Teddy Kennedy

While I was up in the middle of the back country in Glacier National Park. I got into a more or less friendly conversation with an older hiker who worked as an "outdoor sports" columnist for a paper in Colorado. He knew a great deal about conservation issues and although he was a bit of a blowhard(basically he talked over anything anyone else said), I had to admit to myself that he was knowledgeable enough to force me to reexamine many of my notions about environmental issues.

Suddenly, out of the blue, he blurted out: "I can't believe that a murderer like Kennedy is getting so much sympathy." What could elicit such a remark from what I would consider an otherwise reasonable man? I stiffled my initial urge to point out that there are many who consider BUSH-CHANEY-RUMSFELD war criminals and conceivably, under different circumstances, might be indicted for war crimes, as being a cheap shot and in any event irrelevant to the fact that many people in America feel that Teddy did get away with murder. I pointed out to this man that first of all, indicting the last surviving Kennedy brother for what at the worst might be considered involuntary manslaughter, in light of the unbearable tragedies that have befallen the Kennedy family, was inconcievable.

I think that in the final analysis, his ultimate acts of contrition were Ted Kennedy's enormous contributions to the public interest and to democracy itself.