By Odeisel

America’s Camelot had no connection to Sir Lancelot or King Arthur.  It was the feeling prior to 60s tumult and political, social, and generational unrest of Pax Americana.  Where Kings could dream, millions could march, love was free, and man could escape the bounds of Earth. The President was young and virile, his wife was stunning and stately, and the axis forces of evil were vanquished, leaving behind a war of brinksmanship rather than bullets. Then slowly but surely it crumbled.  Death upon death fractured the American consciousness. Bullets converted idealists to ideals and martyrs, and sin manifested itself upon the American populace, changing our direction forever.  But decades later, even after the death of Camelot’s prince, there remained one member of the court. On August 25^th,2009 Camelot has officially ended. The baby of the bunch is gone; Ted Kennedy is no more.

To whom much is given, much is expected, and the Kennedy pedigree at one point was political armor, despite their Catholic faith in a very Wasp landscape. As the youngest of the clan, he served under the towering legacy of Jack and Bobby, and the tragedies that took them must have certainly been omnipresent in any thought of public service, but much as he took over for JFK’s vacated Senate seat back in 1962, Ted established a history of becoming his own man in the presence of the family legacy. Perhaps it was a blessing in disguise when the controversy over the Chappaquiddick incident effectively ended any real hope of him ever being President.  It probably saved his life and allowed him to really embrace his statesmanship with vigor, not simply as a political stepping stone.

There was something about being the runt of the litter (figuratively, because Ted was 6’2”, 200lbs in his prime) that allowed him to connect with the average American and that connection enabled him not only to effectively manage older brother John’s Massachusetts 1958 Senate seat run, but also enabled him to carve out what became a lifelong career in the United States Senate, chairing an inordinate amount of Committees.

Kennedy, the modern liberal standard bearer, possessed an ability to work with both sides of the aisle when it came to getting things done. He became competent and respectful in the face of incredible privilege. By all accounts he treated all of those under him with the sincerest respect. There were demons.  There was Chappaquiddick.  But aside from that there was service. To Ted, liberalism was an ideal and a way of life, not a tool for political expedience.

With two brothers claimed by assassins’ bullets, in the midst of political maelstrom, Ted stood firm.  That he dealt with inner turmoil is to be expected as a human under such circumstances.  But his second act, to grow and change from philandering hard-charger to distinguished gentleman and family man, is to be commended; a highly privileged man who fought for the working class. He stood firm with his principles without using his ideology as a hammer and never lost that ability to communicate, negotiate, and work with others to get laws passed.

For all of us who attempt to rise again despite the worst in us, Ted Kennedy is an example of how it’s never over if you are willing to forgive yourself and focus on the now and the next rather than the mistakes of the past. We don’t have to feed self destruction until it’s complete. Ted Kennedy turned his personal failings into his best life; the ultimate survivor of family tragedy, political scrutiny, a plane crash, and cancer.

His life is a lesson to all of us who have had dreams destroyed.  He is a shining example of making the most of what the world gives you and not bemoaning what we believe we are entitled. When an airplane crash forced him briefly from office, he used the time to study and improve, becoming a much more capable and respected public servant. When his personal mistakes derailed his presidential aspirations and often led his public life ridicule, he redoubled his efforts and became perhaps the greatest Senator of all time, and the towering beacon of post war American liberalism.

We often get flowery in the death of our giants, and enlarge them to Bunyan levels of mythos, but perhaps it is his own eulogy for his brother Bobby that is most appropriate in acknowledging his legacy without largesse:

“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.”

Perhaps in lieu of his family history, the most impressive thing about his life is his death: He’s the only brother to die of natural causes. May he rest in peace, Camelot is no more.

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