“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.” – Ted Kennedy
Ted Kennedy was elected to the Senate the year I was born—1962. Only two Senators in history have served longer. For many on the right, Kennedy was the demonized face of liberal politics. He seemed to have received the philandering and alcoholism genes from the Kennedy family, and he had the gall to grow old and puffy on TV instead of dying young and handsome during a time of much less media scrutiny.
Today I find myself an independent, politically. I’ve been pushed away from the Right by their tendencies toward military aggression, their cozy relationships with powerful corporate interests, and their blindness to poverty and suffering in the name of increased materialism and profit. (I know I’m generalizing here.) I’m also a bit frightened of the other suitor—the Left, those tree-hugging, wild-spending, amoral hippies who shun personal responsibility. (Again, really generalizing here.)
But I find myself somewhat inspired by certain aspects of Ted Kennedy’s political life—if not his personal one. After suffering severe injuries in a plane crash, Ted found himself in a hospital, benefitting from the best medical care that money could buy. In his place, I feel that most conservatives today would redouble their efforts at protecting a system that provided them with such vital care. Kennedy, however, looked around and wondered what happened to people who didn’t have his money or family legacy. What happened to poor, uninsured people in his position? Certainly they would be patched up in an emergency room, but then what? Would they receive the physical therapy, the equipment, and ongoing care they needed? He dedicated much of the rest of his career fighting for universal healthcare.
I wish that conservative Christians today would react this way more. I just don’t see it. I hear them talking about protecting their lifestyles, their borders, their families, their healthcare, and their various freedoms. Protect. Defend. Rights. Guns! I don’t remember Jesus talking much about such things. He was more about giving it away. He was more about healing people in the face of resistance from unjust power systems. Jesus came at a time when His people were conquered and enslaved, but He didn’t put up signs reading: THEY ARE STEALING OUR COUNTRY! To Jesus, there were more important issues.
Is my first response to protect and defend and judge, or to spend my life and money figthing for those who don’t enjoy the benefits I’ve had by being born white, male, affluent, and American? In some ways, Ted Kennedy lived his life much more like Jesus than I have.
