As much as it pains me to say this, I cannot forget Mary Jo Kopechne
Word is Senator Ted Kennedy has brain cancer (Leslie Carbone and Virginia Virtucon). According to a source Leslie found (WCVB) Teddy has, at most, five years.
My mother died from cancer two years ago; while it didn’t start in her brain, it eventually reached it as it killed her. I wouldn’t wish this on anyone, and I do hope that said source above is mistaken. If not, it will be very, very difficult time for a family whose suffering has been front-page news ever since Ted’s older brother Joseph, Jr., died a hero in World War II.
Yet for all that, for all the prayers that will be said for him (and I will be joining the group on that front), there is one name I simply cannot get out of my mind, no matter how hard I wish or try.
That name is Mary Jo Kopechne.
Honestly, I’m left in a jumble here. I feel for Kennedy and his family, yet at the same time I am hoping this will finally inspire him to come clean about what really happened that night.
Of course, the conflict within me between concern for his body and concern for his soul is utterly irrelevant to both him and, well, everyone else on the planet except for me. Still, as the wave of pre-passing eulogies and fawning biographies come, I can’t forget that name.
What’s more, I don’t think anyone else should forget either, least of all Ted Kennedy himself.
Normally, I don’t delve into the character of politicians. I’m an issues guy, and what usually drives me politically are the least “personal” issues (economic and foreign policy), but this is different to me. She died, and the explanations from him and his entourage make as little sense now as they did then.
I don’t begrudge Ted Kennedy the praise he will get as a politician of the left (he was one of their best, in part because he could take the slings and arrows from our side and not even slow down), nor the well-wishes he is receiving (as I mentioned before, I’ll be among those sending them). I just don’t feel like I can think about the life that is Ted Kennedy without remember the life that was Mary Jo Kopechne.
May 20, 2008 at 6:24 pm
I’m with you here. Please join in the battle I’m fighting at TC.
May 21, 2008 at 9:39 am
Good post. It is difficult to know what to say or do when someone who’s done something terrible faces something terrible. Sen. Kennedy has been done a serious disservice by those who would overlook his responsibility for the death of Miss Kopechne, for one day he will face One Who won’t, and that day may be very near. While hopes and prayers for his physical healing are appropriate and well-intended, the real healing he needs is the spiritual healing that depends on accepting his own sins and Christ’s payment for them. And in that, if not in the specific sins, he’s just like the rest of us.
May 21, 2008 at 7:04 pm
A little perspective: The accident happened when he was 30 years old - one year after his older brother Bobby was assassinated on national TV - five years after his older brother John was assassinated on national TV - (and years before that his oldest and only other brother was killed in WWII). At 30 years old, he was the last brother left and he’d taken on being a father-figure to John and Bobby’s 12 kids as well as his own, friend to their wives Jackie and Ethel though their grief . He was an alcoholic to begin with and his behavior after Bobby’s death the year earlier had been spiraling out of control for months. What he did was reckless and cowardly, but not really surprising from an alcoholic in full blown suicide mode. If your child had committed a similar crime, would you have demanded a harsher sentence if she ran her car into the lake one night while she was out partying, killing her passenger, but she was lucky enough to get out of it with a leaving the scene charge? I doubt that you would. I imagine you would pick up the pieces and try to move on from the tragedy. The guy messed-up - it has been a blight on his reputation and I imagine his conscience all these years. But a harsher sentence would not have brought that girl back from the dead - not to mention we don’t prosecute people because of what we think they did; only what we can prove they did. For the record, Laura Bush ran a stop sign in high school causing an accident that killed her boyfriend. She was not charged with a crime at all. Sometimes just living with your own mistakes is punishment enough.
May 21, 2008 at 8:16 pm
Heard that Michael Moore has recommended the Ted Kennedy go to Cuba for chemo. Hey, Fidel, the Havana Hospital needs another quart of battery acid.