Remembering Senator Kennedy

IN MEMORY OF SENATOR EDWARD M. KENNEDY
From Chris Harper-Fahey, NeighborWorks America, New England District

Always concerned about those less fortunate, Senator Kennedy and the Kennedy name was iconic in Massachusetts. As a young girl, I was often moved by President John Kennedy’s call to public service and Robert’s concern about the poor and I was inspired by the youngest of the three Kennedys, "Teddy" and that he cared about working families in Massachusetts. But it wasn’t until I was an adult raising a family as a single mom, that I really started to pay attention to Senator Ted Kennedy’s social purpose and legislative vision: health care, equality, immigration reform, social justice, and his call to public service just to name a few. He inspired me to pursue a path in public service and social justice and to fight for those less fortunate. But it wasn’t until I heard the Senator’s eulogy for his brother Bobby Kennedy, that I understood my heart’s call. I eventually found that affordable housing was my call. Today, in memory of Senator Edward "Teddy" Kennedy, I share this with you, changing it only to reflect my view of his life’s work, his belief’s and today, his call to us.

"Ted Kennedy need not be idealized or enlarged in death beyond what he was in life, but 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 someday 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?" Ted Kennedy dreamt of things that never were and say, "Why not?"