Teddy Kennedy's Historical Family Outings, Another Idealistic Mary And Finding Common Ground

It's no secret. While, I've always wistfully wondered what might have been if Robert Kennedy had not been felled by an assassin's bullet, I was no fan of his brother, Ted.

I could never get completely past the ugliness and obvious obfuscations of Chappaquiddick . . . which would have (justifiably) destroyed the public career (and perhaps even the life) of anyone but a Kennedy.

But with the aid of a bunch of good-ole-boys with Yankee accents . . . looking nowhere but forward . . . Ted sailed over a young, middle-class woman's dead body, and "moved on" to re-election . . . by trading on privilege and a name he shared with two martyred brothers. He never really owned up or told the truth about what happened that night - even as the end came near (more on that in a paragraph or so).

For all of Ted's noble talk about "righting wrongs", it's the one wrong he never truly righted.

And because of what this middle-class no-name has suffered at the hands of a bunch of well-connected North Carolina GOB's, I just don't have any use for that. Moreover, "the lion of the Senate" and "soul of the Democratic party" apparently made jokes about the sad/sorry incident in later life.

There's nothing about a drunk leaving a young woman alone and trapped/entombed in pitch black, cold water . . . to slowly suffocate and drown . . . that is funny. Nothing. It was a "friendly anecdote" that was lost on me.

And then there was Ted's politics. Especially as it pertains to healthcare reform, it seemed that uber-rich/ultra-privileged/left-of-left-liberal Teddy was always willing to call for someone else's "sacrifice" . . . to dip deeply into my pocket (me being a middle-class nobody - much like Mary Jo Kopechne - descended from a modest background - who got an education and worked hard to get ahead and tried to play by all the rules - someone who even drank the public service, "give back to your community" Koolaid - only to get badly burned for the believing) . . . in order to pay for the mistakes & miscalculations of other people (often branded "under-served" or "less fortunate") . . . people unwilling to assume responsibility for themselves or their choices . . . this despite the right to a free public education, and 50 years of the welfare state (incapable of drawing lines or setting limits to the public's largess) there to cushion bad decisions & misfortune.

Of course, as Teddy chose sides in the Democratic primaries last year, he knew that telling people everything they want to hear . . . pretty much that the Federal government is "Daddy" . . . is a clearer path to power than it ever has been before.

And he whispered the secret-which-isn't-really into Obama's ear.

And/so there you have it. Ted Kennedy and I just had fundamentally different notions of what the Federal government is supposed to be about.

I did watch some of the funereal pomp and circumstance yesterday on MSNBC (really not caring very much at all for the beyond-insipid fawning of Oberman & Matthews) . . . including the interment at Arlington. I would assume that extraordinary privilege was more of a nod to Kennedy's 47 years in the Senate than his two years of Korean-war-era/non-combat service in Paris (a SWEET post old Daddy Joe pulled strings to get him).

As I've said before, Arlington is perhaps one of the most beautiful and sacred spots on earth. It is hallowed ground, I have family buried there and it's always an honor just to visit/pay respects. Echoing the sentiment of Ted's brother, John, there are places there that I could stay forever.

Ted's funeral is part of Arlington's storied history now . . . including the ABSOLUTELY SHAMELESS political pandering to Obama's healthcare agenda exhibited in Kennedy's "private" letter to Pope Benedict . . . penned just weeks before he died and read at the grave site.

I don't know what I expected. It really shouldn't have been any surprise that even as they put him into the ground, Ted Kennedy could not resist the opportunity to politically grandstand from the grave. And as I watched & listened to the priest read the letter, my jaw literally dropped at the cheek of the thing . . . for in what amounted to a "deathbed" entreaty to the Bishop of Rome, I had actually dared hope to hear real contrition for past wrongs. It wasn't there.

Maybe he saved it for the memoir . . . due to be published in . . . you guessed it . . . September! It will land, with a best-selling thud, right in the middle of the Congressional healthcare debate.

And with that final calculated maneuver, Edward Moore Kennedy, lying under one of just two crosses in the cemetery, became history.

A lot has been made on Kennedy's "stamp" on reformative legislation over the last nearly fifty years. The thing is, we have a representative government and his was just one vote of many. Moreover, when you take off the rose-colored glasses and sit down and read about how things like the Civil Rights Act came to be (and who was really behind the moving and the shaking), the truth is always much more illuminating/fascinating than the sound-bite.

Of course the truth may not justify your perpetual slumber on Robert E. Lee's front lawn.

(As an aside, it's not been lost on me this weekend that Arlington National Cemetery exists because the Federal government, in the wake of the Civil War, went all illegally "imminent domain" on the Custis-Lee estate . . . a revenge-soaked, albeit very progressive-Democrat/Teddyesquse "good-of-the-many" move if there ever was one).

Even though Ted ultimately billed healthcare reform as the "political cause of my life", he managed to sit by while legislation got passed that more or less stripped doctors of their basic Constitutional (dare I call them "civil"?) rights to due process in the medical peer review process. Of course, at the time, those behind the bill were only concerned about reducing hospital liability . . . ergo, little thought was given to the bill's "unintended consequences" to individuals. On the pretense that it would protect patients, hospitals were provided blanket legal immunity for their actions against physicians they deemed problematic or "disruptive" (never mind that it might have been something other than the doctor that was the problem). Anonymous complaints were given credence (and still are) . . . as opposed to keeping some resemblance of due process (i.e. the right to face an accuser) in the process (translation: accountability and transparency), and protecting medical whistle-blowers who acted in good faith & signed their name. Hospital committees could act in secret - and even in bad faith, hiding behind confidentiality and privacy - with virtually no checks or balances. And/so a process that was supposed to be professionally restorative and redemptive (something one would think Kennedy might appreciate) became a vicious weapon of career-ending destruction and retaliation.

Instead of protecting patients, it often shielded bad care. I can certainly testify to that.

It was all very Massachusetts (in a Salem Witch Hunt kind of way), and oh-so "progressive".

As managed care & corporate influences swept over the landscape, physician employment practices began to mirror those of peer review (that's how this whistle-blower fell into the black hole) . . . with states & their medical boards giving little credence to (or offering protection for) the special duties and responsibilities of doctors.

On Teddy's magical mystery tour to "affordable healthcare" as a "right", physicians have become "a dime a dozen".

So, from my view in the no-name cheap seats, as someone who actually provides the healthcare . . . as someone who has done it in a variety of settings . . . as someone who studied/worked very hard only so someone else could have the "right" to devalue my labor and treat me like crap . . . Ted Kennedy's notions of heathcare reform were myopic and short-sited and only/all about buying votes.

Back to the TV funeral coverage, family (the kind poor Mary Jo never got to have) and loss always tugs at the heart-strings . . . and the Kennedys are no exception. It was clear from the televised coverage that Ted's widow (blowing kisses all over Capitol Hill) adored him . . . and it does appear that, as he approached the twilight of his life, Edward Kennedy found a measure of personal redemption by learning to turn over his glass and appreciate the love of a good woman. Moreover, the very large/mostly-good-looking extended family that loved and respected Ted as their patriarch did indeed look very good as they did the dutiful sojourn from Hyannis Port to Boston to D.C. to Virgina.

In the absence of his brothers, Ted Kennedy, for better and worse, became a surrogate Father to a whole bunch of kids. Over the weekend, no one brought that home more than Caroline, daughter of JFK, in her eulogy during the service in Boston.

With her voice breaking, the "Princess of Camelot" (who cannot have a soft spot in their hearts for her?) spoke of "historical" holidays & outings . . . when "Uncle Teddy" would haul the brood to one landmark or another.

And that tugged at my heartstrings - for it reminded me of the times my own parents dragged my brother and I (sometimes joining our Virginia cousins) to one battlefield or landmark or historically-significant somewhere when we were kids. We didn't always appreciate it then. I treasure those memories now.

Those trips gave me a sense of who I am, and what this country should/can be. After all, even damned-Yankees were originally Rebels with a cause.

Tea anyone?

And it just goes to show that, in the American experience, there is always common ground - even across great/dark abysses of ideology and one's "place" or "lot" in life.

If only we could find more of it.

Of course, it would mean that people like sweet Caroline's beloved "Uncle Teddy" . . . moving forward on their way to something else (and/or to put something in someone else's outstretched hand) . . . would have to stop taking for granted and stepping over people like me and poor Mary Jo.

The really sad thing about us Marys is that, once upon a time, we believed in Camelot. But Mary Jo Kopechne drowned in a submerged vehicle . . .

. . . and Dr. Mary Johnson drowned in a sea of red tape.

The "lion" (not to mention several of the Democratic party's cubs in lesser places) swam off in the other direction, shook it all off, and he sleeps tonight amongst valor in Arlington.

Heavy sigh.