I’m sorry for the Kennedy family. Yet another member of that family has passed. Ted Keenedy died of brain cancer the other day, and like every other celebrity that has passed in the past couple of years, his past, the full past, has been glossed over in a premeditated attempt to glorify “A Fallen Hero.”
I have never been a Edward (Ted) Kennedy fan. Like a famos quote from the past, “Ted…You were no John Kennedy!!! Or Bobby for that matter.” The United States has this odd fascination with the Kennedy family that I have never really understood. Maybe it has something to do with the sorted past of the family. John getting popped in Dallas. Bobby getting popped in L.A.. John Jr. and his flying accident. Yet, when one thinks of it, it began with a father who bootlegged alcohol, became very rich, applauded Hitler, and breed his boys to be American Leaders…or guidance councelors.
John was a womanizing whore, who by all accounts became president because of Mafia assistance, and left a bunch of revolutionaires sitting on a beach to be slaughtered after he decided not to send the promised air support. This little screw up led directly to the Cuban Missile Crisis. Yes, what we remember John for the most was in all reality of his own making. “He refused to listen to war hawks and went with his best interests.” Wow! Awesome! However if the air support had arrived, maybe the revolutionaries would have ousted Castro, and then the Soviet Missles on the Island would never have happened. Is it any wonder he was level headed? After all if WWIII would have come from it, the roaches would have written about the era of man coming to an end because of John Kennedy abandoning a bunch of CIA/US backed revolutionaries on a beach and thus began a cycle that led to the destruction of Earth leaving only roaches and twinkies!!!
But John was killed. Maybe a good thing. Maybe if he had lived the stain that is Johnson and Vietnam would have been John’s stain. We will never know. Some say John was planning to remove all troops from Vietnam. Others say he would have escalated just as Johnson did…I mean it was essentially Kennedy’s administration that advised Johnson. It was John that sent more, not less, US advisors to Vietnam. It was John who was following the direct path of the Imperial Brotherhood. Johnson was not a member of the Brotherhood, but surrounded himself around the Brotherhood that Kennedy had appointed.
I actually like Bobby of all the Kennedy’s. Sure there are rumors about his affairs, but nothing like John. He did battle the Mafia. He did make stands, and was more of a Civil Rights leader than either of his brothers. I can only go by the legacy he left, and that legacy is cleaner than that of his brothers.
That brings us to Teddy. Right now the media is praising this guy…FOR WHAT??? He voted yes or no? That is all he did for 40 freakin years. “He stood up for Civil Rights.” That makes him special? Why, because he could have been a rascist but chose to support civil rights? Was it really that difficult of a decision for him to make? No offense or anything but honestly…standing up for Civil Rights as a Senator beholden to the ideology of “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness” or better yet, the CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES!…seems to be a given to me. He created 2500 bills with 300 of them being passed. Let’s see. Not good at math (which expalins the history degree), but 40 years in the Senate and 2500 bills seems right to me. It’s not like Teddy wrote all or any of those bills. Hell for that matter, who knows how many he actually wrote by hand. In all honesty I think we should be praising his staff for that accomplishment more than Teddy.
Let’s look at his accomplishments. First the Boston Tunnel. A tunnel that allows Bostonians an easier drive to Logan airport! Wow, and that people of the other 49 states thanks you for that…but not the family that was killed by the piece of that tunnel that fell on their car because of shotty construction. A tunnel that was dealyed by years, cost billions of dollars, surrounded by corruption, and yes, millions of dollars is still unaccounted for. That’s right citizens of America. Your hard earned tax money helped created and easier drive for Bostonians, killed a family, and millions of that money just vanished into then air. Not massive investigation called by Teddy or his pal John Kerry to find out what happened to that money. No Congressional investigation on the likes of say…Steriods in Baseball!!! Nope…not that important. Afterall it’s just the American TAXPAYER!!!
Oh but there is No Child Left Behind. Ahh yes, NCLB. I’ve been hearing the praise about this one a lot since his death. NCLB is pretty good on paper, but the reality of it is sickening, especially for a teacher. Teaching to tests…worrying about stanardized tests, being placed on the dreaded “watch” list, and dredfully under funded since its passage. Actually, the funding for it has never actually been a reality. States are beholden to it, must enact it, but the money promised isn’t there. So what has happened? States, forced to adhere to NCLB are spending millions to insure that they are meeting the requirements, pulling funds from other programs including higher education, and closing down other school programs like Drama, Arts, and Music. Wow…thanks Teddy!!! I thank you and so do the artistically and musically talented kids who don’t have those outlets in schools because your bill forced states and school districts to dump them.
And then there is Mary Jo. She worked for Teddy’s brother’s campaign and attended a party on Chappaquiddick Island on the night of July 19, 1969. Hoping to catch the last ferry, a nice young Senator offered her a ride. A senator with a known drinking problem. On the way to the ferry the young Senator took a “wrong turn” and drove the car off a bridge into a pond. According to the young senator, he tried to save Mary Jo, but failed. Now if that was the whole story…saddness would be felt, but life would move on. But that is not the end of the story. According to some, the young senator did not call the police or run to the nearest house for help. No, he returned to the party and waited ten hours to report the accident, but this of course was after the accident was already found along with the lifeless body of Mary Jo. That is really the legacy of Ted Kennedy. He killed a person. No matter how you write the story his actions caused the death of a young woman. He waited 10 HOURS!!! Reported it only after the accident was discovered. And in the life time that has been mine, only in 1979 was the accident every discussed by Ted Kennedy…when he was attempting to unseat Jimmy Carter for the Democratic ticket during the 1980 election. Since then though Mary Jo has been forgotten. Ted never mentioned her name. No heartfelt regret that has ever convinced me of his great regret. Fear is all I see in the face of Ted Kennedy during his press conference after her death. Fear that the truth would come out, but even with that look of fear there is the slight grin of someone who knows it never will. He was a Kennedy, he was wealthy, a politician, the brother of two slain American hero’s. He knew that Mary Jo would be forgotten. Sure she would destroy his chances of becoming a President, but the question must be asked…was Ted upset that his actions killed Mary Jo or mad because Mary Jo died that night? Did he regret her death because she was young and never had a chance live her life to the fullest or did he regret her death because it ruined his chances of ever living out the dream of being called MR. PRESIDENT? We will never know…but the lack of any Mary Jo Memorial Fund does seem to say a lot from a man of such wealth.
The simple reality is this. In all the praise of this man that is taking place…so much is missing and left out…and the things left out say so much about the real Ted Kennedy. He cheated in Harvard and got kicked out. Joined the Army and used Daddy to get a cushion job in Paris and avoided Korea. Used his name and the legacy around it to become a Senator. Killed a young woman and continued to wrap the incident in a continous mystery with no thought or concern about her family, but only his political ass. He pulled the biggest bullshit move in politics by running against a sitting president in his own party and cried fowl at the Mary Jo attacks he recieved. Spent 40 years in the Senate, where like Strom Thurman and the OLD SITTERS, held on to a Senate Seat for far too long. He helped build a tunnel that cost the American taxpayers billions. Lauded his Catholic roots while at the same time supporting abortion. Created NCLB, plugged it whenever given a chance, but never funded it, and has bankrupted countless school districts. He “fought for health care” reform, but only when a Democrat was in office, not when he had a real chance with Nixon. He was nothing more than a elitist who used his name to gain power and never accomplished more than worthless measures. A liberal who called for change and Civil Rights, but allowed the ghettos to get bigger, the borders to open wider, and left Mary Jo underwater in the backseat of his car for 10 hours while he worked to save his political ass.
Ted Kennedy was no hero. He was no great man. He was a Senator and nothing more than that. A political hack who voted the right way to save his position of power, but really didn’t change a damn thing…at least not to a degree like the press wants to make you think. If Ted was a real Civil Rights fighter, the ghettos that fill our inner cities would not be there. If he was really a man of the people he wouldn’t have spent his holidays sailing off the coast of Massachusetts but would be down in the streets. If he cared about the environment then he wouldn’t have fought until his dying day to keep wind turbines off the coast of his multi-million dollar estate. If he really cared about life like the media and Democrats want to portray him with the Health Care debate, he wouldn’t have left Mary Jo in that car for 10 hours. That is the real Ted Kennedy and that is not someone who I will praise anytime soon.
It’s about time someone told it like it is. Bravo!