End of an Era

Wow. Ted Kennedy passes. I just listened to his eulogy of his brother Robert from 1968 (you can listen to it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9JTYnMpRyg) . Although I make no pretense to the eloquence he demonstrated on that day, I will take a moment to say a few words regarding his passing.

One cannot easily sum the complexities and contradictions that were Edward Kennedy. He was the scion of an authentically American fairy-tale family. He drank a lot and this habit likely robbed a young woman of her life. Love them or hate them, however, the Kennedy's gave more to America than perhaps any other prominent family in our history. They were raised to be great men, the four Kennedy brothers, and each, in his own way, achieved everything for which their patriarch and father, Joseph, could have ever hoped. Each of these men could have pursued the expansion of their family's financial empire. Instead, however, they were weened on the importance (perhaps even elitism) of government service. Joseph Sr. was an ambassador to Great Britain during WWII and from there, the taste for service to country was born.

It is unimaginable today that four such sons in a family possessed of the financial resources of the Kennedy's would pursue a life of public service. And while it's true that with such high ranking public office comes great influence, there is no doubt that with great financial means, comes perhaps even greater influence. That the Kennedy's sought public office and not financial influence is a testament to their greatness and a justification of the love and affection so many of us share for this American royal family. With his death, an era, unlikely ever to be witnessed again, comes to a close. Although I am glad to have been witness to some piece of this legacy, I was often saddened to have missed the era of the Kennedy family's most prolific success. I was, nonetheless, raised with a great awareness of the Kennedy family and it's commitment to service. America can only hope that other families within it's most elite class will someday feel the same call to public service that embodied the Kennedys. I'm not holding my breath. So we say goodbye to an era and, perhaps, even a paradigm.