A Lion of Voting Rights
I resisted rushing to the keyboard to post something about Senator Edward Kennedy Tuesday evening, preferring to simply absorb the loss. Having been through a string of family losses myself years ago, I knew well what the remaining members of the Kennedy family surely must have felt.
As a child I recall my Father coming home from work early, and us starring at the TV during lunch break from School as news began pouring from Dallas TX that Friday morning in November 1963. I was only five years old, but knew something really terrible had happened as my Mother openly sobbed on the couch. Then nearly five years later on June 6 1968, it happened again; this time to his brother Bobby. Finally, the passing point -- one we knew was inevitable due to the scourge of cancer -- arrived Tuesday evening for Ted. And there really wasn't much I could add in a blog post, tweet, or anything that would have done the moment any justice. It just needed time to digest.
Today, with some distance from that moment, I simply want to point out that for me personally, Kennedy will always stand for many things good about the dream of democracy, regardless of political stripes.
For our own dream, and the good fight we wage here at the OSDV Foundation and the TrustTheVote Project, I want to point out that Senator Kennedy was a lion for voting rights.
And rather than regurgitate a compilation of his accomplishments, I point you to a posting at the blog of our respected friends of Why Tuesday which does a nice job of recompiling all the efforts Ted did for voting rights.
If you find a moment, have a look at this wonderful site to the legacy of the Lion of the Senate, tedkennedy.org
In closing, perhaps Sen. Kennedy's words are well heeded by us here at the TrustTheVote Project:
For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die.
GAM|out