Condolences are streaming in from leaders around the world at the news that Senator Edward M. "Ted" Kennedy has died. He expired late Tuesday night after a long bout with glioblastoma, a terminal form of brain cancer. Although the senator's passing was not unexpected, there is a deep sense of loss in the world today as we remember the ways in which, directly or indirectly, he touched so many lives.
There will be no shortage of testimonials in the coming days and weeks, but I think none will be any more heartfelt than these remarks by Vice President Joe Biden, a long-time colleague and friend of the late senator. Born to a wealthy family, Kennedy could have sided with privilege and special interests, but chose instead to fight for the common man, a champion not only of the Democratic Party, but of the principles of democracy.
During his 47-year career in the United States Senate, Kennedy authored over 2500 bills, and ironically was working on an overhaul of the 1971 National Cancer Act when his condition was diagnosed. There is no question that health-care reform was among his top priorities, not only in the current congress, but over the past 40 years. You can review his record at his official U.S. Senate site, or share your condolences at TedKennedy.org. The family has requested that in lieu of flowers, mourners consider a contribution for educational programming to The Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate.
Kennedy will be sorely missed as a statesman who promoted true bipartisanship, unlike the Republican concept, which is to do as they say or listen to them whine. De Facto Republican point-man Rush Limbaugh even went so far as to declare that any bill coming out of the congress should be called the "Ted Kennedy Memorial Health Care Bill.".
Make no mistake: the Republican plan is to derail health-care reform at any cost, and to maintain a dysfunctional status quo that favors their fat cat insurance contributors. Tastelessness and rabble-rousing aside, their talking points make no sense: Obama is a Nazi and simultaneously a Socialist. A public insurance option would be grossly mismanaged, and simultaneously drive all private insurers out of business. A deficit-neutral health care package would ruin the economy (this from the party that drove the economy into the ditch with two completely unfunded wars and a big-pharma boondoggle prescription drug benefit.)
Economists agree that the tax cuts Republicans insisted upon as a condition for passing the desperately needed economic stimulus package have gone straight into savings, benefitting only the banking industry, and that the package was too small. The Republicans have taken your job. Do you now want to trust them with your life? If, like so many, you can't afford a cash contribution, I suggest that a fitting memorial would be to take up the torch and finish the work Kennedy started. Learn the facts about health care reform. Pick up the phone, knock on some doors, write your congressman. "Yes, we can!"
