Ted Kennedy, Who Saw Wrong And Tried to Right It

Published August 26, 2009 @ 07:02PM PT

[The beginning of Ted Kennedy's eulogy for Robert Kennedy]

My favorite Ted Kennedy speech was delivered on June 8th, 1968, at the funeral of his brother Robert. The words he spoke then seem even more appropriate today, as we remember Ted Kennedy:

My brother need not be idealized, or enlarged in death beyond what he was in life; to be remembered simply as a good and decent man, who saw wrong and tried to right it, saw suffering and tried to heal it, saw war and tried to stop it.

Those of us who loved him and who take him to his rest today, pray that what he was to us and what he wished for others will some day come to pass for all the world.

As he said many times, in many parts of this nation, to those he touched and who sought to touch him:

'Some men see things as they are and say why. I dream things that never were and say why not.'"

I can think of no more fitting tribute to Ted Kennedy than that he saw wrong, and tried to right it, that he saw suffering and worked for almost fifty years to try and heal it.

Godspeed. Would that we all do the same.

For a more comprehensive look at his legacy, please see my fellow change.org bloggers on Kennedy and health care, South Africa, clean energy, poverty, homelessness, the fight for equality, and gay rights, as well Kennedy and social enterprise.

Finally, if you feel strongly about the issue that dominated Kennedy's life over the past few years - please take action to help pass health care reform.

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Author

Michael has worked for NGOs in Afghanistan, across east and central Africa, and Iraq. Prior to going overseas, he worked on a project providing assistance to the United Nations on the application of International Humanitarian Law to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict.