Filed under: U.S. Politics
Yesterday, Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA) was diagnosed with a malignant glioma in his brain. We are all hoping that Senator Kennedy gets better soon and is back to his normal self in no time.
However, upon talking to my mother about this, I realized just how serious it was. Senator Kennedy was diagnosed with the same type of cancer that my neighbor’s grandmother was. The way my mom put it to me (and yes, we have been around a lot of cancer over the past 2 1/2 years), he probably has 1 year to 5 years left to live.
Senator Kennedy has had a long and prosperous life, both in Congress and with his family. Since I am too young to know or even comprehend all that Ted Kennedy has done, I’m going to turn it over to Alex (via Ezra), my more intelligent Gen-X counterpart (and someone who’s opinion I value above many others):
Kennedy has been a player in literally every major progressive accomplishment of my life, usually a major player, quite often the leading player: the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act, Medicare, Medicaid, Head Start, Legal Services, the War on Poverty, environmental legislation, OSHA, bringing down Richard Nixon on the Watergate investigations, ending the Vietnam War, stopping military aid to the Contras in Central America, the Martin Luther King holiday, stopping Robert Bork, the increases in the minimum wage, Family and Medical Leave, National Service, Motor Voter Act, S-CHIP. His fingerprints are on all of that legislation, and more. And even where he failed, on universal health care and labor law reform and stopping the Iraq war and other battles, he fought the good fight with passion and heart and courage. I hope like hell his fight is not ending, that he does not go gentle into that good night, because we need his passion and heart and courage in these cautious, careful times all the more.
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