SENATOR EDWARD MOORE "TED" KENNEDY 1932-2009

47 years ago, the youngest brother of the 35th President of the United States, just 30 years old ran for the United States Senate in Massachusetts, as his brother's successor. EDWARD MOORE "TED" KENNEDY, was elected to the first of nine terms, until his death from a brain tumor on August 25th, the night of my kidney transplant. Ted Kennedy's cause of death was the same as my own father's, a glio blastoma brain tumor, no one has ever survived for more than two years. During his nearly 5 full decades in the U.S. Senate Edward Kennedy who died at age 77, had one advantage his three older brothers never had - the length of years. Joseph, John, and Robert Kennedy, died at ages 29, 46, and 42, respectively. Ted Kennedy's length of years afforded him the opportunity to become one of the most effective U.S. Senators in the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, and one of the leading voices advocating for the poor, working class, labor, minorities, civil rights, human rights, health and education, in our nation's history. Four of the major pieces of legislation in which he played a pivotal role into passage are the Civil Rights Act of 1964; The Voting Rights Act of 1965; The Americans With Disabilities Act, in 1990; and The Family and Medical Leave Act in 1993. He was called the, "Last Liberal Lion", of the Senate for his steadfastness and tenacity for fighting for causes he passionately believed in. But although a dyed in the wool liberal Democrat, he was always able to cross the isle and gain significant Republican co-sponsorship for the major issues he championed. Yet, Ted Kennedy was far from perfect. Personal failings such as drinking, womanizing, divorce, and the most significant - Chappiquiddick, an automoblie submersion off a Massachusetts bridge in the wee hours of the morning 40 years ago, in which a young staffer of his late brother Bobby was killed, would forever haunt him. It may well have doomed his 1980 bid for the Presidency. But in time he turned his life around, remarried and went on to being an even more devoted and successful Senator, as well as father and surrogate father to his dead brothers children. One of my close friends, Joseph Patrick McNamara, has asked me to rank Senator Kennedy's 5 most significant speeches. From my Mayo Clinic Arizona Hospital bed, without much research, I would say among them are : 1.) The 1980 Democratic Nati0nal Convention Speech, ..."The Hope still lives, the Cause endures, the Dream lives on"...in which he conceded his failed presidential candidacy; 2.) The Eulogy at his brother Robert's June 8, 1968 Funeral Mass in St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City, at which point he became the titular leader and patriarch of the Kennedy Clan at age 36; 3.) His Chappiquiddick Address to the citzens of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the country, explaining his role and responsibility for the Chappiquiddick tragedy; 4.) His Senate Judiciary Committee Speech in 1987, opposing the nomination of Judge Robert Bork for the United States Supreme Court; 5.) The last major Ted Kennedy Speech at the 2008 Democratic National Convention, three months after his brain tumor was diagnosed and against doctors orders, using the Inaugural words 0f his late brother, President Kennedy, on January 20, 1961, "The torch has been passed to a new generation", endorsing the election of Barack Obama and Joseph Biden for the Presidency and Vice Presidency of the United States. At the end of his life, EDWARD MOORE "TED" KENNEDY, was a devoted husband and father to his children and his dozens of fatherless nieces and nephews, an accomplished and very effective Senator with some 550 bills passed that he sponsored, an advocate for the struggling and the marginalized, and a repentant Catholic, who in his final days on earth wrote Pope Benedict XVI, a letter confessing and asking forgiveness for his sins. He will be greatly missed. May the Kennedy Family, our country and the world continue to keep his memory alive. Eternal Light shine upon him. May he Rest in Peace.........Fr. Troy