and the car went over the side into the water? Do you want to know?
She put her hand on his pants, and it got crowded inside. He said, "Take it out." She unzipped his trousers. She was a good Catholic girl. She worshipped the Kennedys! She took one look and went down on him.
Had Teddy not been drinking maybe none of this would have happened. He was an Irish guy with a couple three drinks under his belt who immediately popped his nuts and lost control of the car. A hand job and he would have made it over the bridge.
That is what happened. The Kennedy family fought exhuming her grave to conduct an autopsy because they would have found (Ted's) seminal salt in her throat. That is what the Lev (michael stephen levinson) was going to recite - tell the world -
Adman will clean air
In free her she was good
- during his world wide broadcast, which Lev expected to accomplish in 1971-72, at 2:00 a.m. in the morning, after retelling the story of Adman and Even in the Gar Den ov Edum, the Creation being how G-d created Adman in His image, and tracing all the generations of men, settling up with the Russians to bring an end to the Cold War, and so much more, Lev was goping to tell what happened to Kennedy that night in the car.
(Levinson also talked about this to grad stew dense (dent is the singular) he trusted and amongst those students were f be eye people who passed this information on to j. edgarina, the cross dressing fascist pervert of dirt, who was outraged. Hoover made Michael Stephen Levinson a person of 'Special' interest and to this day f b i interferes with his life.
One likes to imagine the world would be interested in a creative man who created a work of art expressly for all man kind, a work of art that could initiate World Peace beginning with a peaceful night.
The Lev Television Scripture (one column quoted above) is a prophetic work. As world events unfold it turns out many were carefully described in advance: Nixon is described leaving the White House in disgrace, Agnew is a tragic hero over money, wallace gets a shot in the back, the earth heats up and the arctic ice caps melt, the Persian Gulf War, when it would take place, why, who would do the fighting and how it would turn out, and more.
Kennedy grew to become a great man. He will get to Heaven before his detractors.
To see the poet prophet youtube.com/poetprophet
To find out more www.michaelslevinson.com
To see software to teach the alphabet and numbers which cannot be marketed to schools in USA (because of your f be i) www.alphabet-learning.com
To see Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis stark nekked same place
To a great statesman, and a man who saw wrong in the world and tried to make it right.
You're giving him a lot of credit if you believe the things he did was out of selflessness rather than selfishness. Those he killed would be disappointed indeed.
The sick thing about you Wrong wingers is that if you agreed with his politics, you'd never remember an accidental death that he caused. If Rush ran someone over, it wouldn't be his fault, and if anyone brought it up, you'd preach forgiveness and say that we needed to move on. But because you don't like Ted Kennedy, he could save the whole world and you'd still call him a killer.
Just one more piece of evidence that the Wrong Wing cares nothing about deeds, and everything about identity. That's why Sarah Palin is so beloved, because she's One of Us. That's why Mitt Romney could never win a GOP nomination, not because you don't like his politics, but because you can never quite be sure that he's One of Us. And that is the single, solitary thing that matters to the Wrong Wing.
Bloggers remember you can be revealed! Goggle was sued and a blogger's identity was revealed to the person she wrote about..........Hmm wonder if you cowards would be writing such nasty scathing remarks if we all knew who you were............
So, you think if TK sued TDB, they could give out my name?
It's legal education time. The First Amendment protects speech, but not defamatory speech. Defamatory speech is that which makes false statements about someone and injures their reputation. I'm not sure whether a dead person's estate could sue for defamation, it may depend on the state.
Now, public figures cannot sue for defamation unless the comment was made with "actual malice." Actual malice means either a) you knew you were lying or b) you were extremely reckless as to the truth. This is an incredibly hard thing to prove, so public figures rarely sue for defamation. And it would be moronic for TK's estate to start suing random TBD posters anyway. Nobody really listens to them, and a great many of them probably don't have enough money to satisfy a judgment. The fact is, TK's legacy is too strong to be destroyed by a small handful of rude people on one internet site, so there really is no reason for his family to care.
Time for legal re-education time. Apparently, tehixe didn't go to law school. Or if he did, it was to some school in the Bahamas. The legal fact is that you can't defame the dead. Look it up.
Classy. To quote myself, "I'm not sure whether a dead person's estate could sue for defamation." You'll have to forgive me for graduating from a tier 1 law school as #5 in my class but forgetting one thing (I'm sure if you'd done the same you would have a 100% recall).
But wait, you won't forgive me for honestly admitting what I don't know and don't care to look up. To you, if a liberal makes one mistake, it's because he's retarded. If a conservative makes dozens, you love them just the same because they're One of Us. The more you talk, the more you prove your hypocrisy, so by all means keep flapping that mouth.
You are SO right tina78. The only thing I would mind is if right wing nuts like jackee and dalelama found out where any of us live, they would not be able to stop themselves from causing us physical harm. Their hatred is palpable.
I don't hate you. Wait, you didn't murder anyone by letting them drown in the car you drove drunk off a bridge, walked by several occupied homes, stumbled back to your party, waited 10 hours until you sobbered up, schemed with your cronies about how to handle the situation, and then called the cops, did you? I think, at the most, you are simply misguided, amanda07070.
Amanda0707, I don't hate you, and I could never even wish you bodily harm. I pity you for beatifying this evil man. That's all.
Heaven is rejoicing today as Teddy enters its gates. Rest in Peace, Senator. Like another posting here, I grew up in TN and was a eleven when JFK was assasinated. My grandparents whooped and cheered and many of the fellow congregrants at their Baptist church met that night and "celebrated" his death. My grandfather said he hoped MLK was next. After witnessing this, I made a silent vow that I would never, ever, vote for anyone my family supported. After having been Dixiecrats, my grandparents became staunch Republicans when Nixon ran. My parents, who are still alive, proudly voted for Nixon, Reagan, Bush, Bush and McCain. They think Sarah Palin is the best thing since sliced bread and today, my mother is giddy because the last Kennedy brother died. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
My folks moved to Florida (Daytona) when I was 11 in the late 70's. I was so blown away by the level of hatred whites had for blacks down there. At 15 a male friend was showing off his Klan card his dad made sure he got (this was a wealthy family, too). Those experiences (along with many more) helped turn me into the proud liberal I am today. Today I was explaining to my older son (who is reading a book about a black southern family from the 30's) that racism is alive and well and that it is connected to the teabaggers/birthers (who are mostly in the south) who just can't stand the fact that a black man is president.
That is one of the sadess things I have ever heard.
Anonymous people, sitting before a keyboard and a monitor, expressing their hate toward a United States Senator; who just died. I would hope that the progressives on TDB would refrain from taking the bait of these "people" and, instead, pray that they are all atheists. For if there is a God... there is also a massive climate change in their future.
Karma's a mofo.
Agreed as to karma.
The mistakes that's been made in the past ("Swiftboat" for one) has been to "turn the other cheek" and ignore these remarks. One cannot let these "people" make remarks that go unrefuted. They will take the silence of disgust and turn it into assent: "No one objected to . . ."
Even if it were the guilt over the death of Mary Jo that turned Ted Kennedy into the statesman he was, then she can take credit for making millions of lives better.
I'm glad she can also take credit for keeping him out of the White House then. Somehow, I think she'd have preferred to just live.
@jackee
You are one of those "people". Give it a rest!
It didn't stop Laura Bush from getting into the White House.
Shhhh. Don't tell them. It's too much fun.
lol Karma? This is your karma for being even nastier when Reagan passed!
Caroline Kennedy can indeed WRITE a great speech (or have it written for her), but she does not deliver one that well. Her cousin Maria delivers one better, but both of them read far too much and are both in the end boring to listen to.
The OBVIOUS and FITTING choice to deliver this eulogy is Ted Kennedy's son Patrick.
Well if you look at the photo essay, you will find that some things about Ted's pass were not great, such being found guilty of leaving an accident yes he did leave the accident.
Now I remember that on the radio, though I was really young. It was was of the first things I remember about American politics, besides his brothers being killed. He had huge shoes to fill, and at first he disappointed many, but as he matured, I think he did improve a lot. And at the end he appeared to be a true democrat. Big d and small D.
[Wikipedia: Ted Kennedy
Offers biographical, career, education, and other information about Ted Kennedy. ... where he was expelled for cheating on an exam but later readmitted, and the ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Kennedy - 507k]
[Between the ages of eight and sixteen he suffered the trauma of his sister Rosemary Kennedy's failed lobotomy and the deaths of his brother Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. in World War II and sister Kathleen Agnes Kennedy in an airplane crash.] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Kennedy.
[In 1973, Kennedy's son Edward Kennedy, Jr. was discovered to have chondrosarcoma; his leg was amputated and he underwent a long, difficult, experimental two-year drug treatment.[45][57] The case brought international attention both among doctors and in the general media,[57] as did the young Kennedy's return to the ski slopes on an artificial leg half a year later.[58] His other son, Patrick J. Kennedy, was suffering from severe asthma attacks.[45] The pressure of the situation mounted on Joan Kennedy, who was several times checked into facilities for alcoholism and emotional strain and was arrested for drunk driving after a traffic accident.[45][59]]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Kennedy.
No one should be expected to be perfect, when facing such an imperfect world.
So will Arnold will be the next great Kennedy?
I don't imagine Ted will be seeing Mary Jo.
To those of you who have used this place and this time to hate I have some questions for you. How small do you have to be not to bow your head in respect for the dead? How tiny is your heart that you cannot see the greatness in a man because you are so busy judging him for his mistakes. How withered is your spirit that you would come here where people are mourning and remembering and poke your ugly sharp elbows into our peaceful reveries?
I try to feel blessed with something every day. Today I feel blessed I am not you. What a sad way to lead a life.
Glad I could provide you a blessing.
And I am sorry you are pursuing such a small and bitter life.
Is it a mistake when you do it over and over. The death might have been a mistake but the behavior that lead to it? No. And he didn't stop that behavior. And he didn't have enough character to fess up to it.
Who knows what greatness is, but there's a whole lot of people who could come closer than Ted and are considered ordinary at best.
Again, you are fixated on and mired in your need to judge, rather than on the working people who benefited so much because Teddy Kennedy was a dedicated and fine senator. His name is on so much legislation that made people's lives better, people who would fall between the cracks without the championship of Teddy Kennedy.
And BTW, Teddy Kennedy spent his latter life atoning for his mistakes. He has been sober and happily married to a fine woman for years. But I'm sure that's of little interest to you. Because you need to judge first and foremost which leaves you blind to the grace of growing from one's mistakes.
Last year I heard Teddy speak at Harvard and later at MIT. He was marvelous both times. Charming and Sexy and Witty and Smart- at his age he was irrisistible no wonder he got into so much trouble. His stories were from his heart and every student in the room hung on his every word as if they were sitting beside him at a bar hanging with an old famous uncle. And did I say he was smart- because he was. Whatever you think of his private life and his politics know that he was quite a champ whose journey in life will not be matched. Caroline was torn to shreds months ago in the political arena- most likely someone was working pretty hard at keeping a Kennedy from gaining a foothold in NY. The Clintons perhaps? She was not prepared in the way most politicians are prepared by outsiders grooming her every word. She was honest and smart and a female who wasnt selling her sexuality- so she fell flat. I liked her very much and I liked that she was honest enough to keep her NY accent. We will miss these Kennedys. Hopefully the rest of the lot will give up booze, pills etc and step up to lend a hand to fix the country before they hit 65 and need a hobby. It would be a shame to see them vanish instead of flourish. When they work they have a helluva bloodline.
Thank you.
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