The last of the Once and Future Kings
I remember when I was sitting in my U.S. history class in high school, before the class started, and I and another student were talking about who we would rate as the best Presidents in American history.
In my top five I had John Kennedy.
My history teacher, overhearing our conversation, dryly quipped, “Kennedy? Kennedy didn’t do anything.”
I defended my position and we both came to an agreement that JFK didn’t have enough time for anyone-a high school junior, high school history teacher or history itself-to judge Kennedy.
I mention this now because, though it’s been said by commentators more expert than, with more experience and more wisdom, we have seen the ending of an era in American history (not just politics, as many people are wont to say).
The last of three brothers that shaped the face of American policy and history starting in the 1960s was put to rest today.
Edward M. Kennedy-the youngest of nine siblings-now rests with his two slain brothers-John and Robert-in Arlington Cemetery.
The naïveté and pure idealism that I had in high school came flooding back reading stories about Ted Kennedy this week, watching his funeral mass and his burial services.
My hard callous of cynicism and automatic skepticism was broken down by the rhetoric that made the Kennedys the Kennedys.
Ted Kennedy Jr. said it best while eulogizing his father: “He answered Uncle Joe’s call to patriotism, Uncle Jack’s call to public service, and Bobby’s determination to seek a newer world.”
The mystique surrounding the Kennedys is not just the perfect world defined by the world Camelot, but by the hopes and promise that were killed by the same bullets that took JFK’s and Bobby’s lives.
The two brothers-their assassinations so close to each other, their magnetic power so unique-you felt that they could have changed the world if they had only had a chance to live it.
There was no time for them to fail, to let us-the dreamers and their believers-down. There were no broken promises.
Relatively speaking, they were young, full of life and were wiling to reach out and try to help those who needed help the most.
They stood up for their ideals, and ran their campaigns and molded their policy with a conviction that what they were doing was good in the world.
And that’s why we look at those two with such nostalgic longing-for a President who can inspire the masses in JFK, and a candidate who spoke his mind and ran on the truth of his ideals in Bobby.
Which is why there is such mourning for the passing of the final brother. Ted embodied the traits that the public so fondly remembers when we look through the lens of American history and examine the life and work of Jack and Robert Kennedy.
Subtract Jack’s questionable private life and Bobby’s ruthlessness, combine their amazing traits and we get Ted.
Or maybe, since JFK and RFK were taken from us so early, we attribute Ted’s positive qualities to his two older brothers.
That pure conviction, that willingness to shake things up and change the world, that gentle yet firm call to aid our nation-maybe that wasn’t really the politics of the New Frontier or the campaign to find a new moral footing for America.
Maybe it was Ted Kennedy all along.
Because how long did we really have that idealized America? How close did we get to changing this god forsaken world? How quickly were our dreams shattered by an assassin’s bullet?
And through all of that, as a nation and family mourned, there was Ted Kennedy. A beacon of strength, the champion of those who did not have one, a-to quote Senator Ted Kennedy himself-“kind and gentle man.”
As we say farewell to the last true link to what so many believed could have changed the world, that was so right in its cause-the Kennedy family legacy-I am reminded that we can still do good, that we can still create change, that hope is not just an empty noun or verb that society tosses around so lightly.
And I realize now why we always look back at John and Robert so fondly-and it’s mostly because of Ted Kennedy. He carried their legacies with him in his 47 years as a public servant and in the process, he created a legacy for himself that will outshine his two brothers.
But the heavens have all three now, and to measure one is to measure all three.
In my top five I had John Kennedy.
My history teacher, overhearing our conversation, dryly quipped, “Kennedy? Kennedy didn’t do anything.”
I defended my position and we both came to an agreement that JFK didn’t have enough time for anyone-a high school junior, high school history teacher or history itself-to judge Kennedy.
I mention this now because, though it’s been said by commentators more expert than, with more experience and more wisdom, we have seen the ending of an era in American history (not just politics, as many people are wont to say).
The last of three brothers that shaped the face of American policy and history starting in the 1960s was put to rest today.
Edward M. Kennedy-the youngest of nine siblings-now rests with his two slain brothers-John and Robert-in Arlington Cemetery.
The naïveté and pure idealism that I had in high school came flooding back reading stories about Ted Kennedy this week, watching his funeral mass and his burial services.
My hard callous of cynicism and automatic skepticism was broken down by the rhetoric that made the Kennedys the Kennedys.
Ted Kennedy Jr. said it best while eulogizing his father: “He answered Uncle Joe’s call to patriotism, Uncle Jack’s call to public service, and Bobby’s determination to seek a newer world.”
The mystique surrounding the Kennedys is not just the perfect world defined by the world Camelot, but by the hopes and promise that were killed by the same bullets that took JFK’s and Bobby’s lives.
The two brothers-their assassinations so close to each other, their magnetic power so unique-you felt that they could have changed the world if they had only had a chance to live it.
There was no time for them to fail, to let us-the dreamers and their believers-down. There were no broken promises.
Relatively speaking, they were young, full of life and were wiling to reach out and try to help those who needed help the most.
They stood up for their ideals, and ran their campaigns and molded their policy with a conviction that what they were doing was good in the world.
And that’s why we look at those two with such nostalgic longing-for a President who can inspire the masses in JFK, and a candidate who spoke his mind and ran on the truth of his ideals in Bobby.
Which is why there is such mourning for the passing of the final brother. Ted embodied the traits that the public so fondly remembers when we look through the lens of American history and examine the life and work of Jack and Robert Kennedy.
Subtract Jack’s questionable private life and Bobby’s ruthlessness, combine their amazing traits and we get Ted.
Or maybe, since JFK and RFK were taken from us so early, we attribute Ted’s positive qualities to his two older brothers.
That pure conviction, that willingness to shake things up and change the world, that gentle yet firm call to aid our nation-maybe that wasn’t really the politics of the New Frontier or the campaign to find a new moral footing for America.
Maybe it was Ted Kennedy all along.
Because how long did we really have that idealized America? How close did we get to changing this god forsaken world? How quickly were our dreams shattered by an assassin’s bullet?
And through all of that, as a nation and family mourned, there was Ted Kennedy. A beacon of strength, the champion of those who did not have one, a-to quote Senator Ted Kennedy himself-“kind and gentle man.”
As we say farewell to the last true link to what so many believed could have changed the world, that was so right in its cause-the Kennedy family legacy-I am reminded that we can still do good, that we can still create change, that hope is not just an empty noun or verb that society tosses around so lightly.
And I realize now why we always look back at John and Robert so fondly-and it’s mostly because of Ted Kennedy. He carried their legacies with him in his 47 years as a public servant and in the process, he created a legacy for himself that will outshine his two brothers.
But the heavens have all three now, and to measure one is to measure all three.