The best course we can take to continue the mission that Edward Kennedy championed is to make certain that Congress and the President pass a fair universal health care package that lowers costs by inclduing a public option, provides quality health care for all, and takes into account the needs of people of all ages. I just heard Adrianna Huffington say she was tired of hearing media buttonhole Ted Kennedy as only a liberal or progressive. His ideas were the ideas of Americans, she went on to say. It is true what Adrianna says. Ted Kennedy represented the voices of hard working class Americans who wanted a fair shake in life. He wanted justice for those who were disadvantaged and for those who couldn't always speak up for themselves.
I heard a blurb from TV of Ted speaking before the Senate about the need to raise the minimum wages which he fought for over his whole career. He said and I paraphrase when he was disgusted with the conservative Senators and others who did not want to support a raise of 2.15 cents over a 2 year period. He spoke with disgust saying What more do you want from these good working men and women of America, how greedy can you get? How much more do you need referring to the wealthy power brokers in power. He was something else. You never hear that kind of speak anymore. The greedy Capitalists are winning all the time now and now Ted's voice will be silent. Others will speak up from time to time but we need to get the Ted Kennedy injected back into the political scene again. It seems in order to win a seat in Congress or to even think of running for President, one has to be right smack in the middle or to the right. There is no being progressive or even a liberal Democrat in current political time.
I wonder about the evolution of Arianna Huffington from Republican to progressive opinion news and blog writer and speaker. I know she wrote a book back in the seventies which was anti Feminist. I find this astounding given who she seems to be. Never hear her talk about Feminism to this day yet she seems like a strong progressive voice who must have renounced those antiquated ideas she had years ago. Hearing her speak up to talk about the legacy of Ted Kennedy is strange and a bit bittersweet. It is not that I don't like her as I think her ideas are refreshing and usually right on target or should I say left on target or is it as she says, her ideas are American common sense ideas or do we have to just say that because the country is now so far to the right. It sure can get confusing.
Who else may carry the torch and tradition of Ted Kennedy. No one has mentioned "Kathleen Kennedy Townsend (born July 4, 1951) was lieutenant governor of the U.S. state of Maryland from 1995 to 2003. She ran for the governorship in 2002. The oldest of Robert F. Kennedy and Ethel Skakel's 11 children, she is part of the Kennedy political family." (Economicexpert.com) She has always impressed me. Perhaps, the younger generation need not carry a torch as what is expected today is that they be themselves rather than enlarge power for the Kennedy family which always seemed a given.
No one knows what the future will hold. Obama's image seems to be diminished and diminishing as a result of shrewd political maneuvering of the large corporations and business that run our country. They have brought out the cave men, the gun toting
and the lunatic and know nothing fringe shouting stupid and carrying sign with slogans i.e. give me back my country and Obama is Hitler. Is this America, Arianna, Teddy? Is this country for those who shout the loudest and have the most hysteria. The mainstream Republicans will not put this group of marginal nutcases in their place because they seem afraid to lose their votes and perhaps, deep down, agree with some of the anti intellectual message many of them share including the carrying of lethal weapons in public settings. And people just look on including most of the media without condemnation and without simple human reactions of horror at the sheer thought of these images surrounding the highest elective offices in the land including our President who happens to be a Black man.
Ted Kennedy who supported Obama and saw him as a new generational face of his older brother Jack would want to see
President Barack Obama take the heavy mantel he accepted, get some real back bone and pick up the will of the majority of people in this country who want fairness for all regardless of race or class or sexual orientation or gender , equality, environmental justice, and health care for all. As Ted Kennedy said, how greedy can you get. Give the people what they need and I would add even if they don't know they need it and are too ignorant and brainwashed by big business to know what they need. It is our job to continue Ted's tradition of educating the public at large and to keep pushing for the rights of people, the average common people in this land who need a break and sho don't need to have their anger channeled against their own self interests.
As Ted said "The Dream will never Die". Obama must carry this dream on or get out of the way for the next politiican determined to do the right thing.
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